Elk Hunt

Jared has many memories of hunting trips with his dad growing up, and for a while I've wanted to go along on one as well.  So this past September we headed down to the middle of Nowhere, Nevada to join Jared's parents on their elk hunt.

Mark ended up getting his cow elk Saturday morning, but because we didn't arrive until later that afternoon, we missed the actual hunt.  However, the next morning, while Gavin and Grandma slept in and hung out at camp, the three of us went off for a mock hunt, taking cameras with us instead of a gun.  We woke up before the sun, had hot coco, and headed out.  With the cow call we were able to get some elk to come really close, and we got some great pictures and videos!

Beautiful sunrise

The cows knew something was up, but I guess because it was rutting season when the bull heard the fake cow call he was determined to figure out what was going on and kept coming closer!

This bull kept calling back to us, and it's a cool eerie sort of sound 

Later we all went for a hike, and told Gavin we were on an elk hunt - his idea of trying to find them was calling as loud as possible, "Oh elk!  Where are you?  Elk, come here!!!"  Hence why he stayed at camp in the morning!  We also searched for jackrabbits, found a tarantula, and collected sticks. 

We also enjoyed hanging out by the camp fire,

Quad rides

Yep - that's an elk leg on the table.  And we now have a freezer full of elk meet to enjoy

 Shooting BB guns

 And real guns.

  Because of the time in the season, only black powder guns were permitted.  We had fun trying out different black-powder riffles and a black-powder pistol.

The three shots off to the right are Jared's.

The one closest to the bulls-eye - yep, that's mine!

(We'll not comment on the fact that none of my other shots made it on the target at all)

Random tree we passed on our way - filled with shoes!