It's been a while since I've seen one of these up close and personal; actually the last time I was close to one of these I was in New Mexico riding horses with my uncle. We were in the "box canyon" on a beautiful fall afternoon much like today.....partly cloudy, a breeze, luminous color in the trees: aspen, cottonwood, oak and various others.We had ridden into the canyon with the wind to our backs, I was riding a young gelding named "Little Dan" who wasn't very little at all....
We had crossed the crick at least 3 times before we found our way to this very large elk! Guessing from his hoof size I'd wager that he was a LOT bigger than my "Little Dan" would ever be?! The sad thing about this monster with a 6 foot spread on his rack was the fact that some hunter was not quick enough to chase after him after using his compound bow. I'm not against hunting nor am I against hunting with a bow.....my only peeve is if you hunt with a bow make sure you're in terrifc shape to go after the elk!
What I saw was about two years' worth of meat spoiling in the sun in that canyon, it was disturbing enough that my uncle who is of very few words actually said more than four words that day to me!! I believe his exact words were, "That elk back there, seeing it just laying in the sun; did that make you sick looking at it?" Of course I was sick looking at it and smelling it was waaaaayyyyyy worse!!! And on that note, I was very glad to get a breeze tickling my nose with the smell of a warm horse and seasoned leather to take the image out of my mind and just enjoy the rest of my ride until we got back to the barn and could laze in the sun.
