Bluffgruff
Well-known member
Me:
"Man, without being able to find a truck/trailer combo, you're my best option."
"You willing to do this if I cover all the costs?"
"And owe you huge?"
The Beard:
"Yes when will you need me there 4 ish?"
These lines are the final bit of a long text exchange between me and the main character of this story from about 11 months ago. He never asked for anything in return, but I owed him huge.
At the conclusion of that adventure, he had been up close to 24 hours, driven through a blizzard towing a hapless truck over 2 Colorado passes to dump me and the truck and a bison at my house safe and sound. I owed him huge.
Revisit that story here.
On the long drive, among innumerable other topics, we talked about his hunting wishlist, and an elk was sitting close to the top. He had never killed an elk, cow or bull, despite chasing for several years. I had even been on the other side of a rock from him with a clear 180 yard shot at a massive cow elk several years before. She blew out before appearing in his field of view. He had walked the mountains and timber with several tags in several units, but could never quite bring home an elk.
I said I'd work on a strategy to get him a good tag, and what I came up with worked.
Come November, he has a good tag in his pocket and is cruising to his unit on a windy, late fall day. He's two days ahead of me, and, since I'm still learning from my experiences, he has strict instructions not to shoot anything until I join him. Nothing at all. Don't even load your rifle.
He arrives to the sights, quirks, and realities of late season hunting. Climbing up from the valley into the trees, the snow deepens, the roads deteriorate. He can't plow through the drifts to the e-scouted campsite, but finds a good one just short of it. A bull moose greets him at a small creek crossing. He's elk hunting again.
"Man, without being able to find a truck/trailer combo, you're my best option."
"You willing to do this if I cover all the costs?"
"And owe you huge?"
The Beard:
"Yes when will you need me there 4 ish?"
These lines are the final bit of a long text exchange between me and the main character of this story from about 11 months ago. He never asked for anything in return, but I owed him huge.
At the conclusion of that adventure, he had been up close to 24 hours, driven through a blizzard towing a hapless truck over 2 Colorado passes to dump me and the truck and a bison at my house safe and sound. I owed him huge.
Revisit that story here.
On the long drive, among innumerable other topics, we talked about his hunting wishlist, and an elk was sitting close to the top. He had never killed an elk, cow or bull, despite chasing for several years. I had even been on the other side of a rock from him with a clear 180 yard shot at a massive cow elk several years before. She blew out before appearing in his field of view. He had walked the mountains and timber with several tags in several units, but could never quite bring home an elk.
I said I'd work on a strategy to get him a good tag, and what I came up with worked.
Come November, he has a good tag in his pocket and is cruising to his unit on a windy, late fall day. He's two days ahead of me, and, since I'm still learning from my experiences, he has strict instructions not to shoot anything until I join him. Nothing at all. Don't even load your rifle.
He arrives to the sights, quirks, and realities of late season hunting. Climbing up from the valley into the trees, the snow deepens, the roads deteriorate. He can't plow through the drifts to the e-scouted campsite, but finds a good one just short of it. A bull moose greets him at a small creek crossing. He's elk hunting again.
