The Elk Hunt

First, for anyone who does not know, Gary has been trying for this Nevada Bull Elk tag for 20 years (give or take), so it's been a very big deal. It's the reason he bit the bullet and bought a toy hauler FINALLY! ;P He's been spending a ton of time up on the mountain- scouting, camping, hunting.... Uncle Blair was so generous as to let us keep the toy hauler on his ranch for the majority of the last month. (By the way- his property up there is beautiful!! We're so jealous!) That made things so much easier since Gary didn't have to haul the thing back and forth for each trip.

So for the first few days of the hunt, he had two of his hunting buddies with him. That was at the beginning, when it was still fun. Unfortunately, they both had to come back to town for their jobs, and Gary was left up there by himself. He came home for a day and a half, then went back up. Of course, by then the hunt was becoming more work than fun. Then of course, he started coming down with a cold. It's no fun to get up at 3:00 a.m., hike for hours on end, then come back exhausted and empty handed to a lonely trailer even when you're well, let alone when you're sick.

So when Gary called hom on Thursday night saying that he was about to just call it quits, I tried to encourage him. Exhaustion, frustration, and missing the family had all taken their toll. I talked to his folks that same night, and Gary's mom offered to take the kids for the weekend so I could go up and help out. HA! The only way I'd be able to help out is by keeping Gary company. I sure don't know how to hunt....

But would you believe, that as I'm loading the car and getting ready to drop the kiddos in Logandale, Gary calls and says he finally got his elk. Yay!

Wait.... we can't celebrate so fast. Now's the hard part. Getting it off the mountain. A mountain designated recently as 'Wilderness Area' no off-limits to any type of vehicles off of designated highways. You can't even bring in a wheeled hand cart for crying out loud. (Thank a ton, Harry Reid. No, really.) Ugh.

Again, Uncle Blair to the rescue. Uncle Blair came up to his ranch with his horse, and spent the entire day with Gary and I.... hiking up to the elk, helping load it, and getting it back down to the truck. It was nearly 4 miles each way. And I mean 4 miles of rough terrain. It was, by far, the most difficult hike I've ever done. Thank goodness that Tex was able to handle the majority of it. But Uncle Blair, Gary, and I all had metal frame packs full of stuff too.

Gary's pack was so heavy that he was forced to leave it after about 2.5 miles. We marked the spot on the GPS, and ended up having to come back early the next morning.

In spite of the difficulty of the hunt, I think it was a good experience. And we'll soon have at least 100+ pounds of meat in the freezer. I can't imagine having lived in the days before grocery stores, when families either raised or hunted all of their meats. I, for one, certainly prefer the convenience of shopping for it. But at least I can say that I know what to expect, should we ever lose that modern convenience and be forced to hunt for our family's game.

A few pics (coming), for anyone who is interested.