We ventured up to Oregon with a little bit of hope, which was quickly overshadowed by the reality of the situation. It's just my father and I, and if one of us is not healthy, an elk hunt will simply not happen and that was the case for this season. On top of that, the area we scouted in Oregon, vegetation wise, was not what I expected. I can see why there are elk there, and that's also a good reason why there aren't many hunters there either, but it would be a challenge to hunt and an extremely physically demanding challenge at that... One that would tax your body day in and day out. No big deal, if you're ready for it. I felt like I was... To summarize the scouting trip, we saw elk, we saw some amazing country, saw some big bucks... and that's about it.
On the way home from the trip, my father called my mother to inform her that his knee was not holding up and that we were coming home from the trip early. I got a good laugh out of the fact that my mom gave my pops a good old school lecture about taking care of his body, and I also learned throughout the conversation that my mom was not doing so well emotionally. See, this whole summer my mother has been taking care of her father, my grandpa... She's been by his side as he is losing a fight to cancer. Right now, it's only a matter of time, which there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of it available... My mom was supposed to go on this elk trip with us, but within the last couple weeks said she couldn't go, because she needed to be home with grandpa.
Elk season, for many reasons... just wasn't meant to be.
The bright side, as if there is one, is I'll get to focus my efforts on hunting in California... and I'll get to write about it as well.
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