Corey's recent successful elk hunt, and all the work involved in getting the critter out of the woods, got me thinking about the amount of work we do as hunters. Granted, It's a labor of love, in my eyes at least, but it can be lot of work none the less.
Everything from scouting, building blinds, hanging stands, clearing shooting lanes etc. Then there's the often times grueling job of getting the whole carcass, or the meat out.
It's not even in the same league with what corey just went through, lugging pack load after pack load of meat and the head up a mountain several days in a row, but it reminds me of one of the bucks I shot up in the Adirondacks.
I killed him at 2:30 on a cold November afternoon, got him gutted and dragged for seven hours before I got him out to my truck. He had ten points, and weighed 212 pounds when I weighed him the next day.
Granted, I could have quartered him and made a couple easier trips, but I didn't want to at the time, and I was in a lot better shape physically then.
I've dragged a lot of other deer, and a couple bears out over the years, often by myself, and a lot of it was the hardest kind of work, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
Isn't it amazing when you stop to think about all the work we put ourselves through at times, and how much satisfaction we get out of it all?
Bob