I remember my first elk trip, was to the White River National Forest in Colorado. Near Meeker, with the closest dot on the map called Buford, which was nothing more then a general store/gas station and a half dozen cabins sitting right on the river bank! We were going to camp at Big Fish Lake which was several mile hike from where you could park your vehicle in a campground. I was hiking with full pack 3 to five miles, several times a week, for about six weeks prior to leaving. I think that allowed me to really enjoy the hunt, because I had little trouble with getting up there and the altitude.
For a Tennessee boy who had never seen the Rocky mountains, I was in awe! Didn't know up front how I would be effected, but once there the hunting was secondary to experiencing the mountains! I simply loved it! The first morning of the hunt I set on the edge of a park (we call a meadow or field), and just took in the view. I kept looking up at the mountain above the timber line, and soon hunting was forgotten and I didn't stop climbing until I got there. I sit down against a big boulder and saw wildlife that I didn't know the name of and just took it all in for about an hour before I started back down. I remember laying in my sleeping bag and listening to elk bugle in the distance, and thinking that it had to be the wildest sound on earth! Such a majestic animal! I didn't get an elk that trip, or the next two trips in the following several years afterwards partly due to using traditional archery equipment and not getting one in close enough, but going out west and experiencing the rocky mountains remains one of the highlights of my life! I don't regret any of it, including trying to make it happen with traditional equipment...wouldn't change a thing!
