My First Elk

It was chili opening morning in early November; but it wouldn’t stay cold for long. We woke up early and were out by sunrise. We sat and watched a new clear-cut for the majority of the morning and we knew that it would be a good day because there was elk sign everywhere we looked. There were remnants of snow along the tree line from the last snow storm, and tracks marked all over the snow. Sure the tracks were old and melted out, but I had faith this was the year I would get my first elk. We were unsuccessful, opening morning and walked back to camp for lunch. After a longer lunch than usual; we took off on our afternoon hunt. It was hot and it seemed like Green Mountain had never had an elk walk on it. The hunting was bad and we decided to just walk down an abandoned jeep trail, back to camp. On the trail my nose was filled with a long too familiar smell. There were elk around. I looked through the branches on my left and there she was; a cow elk standing broadside. I stood, shouldered my gun, put the cross hairs on the kill zone, and shot. She fell where she stood. It happened all so fast and I couldn’t believe I just got my first elk, and on opening day.