-Sarah Richard

This story is about my junior elk hunt in 6A. We traveled up to camp from the valley and got stuck in traffic on the way up at night. We got there late, but they heated up dinner for us. After we ate dinner, we set up camp and then went to bed, and we were excited for opening day. 4 o’clock came pretty early; we got ready and went to the mess hall to get breakfast and snacks. After that, we got into the Jeep and headed to the area we wanted to hunt in the dark before it got light out. It was me, my dad, my dad's girlfriend,my sister, and her husband. On the way to the hunting spot, a few elk ran across the dirt road, but it was too dark to shoot, so we didn't go after them. We made it to the spot where we wanted to glass, and it was light out, and we saw a few elk on the other side of the meadow. The rest of the morning, we hiked and followed the bugling. We saw some cows, but they spooked before I could get a shot. After that, we drove to a different area. My dad and I got out of the Jeep and hiked because we saw seven bulls cross the road.

After a while, we ran into some different elk and had a good opportunity to shoot, but I noticed it was a spike and didn't shoot. That was disappointing but exciting at the same time. We slowly made our way through the forest and saw more elk. But in this situation, it was difficult to see their heads and then get a shot because of the trees. That didn't work out, but we kept on, and pretty soon we heard bugling down the hill. We went towards the bugling, and I saw a big bull. It came pretty close to us but never saw us. We did see some cows, but they caught our scent and ran. After that, we decided to go back to the Jeep, and on the way there, we saw turkey’s. After all that hiking, we were hungry, so we decided it was time for lunch. After lunch, we hiked to a water hole that was close by and stayed there the rest of the day. We saw a lot of squirrels and deer that went to drink water. Before dark, we heard bugling, but they never came in. It was getting pretty cold, so we went back to camp. When we came back, dinner was ready for us, which made us happy. It was nice to talk to the other people there about their hunt and see how they did it. Day one was over, and we went to bed.

Day two came early with great excitement. We got food and snacks and headed over to our hunting spot. On the way there, we saw more elk cross the road, and that was very exciting. The bugling was pretty heavy in the morning, and me and my dad started to hike around, but with no luck seeing anything but deer. We went back to the Jeep to drive to another spot, and on the way there, we stopped at this water hole and saw a flock of turkeys. Next, we went to another good spot, and me, my dad, and my sister hiked off because we started to hear bugling. We ran into elk four different times, but they would either get spooked or I couldn't get a good shot because of the trees.

My dad and I drove to the next spot, while my sister and her husband had to go to town to get gas. We were hiking around, and something seemed weird, like we were wearing sunglasses. We later figured out it was because of the eclipse. Pretty soon we spotted elk, and I got ready for a shot. Two cows! I got a shot at 100 yards, and she dropped! We waited, looked, and noticed that she wasn't moving anymore, so we hiked over to her. I felt very happy to have tagged my second elk. We took some pictures, and then we field dressed the elk. Pretty soon, my sister came back to help us; it was a lot of work. We got back to camp in the late afternoon and had one more great meal for dinner, and we were happy to learn that more kids were successful too. It was a very fun trip, and we made lots of good memories.