On health, hunting and happiness

It has been an extreme winter here in the Rocky Mountains.  With spring peeking around the corner, I was reflecting back on how wonderful winter has been.  One in particular taught me a lot about life and about hunting.

For Christmas, we took my friend’s 83 year old grandfather hunting for his private land cow elk.  Each year we think that it may be his last hunt because of his age and of course his health.  This year was no different.

Christmas morning the thermometer reads -18 degrees.  We headed out to search of elk for Grandpa.  We saw a spotted a small heard over a ridge.  After a short uphill hike, and a whole lot of huffing and puffing and stops to catch his breath, we him into position to get a shot.

Unfortunately, his shot missed its mark.  The hike was a lot for him.  He just was not able to catch his breath to get steadied enough.  We had worn him out.  He was pretty upset at his miss, and quietly walked back down the hill to the pick-up.  We headed home for Christmas dinner and put him under the electric blanket to rest.

Saturday morning, we were up early and convinced Grandpa to head out again.  That morning we were trying a new location to hunt for that cow elk.  When we arrived it was -23 degrees!  Grandpa was sore from the previous day.  He told us he was worn out and he didn’t think he could do another hike like yesterday.  We told him we would get him to a location that would be a little easier.  We located some cows, but they were on the wrong side of the fence for that private land tag.   Today the girls just were not co-operating.  With the temperature being so cold, we could not set Grandpa out to wait for them to come to the property, so we headed home.  It was another unsuccessful day.

Our third and last day out, Sunday morning, we were up early and took Grandpa for his “last chance” cow elk hunt.  He would be leaving for home the next day so we had to get him on a cow elk for sure.  That morning the temperature warmed up a little to a balmy -12.  We went to the same piece of property we had been hunting the past two days.  The same herd was still near, but of course, they were still on the wrong side of the fence.

Grandpa was getting very discouraged, and he was beating himself up for missing the first morning and for not being able to get around as well as he once could.  We decided to try another piece of land where the owner had told us he had spotted a herd.

So we headed north.  The problem at this property we were heading to would be that we would not be able to just walk Grandpa a short way.  All the meadows were a ways out there with rolling hills in between.  We towed our snowmobiles behind the pick-up and headed to get Grandpa another chance at a cow.  Once we arrived at the property, we loaded him on back of the snowmobile and headed up the deep snow covered valley.  You really can not sneak up on the elk if you are on a snowmobile.

We rode up to the top of a small ridge and peered over.  Sure enough, there was a small heard of cow elk.  The excitement began.

We unloaded Grandpa and he hiked down a little just to get him a straight shot.  He sighted in on a nice cow.  I saw him hesitate.  He was worried about another miss.  Then he took a deep breath.  There was a shot.

It was a hit.

Grandpa stood there, trembling with excitement.  The smile on his face was worth the effort. Many of us take it for granted a lot of the hiking, hunting and climbing we do.  If we want to stalk an animal, we just do it.  What a challenge to get  close enough to that cow elk.  83 years old, successful and happy as can be!  Closing on the first season of the year, always remember to be thankful for everything you have, health, happiness and the ability to hunt!