ShatoDavis: Yes, I had a good time some of the time but not all of the time, and yes I made some lasting memories. I remember feeling a couple of times extremely privileged to be out in the mountains seeing what I was seeing that few other people get a chance to see. These were times when the weather was particularly frolicksome and peeved, when it was blowing and snowing heavily it was really beautiful up there. Or at least this was a view of the mountains I had never had before during any of my summer time visits to the mountain. While watching a small park early Tuesday morning with heavy snow coming down alternating with fog and strong winds coming in I turned around to look back through the timber behind me and thought it really looked beautiful. I saw a lot of cool stuff.

Also, it occurs to me while I was floundering and doing a dubious job of hunting, this time I spent hiking about the mountains while carrying a rifle I was essentially scouting for future trips. I found places of interest -- beds, rubs, small hidden parks, ridges with good views of elk travel routes -- that I may be able to exploit in future hunts. I marked these places in my GPSand copied the coordinate readouts into a journal I keep.