Manboy,

I said that I had my opinions of ATV but I wouldn't share them. You assumed that I was against them. well, you where right. ATV's destroy much more than horses. If you don't know the advatages of using a horse over an ATV then you need some experience. ATV's put a lot of polution in the air, they are loud and they tear the hell out of the land. I think they should be banned from National forests. I've rode a lot of atv's and they are a lot of fun. Hell, I use to race them in my spare time. I think there is a time and a place for them. I just don't think that the hunting woods is it.

YOu don't see how a guide earns his money. Well, first I don't think of them as "guides". I don't hire them to lead me around the mountain by the hand. I study Topo maps and make my own plans. More than once I have pissed a "guide" off to the point that he didn't want to go with me. Which was fine with me, because I knew where I wanted to go. Most times the "guides" want to guide you to the easy places. They hope you'll shoot something small so they don't have to work as hard. How do they earn there money? Well, I live in Missouri which is a long way from the elk mountains. For me to buy, pack, and haul enough gear to hunt the way I want, it would cost as much or more than the cost of the outfitter. Not to mention the use of there horses and tack, or the meals that they provide. Now if you factor in the prime hunting area into the equation then its cheaper to utilize an outfitter. Now I've taken some of our "flat lander" horse to the mountains once. They couldn't get there wind. It was a nightmare. You need horses that have been in the mountains and know what they are doing. Bottom line; if I lived as close to the mountains as you I wouldn't need the services of an outfitter either. I don't, so I do. I'm not ashamed of it one bit.

PS. I don't like hunting with ATV's. That does not mean that I think less of folks who use them. To each his own. I like to get well beyond the reaches of an ATV.