My First Camp

Everyone who has this Elk camp fever that I do caught it from somewhere or someone or both. It's something you just can't stop and once you are bitten by the Elk camp bug, you've got the fever for which there truly is no cure. Now you could skip a season or two and tell youreself all manner a lies but you'll be back, It's a certainty. What kind of lies you ask, well how bout this one? "I just don't have the time". Sheesh, thats as lame as a foundered pony. Time? This is the time of your life, if you don't take the time, it is lost forever. You can't go back and visit last years camp that you didn't make it to, it is gone, finished, passed on, and stuck with a fork for it is done. The memories that you won't be a part of will carry on forever in someone elses heart and mind.

Here's another one, "I'm just not in shape to climb hills". What it really means is that you've been to tied to TV to get your sorry behind out to take a walk. I should know, I've been that character. I'm no slim Jim, I've never been accused of being off my feed. But I'll tell ya this I'm gettin my steps in every day and gettin' the ole legs & lungs ready. And besides, you don't have to be the half billy goat feller that heads to the steepest canyon he can find, just cus it's there. I mean for cryin' out loud, when I can't hike in woods, somebody better help me set up a chair in a blind and I'll set there and wait em out, cause the Elk are where you find em and I intend to find em for years to come. I'd even be glad to be the camp cook & fire minder. At least I'll be there to hear the stories and see the faces that tell all the wondrous stories when the rest of the crew gets in off the mountain.

I caught this bug when I about 12 years old. That the first time I got to go to Elk camp. It was an honor above honors and my Dad asked me to go with him and his buddies. Holy cow I could hardly believe it, I had come of age!! I had to be the most excited kid in the whole world, or at least in Eastern Oregon. We were hunting in an area that allowed a hunter to shoot whatever he saw. We refered to it as havin' a "hair tag". I can't even remember how many times I had asked, heck I'll be honest, I begged to go to camp. But I was always too young. Now I was going and I even had a coveted "hair tag", it meant that I didn't have to wait to see a bull, I could get me an Elk, any Elk would do just fine.

First problem was tha I didn't have an Elk rifle. Dad had a 30-30 carbine that I got to hunt deer with, but he didn't think it was big enough for Elk. So we borrowed a 45-70 single shot Ruger #1 from Ron. Now thats a lot of rifle for 12 year old kid, but I wasn't yer normal 12 year old. I was already standing about 5'-10" and wasn't a bean pole either. So we took out this blunder bust of a gun and went target shootin'. That means we filled up some jugs with water and went out to the hills and shot em from about 150 yds. Well, I hit the jug and figured that was good enough. We weren't big on sightin' in to real high standards, but if you could hit the jug you were in business.

I'll tell you more about this first Elk camp a little later, until then, make sure you get those youngins out there and enjoying camp. It's a gift that they will cherish more than a silly ole video game for sure. Keep on dreamin' bout the next camp, cause it'll be here before you know it.