It was a crisp, cold Saturday morning. The time was 2:30 a.m. and my alarm started ringing. I hit the snooze button and for the life of me I couldn’t remember why my alarm was set to go off so early. I put my head back on my soft, comfortable pillow, wrapped myself back in my comfy warm bedding and closed my eyes. Just as I closed my eyes it hit me, “I’m hunting this morning!” That’s why my alarm was going off. It was time to get out of bed and start moving. This was the big day. It was the day I had been anticipating for an entire year. It was the first day of my first elk hunt and I was so excited. Now, I don’t know if this happens to anyone else or if it only happens to me but I can never sleep well the day before a hunt. You can call it nerves, you can call it excitement, you can call it whatever you want, but for me it happens.
On day one of my elk hunt I hiked four miles into the backcountry. I got to a nice ridge that looked over a big meadow with aspen on both sides and decided to sit and glass the area for a while. Of course, that turned into a couple of hours and all I ended up seeing was a few cows and a nice mule deer, which I didn’t have a tag for. I decided to start moving again and hiked for a couple more hours until I came across a nice, heavily used game trail. I figured this would be a good place to spend the remainder of the day. When the sun started to set I knew I needed to get back to the cabin before it got too late. “Man!” I was ready to eat dinner and go to bed that night. I never seem to have a hard time falling asleep on the second night of a hunt.
The following morning, before the sun was even up, I was on the trail heading back to another ridge I had seen in the distance the day before. As I was hiking I must have spooked something big, because I heard a thundering crash, about a hundred feet below me, as if something was high-tailing it out of there. When the sun finally started to peak over the top of the mountains I saw a herd of elk two canyons over. However, it appeared to only have cows and spikes in the group. I sure had hoped I would see a bull I could shoot but nothing turned up in that herd so I kept hiking.
I finally arrived at a spot that felt just right. Oh boy, I had a feeling this was going to be a good hunting area. There was a good amount of cover from brush, aspen, pine, to spruce with a nice open draw going up and over the mountain. I had never been elk hunting before, but everything I had read about it told me that this would be a good spot. I asked myself, “If I were an elk would I be in this area?” My answer was a resounding “YES, absolutely! Good cover, a good food source with a quick exit over the mountains just in case something wanted to kill me”. So I sat down and waited…and waited…and waited.
When there were only two or three hours left of daylight, there they were, two bulls, right at the edge of the timber. Unfortunately these two bulls were on the other ridge just past the opening and across the thick row of aspen. Not nearly as close as I was hoping they would be. I knew I didn’t have much time to get to these bulls so I quickly grabbed all of my gear and set off. My plan was to stay above them by going around the tree line instead of through it. It paid off, just as I was coming to the other side of the aspen I saw both bulls feeding and facing away from me, the smaller of the two bulls was right in the open while the bigger 6×5 was a little covered up in the brush so I chose to wait. I knew I didn’t have much daylight left but I sure wanted shoot the larger elk. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long. Suddenly the bull stepped out into the open giving me a perfect shot, so I took it. I was shooting my Remington 270 with a 150 grain core-lokt bullet. The bull took two steps and then piled up. My first elk was down! I started making my way over to it and as I got closer my heart was still racing, “Wow, it’s way bigger than I thought.” I knew I was going to need help, so I got on the radio and called for some extra hands to help me get my bull off the mountain.
In no time at all, I was back at camp telling my story. So much time went into planning and preparing for this hunt. I just couldn’t believe it was over. After so many hours looking at maps, going to the gym, reading blogs and articles, and talking to local hunters, it all finally paid off. All the hard work was coming to an end and now it was time to enjoy the reward of my labor, with fresh elk steak.
As my hunt concluded and I was driving home I was reminded of my bible reading in Proverbs 13:4 “Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.”
I can’t remember the last time I wanted something so bad that I was willing to put in as much time and hard work as I did to achieve my goal on this elk hunting trip. I wish, as a pastor, I could tell people that being a Christian means your life gets easy and that following Jesus means that you always get to take the easy path. That wouldn’t be the truth. Thinking about it I realized that if it was easy, the rewards of following Jesus wouldn’t be as rewarding. The reality is that in following Christ you don’t always see the reward right away. In fact in some cases life may even get a little harder but Galatians 6:9 tells us, “Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up”.
When it came to my elk hunt, even after all of the anticipation of getting my elk, there were times I wanted to call it quits, especially after sitting for hours on end and not seeing any sign of elk. However, I knew I couldn’t quit. 2 Thessalonians 3:12 reminded me that, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Well, I was willing to work hard in order to reap the rewards of this hunt.
The big question this brings up is “How willing am I to work just as hard, if not harder, to see my friends and those I come into contact with come to know Jesus?” I sadly confess that I often put more time and effort into reaping earthly benefits then I do into reaping eternal benefits.
My challenge, to myself, is to work wholeheartedly unto the Lord putting more time and more of myself into the things that have an eternal reward for others, as well as myself.
Written By:
Kevin Ratliff (Pro-Staff)