“I told you so.” “Yeah, but you’re just a puppy. I thought…” “I was sniffing a lot… hard.” “Right, I saw but…” “Chopping with my tail” “I…” “Chop, chop, chop. That’s what I did. I did that.” “Got it, but…” “And tight circles. I did those too. Lots of ‘em. I worked it over,, Read More
Legal shooting light is an hour earlier than it was a week ago. For those keeping score at home, that sets the average elk hunter’s alarm clock somewhere between 3:30 and 4 a.m. Meanwhile an hour of fishable post-work sunlight just got lopped-off your afternoons. Congress has given us plenty of cause for concern in recent, Read More
I had two of my four bags on the platform when the train started to move. The third duffle clipped the closing door as I chucked it. It ended up under the train. Jumping, I faired slightly better myself, decking hard on the concrete station floor with the backpack. I came up rolling, Read More
“Pile of deer, by the big juniper…” whispered Steven from behind his binoculars. “Yep. There’s at least two bedded above them and to the right.” I whispered back, also glassing the opposite slope. After a slow start to the morning, we’d spotted this band of deer from a mile down canyon. Through the spotting, Read More
Churning my legs with my four year old slung over my shoulder and a shotgun in my left hand, I tried to keep pace with the dogs. We were into birds and I aimed to get the jump on them this time. My son had been doing a good job of keeping up, but on the, Read More
They called him Deadeye Dan, although that was before I came along. He was a great shot. Dropping whitetails on the run as they darted between cottonwoods, elk in the fog at three hundred yard. Always just one shot. By the time I was able to tag along on hunts those days were long, Read More
Direct eye contact is said to incite violence among dogs and bears. Apparently they read it as an affront. Showing a big cat your back, meanwhile, will elicit pursuit and attack. Flight is a prey behavior and must be treated as such. Ravens, pack rats and barracuda are drawn to shiny objects. Antelope have been known to, Read More
Wet snow chilled me to the bone. I held back shivers and tried to remain focused. A half hour earlier I had taken my rain gear off for the fist time in days, trying to be quiet. Laying horizontal, alongside a downed tree trunk, I peered toward the elk. A cow had me dead to, Read More
Not all that counts can be counted. Sometimes though, numbers can tell a story.
19th century mystic Sri Kamakrishna once said, “Do not seek enlightenment unless you seek it as the man whose hair is on fire seeks the pond.” So I’ll refrain here from trying to make sense of the adventure drive – no anecdotes drawing connections between challenge and satisfaction; no essays muddling through the allure, Read More