With only three days to hunt this year due to school comitments Dylan made the most of his hunt. We saw a good amount of Elk, but they always seemed to be miles away and in inaccessable areas. By the night before the last day, Dylan seemed to be visibly disappointed. I reassured him that this is why it's called hunting and the more effort you put in, the greater the chance of success. With time running out we spotted a nice 5x5 bull on the last morning and decided to attempt a stalk. The climb was steep and long and after 30 minutes, I told Dylan he should go on alone and I would catch up. Yeah, I'm not in as good a cardio shape as my 14 year old son. He plays varsity soccer and baseball for his high school team in which he practices everyday and also trains twice a week at the gym with a speed and agility trainer. Anyways, ( now that I've made excuses for me ) he's about a hundred yards ahead of me when I climb out of the rock face and see him disappear over the roll of the hillside. I continue to put along keeping the opposite hilside in slight view to watch for any escaping animal. I catch a glimpse of Dylan motioning with his fingers and I assume he's trying to tell me that he sees the bull and this is how far he is. I see Dylan hunker down and disappear again over another roll in the hillside. It was at this time I figured I would never catch up to him and I slowed down expecting to here a gunshot and wanting to see if anything runs out of the canyon. A few minutes later, I hear his rifle go off. I watch the hillside intently when I notice the 5x5 bull running across the hillside unhurt. The bull stops behind a stand of trees and I hear the shot of Dylans rifle again. Again I am watching the 5x5 bull run through the trees, across an opening and stop in the next tree line around the mountain, a clean miss again. About a minute passes and I see Dylan coming back from the top of the mountain. He says, "I got him dad" !! I said, "I don't think so son, I saw him run away and he wasn't hit". He said, "I can see him". I said, "I know son but you missed". He said, "no I didn't, I can see him on the ground and I hit him with both shots". No son he went into the trees. No dad, he's down behind that squigley tree. What tree. That one. I don't see him son I'm pretty sure you missed. I'll come show you. He walked back down the hill to where I was standing and said " Oh, you can't see him from here, come over here with me". I said "son I saw the 5x5 run away". He said "dad didn't you see me signal to you that there were five Elk on that hillside and three of them were bulls". Oh, is that what you were trying to tell me. After moving to a different angle on the mountain, he says, "can you see him now dad, he's a 6x6". I said, " Yeah, I guess you did get him". High fives and hugs all around. Can you imagine how I felt. I guess Dylan has become quite the big game hunter in his three short years. I guess he only needs me for transportation and packing now. Oh my, Whats going to happen when he can drive himself. I may never get to go again. LOL The two of us spent the rest of the day quartering and packing the Elk out of the mountains. Anyone who has had to quarter and pack out an Elk with or without help can understand how we spent the rest of the day going between quitting Elk hunting and can't wait to get out here again next year. By the way, I did show him that I am still much stronger then he is, by packing out the two hind quarters and baxckstraps in one trip. That was dumb, but I had to get back some kind of self worth.
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