Marriage

---

Around our house, autumn is not spelled “f a l l,” but “h u n t I n g.”

My husband hunts with a bow and arrow in September. My hunt for elk comes a bit later, during the rifle hunting time.

I am pushing 60, and have been saving “preference points” for 10 years, waiting for that really BIG hunt! Some hunting places are so wonderful, you can’t just get a tag and go hunting; you have to save points for years to be able, maybe, to be drawn to the hunt there. I think resident elk have a special deal with the wild life biologists, to limit the amount of hunters who ever get close

My hubby, and “hunting guide,” said it was my hunt, so I got to pick and choose.

After finding out that renting an RV would be twice as expensive as a cabin with hot showers, and you still had to “feed” the RV, it became a no brainer. My husband would have had me tent , camping in the sleet, going to bed cold, getting up cold, and the shower? It was not on his list!

We arrived in Montrose, and at our cabin, which was delightful, and had its own ponds! The aspen had dressed up for the occasion of my memorable hunt. They were wearing their fall finest, of brilliant yellow and orange, shimmering in the wet weather. Yes, it was raining!

Early the next morning, okay, it was the middle of the night when we left the cabin at 3:30, to drive to the hunting spot we had found the preceding day. It was now sleeting.

We pulled off where we were going to enter the public land. Mist was rising from the ground. The sleet, well, it was sleeting with some rain thrown in. The aspen were dancing in front of the backdrop of aromatic dark pines. We slid down the hill to the tune of elk bugle sounds, FOUR of them. Wait a minute, they sounded sort of amateurish, sort of like----hunters! “Honey, I am not sure I want to hunt right here, if every other hunter in the county is here too! Was I whining in the sleety rain?

By now, there was hail mixed in, and it was cold enough to see your breath. The tips of my fingers, which peeked out of the cut off gloves, were a bright pink. They looked great with the blaze orange acrylic nails! “OK, let’s go back to that other road in", said Mick, as he turned to go back up the hill.

Since we built our current house with vaulted living room ceilings, as a permanent home for some beautiful elk and deer antlers, this was my time to do my part to put them there! “Beef in the freezer” was always wonderful too.

Mick went first, and offered to take my 7MM-08 rifle. I looked down at the chocolate ooze my feet were imbedded in, and handed him my firearm. After slipping and sliding back to the bottom of that hill a couple times, I finally grabbed some nearby bushes, and pulled up hand over hand. “I am surprised you made it up, good job!" That was encouragement from my smiling hubby.

“Honey, if we can barely make it up this slope, how in the world would we get a 700 pound bull up, and back to the truck?”

“Well, ok, let’s go,” was the thoughtful reply.

We took a short drive in the four wheel drive truck to a more moderately inclined valley. The aspen were magnificent! Did you know they even have a different smell in the wet fall?

We heard bugling, and this time, saw the bull! He was right there, neatly behind those huge aspen trunks, with his taunting, six point antlers sticking out! (Twelve points to those of you from other states where we have lived.) Well, you don’t shoot at the antlers, and the rest of him was tucked behind those pesky trees!

Mick made a perfect bull elk call. The bull backed up, but called back. I wonder what my husband “said,” must have been intimidating. I voiced some eeee-owww’s like a cow would sound, and that huge bull picked up his head and came forward, still hidden behind those white trunks. The wind was right, and the bull couldn’t smell us, so more of the above ensued.

“Honey, can you tone it down? Whatever you are “saying” is making him think you are king of the bulls, I want him closer, not all backed up!”

BAM

Some months later, there is a beautiful elk in the dining room. Yes, I know you thought I said the ceiling was vaulted in the living room. That’s because the dining room has a picture with a beautiful elk hidden behind some aspen trees. I think that artist must have been frustrated just like me, since he painted the elk in his picture at a spot where he was barely showing behind the aspen.

This picture?, I never asked, but since it was a Christmas gift from my hunting guide husband, I think it was there because he wanted me to get my elk, even if it was framed in walnut!

What, you thought the BAM was my gun? Nope, the elk finally turned and galloped through the woods, making a lot of noise. He must have caught our scent after all.

Well, I never got my elk; but it was an experience I’ll not forget! The picture on the wall brings back many memories.

(C) Marijo Phelps all rights reserved. Use with with proper credits.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE