muley69

Well, I would say three years ago when I hauled my camper up to a little spot I stumbled upon while taking my kid grouse hunting. I took 6 weeks off that year. I passed on several small bulls and chased this huge 6 point. I caught up with him several times but he always gave me the slip. One morning, just as the sun was slipping over the ridges, I let out a locate and got a bugle from right below me. I reconized that bugle, that was my boy, and this time I had him. I peered over the ridge, and 60 yards below he was tearing up a tree. I slipped to within 50 yards and let out a soft cow call, he bolted. Still can't figure out why I didn't just sneak down there and stick him, oh well. After that day, it all seemed to just get blurry. We had an early snow, and the elks' track betrayed them. In poured the hunters, a sea of orange and I hated it. The next season bowhunters crawled all over the mountain, camps were everywhere, the elk were not. A year prior I had my camper in there and never even saw another soul during peak rut weekend. The taste has never left my mouth. I guess I'm too much of an idealist. I really don't want to shoot animals that scurry about running from other hunters. I want to hunt them in a more natural state, by myself, away from the masses. Priorities have shifted, the pressures of running a business, a family, and surviving in the Bitterroot valley play heavy on my mind. I seem preoccupied and as others have stated, I am thinking about other things while hunting, my focus is lost. I am a spot and stalk kind of hunter, like to glass a lot, and that's hard to do when your not focused. I still love being in the mountains, especially in the summer. Last August, I threw the sleeping bag in the truck bed, grabbed a 12 pack of Coors, and went up to watch the persiads meteor shower. When it comes to hunting, however, I just have lost my desire to go up there.