Hunting Elk

Years ago – and, I do mean YEARS AGO – Larry, Lee, and I went elk hunting every autumn.  Years before that, Larry and Lee would go, and I would buy something expensive “to get even.”  Even for what?  I don’t know, but I guess that I must have felt put-upon for some reason.  Then, after we started camping and motorcycle riding, I decided I’d join them for hunting.

Lee and Larry set up the camp (tent, porta-potty, etc.).  Larry and Lee made a shepherder’s stove.  It was a barrel with a stove pipe that went through the roof of the tent.  They welded a grate to separate the wood fire from the ashes.  It kept the tent toasty warm.  I cooked.  They did the dishes.

I even carried a gun – a Ruger something (numbers always follow the name, it seems).  I never expected to take the life of an elk with that rifle.  It was more for protection against bears (they were not expected to be in hibernation at that time) or bull elk (that have been known to attack women).  I would go to the saddle of the mountain, find a big rock, and just wait.

The elk season was always open for hunters to take either bull or cow elk.  To go after a cow elk, a drawing was held of the hunters’ licenses; the winner of the cow license was only allowed to shoot a cow elk.  Neither Lee nor Larry ever had cow licenses.

One autumn, Larry was a alone, sitting on a log at the edge of a clearing. when he heard snuffling in back of him.  Three or four young elk were there with their moms directly behind them.  The young elk were curiously edging toward where Larry was sitting, very still – closer and closer.  One of the moms snorted, and the young ones wheeled away at a full gallop.  Larry said he was so glad that he did not have a cow license that year!

One of those autumn excursions I started coughing about ten at night.  I continued to cough until four o’clock; we decided that I needed to go to the hospital.  So down the switchbacks, we went.  To the hospital in Glenwood Springs.  High altitude sickness was the diagnosis.  I was in the hospital for about three days; Lee and Larry spent those days continuing to hunt.  They returned to Glenwood Springs to help me move from the hospital to a hotel for the rest of the week.  Then, they returned to the camp to break it down, came and picked me up at the hotel, and we drove home.

Since then, a four-hour stint of coughing has become a precursor of pneumonia.  My current PCP has me on a please-don’t-get-pneumonia med regimen.  It works every time for me to avoid having pneumonia.

Be safe and well.

The Cranky Crone

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