Promoting good will
Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:01 pm
All that talk Mike did about the quaken aspens turning gold in the foothills pushed me out the door this morning with four hounds. Try as I did, I hoped that I could take an eight or ten mile hike with those hounds and look for a lion track before the weekend elk hunters were back in the woods.
I was pleased to see almost NO traffic in the canyon this morning but did notice one truck parked toward the end of the road near the trailhead, which lead me to believe that hunter was a walker and probably sitting on a nearby ridge before daylight, so I collared up those four hounds and shouldered my backpack and began to put down tracks toward the wilderness.
The morning breeze was gently blowing in my face as the five of us stepped out at a good stride. The memories of the twenty-five years of elk hunting came and went through my mind as the dogs worked the trail ahead of me. From time to time those four hounds would out step me and I'd call them back with a short sound that would always turn the heads of each dog. My legs began to loosen up and it was a great morning to be alive, walking behind those hounds, smelling the smells of the mountain and remembering lots of great trips up that canyon.....
Only a couple miles into our hike I could see two guys out ahead of me wearing orange and packing rifles. It didn't take me long to overtake those two young men and so I stopped and we visited for a few minutes. They had been on the other end of that mountain range hunting without success and wanted to try this area. I asked them how far up the canyon they were going, to which they answered, "to the end." I laughed and told them the trail reached the summit of the Uinta Mountains in about twenty-six more miles, then split along the High Line Trail and ran for dozens of miles in either direction. They didn't say much.
Then I asked them if I would miss them up if I stepped out ahead of them and they answered no, and was very polite. I responded by telling them that my season was longer than theirs and that I would return another day. They both thanked me and they continued up the canyon and I turned away. In reality those two young men had little to no chance of killing an elk because the thermals had already shifted and was taking their scent up the canyon ahead of them--but they didn't seem to know that and would have most likely believe that my intrusion into their hunt cost them a kill. One thing I learned about hunting elk over a lifetime was when the wind gets at your back you're done if you're in the timber, and you must turn into the wind, find an opening and sit down or go to camp.
Whether many of us realize it or not, other hunters effect our opportunities afield by the complaints they made toward others. When problems arise, the fish and game and wildlife boards address those issues by shifting, moving, limiting or removing the problem. Those two young men will long remember that I respected their time and hunting opportunity, and will most likely be less likely to be among the people who run future hounddoggers out of the woods. Tolerance of others is hard to promote sometimes cause each of us figure we have "rights", it's just the way many western people are raised. But respect and tolerance is easy to talk about and damn hard to give............
Hope each of you have had a great fall and are looking forward to more of the same............
ike
I was pleased to see almost NO traffic in the canyon this morning but did notice one truck parked toward the end of the road near the trailhead, which lead me to believe that hunter was a walker and probably sitting on a nearby ridge before daylight, so I collared up those four hounds and shouldered my backpack and began to put down tracks toward the wilderness.
The morning breeze was gently blowing in my face as the five of us stepped out at a good stride. The memories of the twenty-five years of elk hunting came and went through my mind as the dogs worked the trail ahead of me. From time to time those four hounds would out step me and I'd call them back with a short sound that would always turn the heads of each dog. My legs began to loosen up and it was a great morning to be alive, walking behind those hounds, smelling the smells of the mountain and remembering lots of great trips up that canyon.....
Only a couple miles into our hike I could see two guys out ahead of me wearing orange and packing rifles. It didn't take me long to overtake those two young men and so I stopped and we visited for a few minutes. They had been on the other end of that mountain range hunting without success and wanted to try this area. I asked them how far up the canyon they were going, to which they answered, "to the end." I laughed and told them the trail reached the summit of the Uinta Mountains in about twenty-six more miles, then split along the High Line Trail and ran for dozens of miles in either direction. They didn't say much.
Then I asked them if I would miss them up if I stepped out ahead of them and they answered no, and was very polite. I responded by telling them that my season was longer than theirs and that I would return another day. They both thanked me and they continued up the canyon and I turned away. In reality those two young men had little to no chance of killing an elk because the thermals had already shifted and was taking their scent up the canyon ahead of them--but they didn't seem to know that and would have most likely believe that my intrusion into their hunt cost them a kill. One thing I learned about hunting elk over a lifetime was when the wind gets at your back you're done if you're in the timber, and you must turn into the wind, find an opening and sit down or go to camp.
Whether many of us realize it or not, other hunters effect our opportunities afield by the complaints they made toward others. When problems arise, the fish and game and wildlife boards address those issues by shifting, moving, limiting or removing the problem. Those two young men will long remember that I respected their time and hunting opportunity, and will most likely be less likely to be among the people who run future hounddoggers out of the woods. Tolerance of others is hard to promote sometimes cause each of us figure we have "rights", it's just the way many western people are raised. But respect and tolerance is easy to talk about and damn hard to give............
Hope each of you have had a great fall and are looking forward to more of the same............
ike