The Elk That Almost Got Away

It was Friday evening, November 2, 2018, next to the last day of elk season. Jesse and Dorinda had been here for two weeks and were planning to leave the next day and head back to PA. Nate still hadn't gotten his elk and Jesse really wanted to see him get one before he left. The guys knew there were elk in the cornfield they had been hunting in, they just couldn't figure out a way to get them to run out.

Jesse and Andy devised a plan around the supper table that evening. If they got the children out of bed early the next morning, they could go with the guys, walk through the cornfield and chase the elk out. I couldn't believe the children fell for that! They were beyond excited to go hunting.

At breakfast the next morning 8 children showed up raring to go.  Jaci, Blake, Karen, Cheyenne, Zane, Cody, Denver, and Dallas.

Now this is the story that I heard, since I wasn't at the scene of action till it was all over!

The guys took the kids to the head of the field and told them to spread out in a line and start walking. Jesse and Nate got into position, Andy had already got his elk so Im not sure what his part in all this was. When the children came out at the other end, no elk came out ahead of them.

Karen said she saw an elk but it ran behind her. According to Jaci, "It was all because of Karen we had to walk through again." This time the guys told them to talk and yell! Well, that part should have been easy!!

That time they chased one lonely elk out and Nate shot it, but it ran...yup....back into the cornfield. So the kids were supposed to walk through again, this time yapping like dogs!  They chased it out again and Nate shot it again but it ran.... back into the corn. That time they were pretty sure it was a fatal shot so the guys took the children to McDonalds and got them lunch before they all had to walk through the corn one more time to locate the elk.

While they were at McDonalds, Jesse called Dorinda and told her to get everything packed up and pick him and the children up, they were heading back to PA after they helped Nate find the elk.

Rob was tilling ground about half way between our house and the fields the guys were at. Rob met Dorinda and I at the café and we followed him to the field. When we got there the crew had just found the elk and were getting a uniloader to pull it out of the field!

It was a huge field with irrigation ditches so wide I thought we were going to bury our Ranger pickup! Rob finally turned around and drove back the way we had come in, on the way out we found part of our truck's  bumper! Our little truck will never be the same! I don't know how those little boys walked that field 3 times!

                                         Andy got the elk and carried it out to an open field.

                                                And then the trophy picture. Good Job!!!

                                                          Nate and his elk.

 

Then it was time for half this crew to head back to PA!

I was pretty sure after the morning they had they would sleep halfway across the states.