WHY DO WE DO THIS?

t was the morning of October 28, opening day of rifle season, and I had hunted 40 days without seeing an elk. My failure stretched over three seasons, and if I didn’t shoot the one that was taunting me in the pre-dawn—bugling a full three weeks after he should have shut his mouth for the season—then I would tie my brother’s record, a dubious achievement. To compound my frustration, I had recently returned from a trip to British Columbia’s Thompson