Kevin, I know I posted this over on the PBS site for Bryan's great hunt, but brother it applies to you and your hunt even more so. Nothing at all to detract from Bryan's amazing hunt, but solo just adds more to the equation.
Vance Bourjaily eloquently stated in his article “Hunting is Humane” in the February 15, 1964 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. “..in killing there is no satisfaction. Killing, and this is generally misunderstood, is not pleasure at all if the challenge of hunting does not accompany it.” Most will agree that the feeling of accomplishment, pride, satisfaction, and culmination of a truly successful hunt, is not the size or score of the animal harvested, but in the effort and energy expended in the pursuit! In fact, a truly successful hunt often times does not even include the killing of an animal. Robert Ruark summarized a short anecdotal quotation as follows: “There was a Russian school of acting which once maintained stoutly that a good tragic actor had to suffer. The same must be true of all hunters… The value of a trophy is computed directly in terms of personal investment in its acquisition.” Theodore Roosevelt was also a student of the chase, as evidenced in the following quote: “Of course in hunting one must expect much hardship and repeated disappointment; and in many a camp, bad weather; lack of shelter; hunger; thirst, or ill success with game, renders the days and nights irksome and trying. Yet the hunter worthy of the name always willingly takes the bitter if by so doing he can get the sweet, and gladly balances failure and success, spurning the poorer souls who know neither.”
Kevin, you are an amazing hunter!
Topic: Uncharted Alaska: Solo. Updated 1-18 (Read 18896 times)
