are no cars or people or civilization — it's an escape. But you are also trying to procure food in much of the same way our ancestors fed themselves.
PHOTO/CALEB REGAN
We no longer need to hunt to live; we can go to the grocery store and buy a package of hamburger. But grocery shopping creates a disconnect between our food and the animal it came from. Hunting reconnects us with our food because humans are involved in the whole process, from killing game to harvesting the meat. That connection fosters respect for the animal.
In the high-country we were stripped to the bare essentials. We
ate canned soup cold, drinking it straight from the can because we didn't want any trash that we could avoid. Every morning we went to the river about a quarter mile north of us, watered our horses and got stream water that we converted to drinking water with the use of something we'd come to really cherish, iodine tablets (which kill the bacteria in stream water) we'd purchased on the way.
Everything we did after it snowed was about survival. We had to stay dry as we only had one change of clothes apiece. We had to keep our horses in a good condition — they were our only way out.
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 7 p.m.
At about 6 a.m, we heard a bugle — a male elk's call. It was loud, high-pitched and smooth and rang heavy in the air above us, straight up the mountain. Josh and I exited our tents; our eyes, about the size of half-dollars, met.
Test of skill
Bow hunting affords you a degree of intimacy not readily available with other forms of hunting. Fifty yards is a long shot for a bow and arrow, so you must get up close and personal with any elk before taking a shot.
We gathered our stuff, and while I was waiting for Josh to find his facemask there it was: crackling
branches in the meadow just to the south. I turned and saw a bull coming right down to the game trail we were on. After I got Josh's attention, we hit the deck and looked on in awe. He was a four-by-four — four antlers on each side of the rack — eight points in all. He went right to the trail on the opposite side of the meadow from us, 60 or 70 yards straight across.
When the beast got to the trail, he started beating his wide rack into the ground. Mud flew all around him, he was trying to loosen the ground in order to bed down. When he laid down, we sat and watched his frame heave, each exhale sending a cloud of foggy breath out of his nose. My heart pounded as I lay on the ground
as still and flat as possible, trying to think of a way to get above him and 10 yards closer. It was an awesome display of nature, a beast capable of killing me if he knew what I was doina.
One of our horses snorted. The bull rose off the ground, looked at our campsite and took off up the other side of the game trail doubling the distance between us in about three seconds. Josh and I jumped up and took off on foot in pursuit.
We were in the elk's environment. He knew more than we did about his surroundings and his instincts were keener. When it started snowing and sleeting, he was no more threatened than any other day of the year. Trying to use
your wits to overcome an animal's superiority in his natural habitat is part of the thrill of the hunt.
Environmental benefits
Population control and sustainability benefit the environment, and sportsmen themselves fund both.The U.S.Fish and Game, a federal conservation organization, is funded by sportsmen of all types.
Theodore Roosevelt, an avid big game hunter and a president responsible for outdoor conservation in America, pioneered this organization. The beginning of conservation was brought about by hunters, and
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