Hunting season

I just finished my elk hunt for the year.  I didn't have any opportunities, but I did see a couple cows (elk) yesterday.  I am not much of a hunter - I have been out several times, but except for one time hunting on a ranch in Uvalde a few years back, I have been unable to bring home any game.  I did get a duck last year, which was nice, but the family apparently still isn't a fan of wild duck. 

But, this year, I did feel more like a hunter than I have in previous years.  In Texas, hunting is generally different than up in the PNW.  Down there, you find a ranch, pay a lease, sit in the blind and point your rifle toward the deer feeder and pick the one you want when they come to eat. Up here, however, hunting elk, there really aren't ranches to sit in blinds at.  I find myself looking for areas up in the mountains where the elk are likely to be roaming.  Elk don't typically stick in any particular area, instead, they roam about a larger area.  I have found a very promising area, and have found that I am able to find signs of elk (tracks, droppings, possible scent marking locations), and can determine where I should take up a spot to watch elk to pass. 

It paid off yesterday.  In the morning hunt, I found a location to sit up where I was reasonably covered but had an expansive view.  After an hour or two, I looked up, and about 35 yards away, I saw what looked like a rock that I didn't remember seeing before.  After a few minutes, I looked back, and the rock was gone. The same thing happened in the evening, only I didn't look away - I watched the elk move off up the hill some, so I decided to follow it.  I was about 50 yards away, but the only broadside shot I could line up, it turned out it was a cow in a bull only area.  I followed it for about 200 yards or so until it went up around a ridge into a tree line, and I didn't want to risk not being able to find my way back. 

I was the only one to track elk in an area where we would have been able to shoot this year, and it was nice (though I'm fairly sure she saw me following her, so I have work to do), but I would like an actual opportunity at some point, as well.  Next year I will follow the wooded trails a little more and see what I can run into (assuming it's not a bear).