adventures in hunting

so my husband thought i should try hunting last year and put me in for an elk tag. it's a longshot to get drawn for a tag, but we did! we had a unit 27 elk tag, rifle. so i bought him a winmag 300 for our anniversary. he was so psyched! i bought camo pants and warm underarmor to wear on the hunt. unit 27 is up above alpine and runs south towards safford. almost the whole area is mountainous and has difficult terrain to hike. my step-sons, went along for the adventure. we woke up at 4am and head out to the area we wanted to begin at and waited for sunlight. we hiked several canyons. it had snowed the day before. it was slippery and steep. we never saw an elk. we saw tracks, elk droppings and smelled elk but never saw one. we hiked out of the canyons and by the end of the morning, i couldn't lift my foot over a log. the boys offered to carry my gun but i wouldn't give up.

my husband said that i didn't have to go the next day, but i was determined not to be a wuss about hunting. i spent that evening in a warm tub and getting a rub down on my aching muscles. at 4am the next day i was ready to go. that day we did see a few elk but not bulls, only cow elk. we also tracked a bear for a little bit.

we never saw an elk that i wanted to kill. we did see a few small bulls later in the day. maybe next year..... and yes we did get drawn again!