My fall outdoor plans have taken a couple of twists and turns and I think everything is pretty much nailed down now. For a while I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to renew my passport or buy an elk tag.

The confusion and chaos started last summer when the state of Colorado decided not to award me an elk hunting tag. In fairness to Colorado, after lucky hunters were awarded their tags, a few permits were still available in the leftover category. That meant that I probably filled out the application incorrectly. In fairness to me, Colorado doesn’t make the electronic process easy and I was not a computer science major.  

My second chance opportunity came and went in the form of a first come first serve leftover tag online drawing. This actually took place while I was in a Canadian fishing camp. Our cabin was WIFI free. Just so there is no confusion over that, I mean there was no WIFI. By the time that I logged on using my phone as a hotspot, which is pretty much the extent of my abilities, the tags were long gone.

When I returned from Canada, I brought back some great memories. If Colorado doesn’t want me to elk hunt, maybe Canada would welcome me back for another week or fishing? It felt like the truck was pointing more musky north instead or elk west. I was even starting to make a mental list of people that I could tap for filling the role of being my Canadian net man. Half-brother Dan was on that list. I won’t say how far down the list he was because ironically, he was the one that spoiled that plan but came up with something slightly better. I’m paraphrasing now but half-brother Dan basically said, “There are over the counter tags available in northwest Colorado. If we can leave a week later, I’ll go elk hunting with you.” The truck was now pointing west.

For review purposes, half-brother Dan is only that in name. He has hunted with me and my brothers forever. The recurring offer is that our side offers up a sister or maybe two to Dan’s family in return for making him a full-fledged Beck brother. I’m not sure what is the delay in finalizing that trade. Maybe his side doesn’t want to burden us with him full-time, or it could be that our sisters are just not enough compensation.  

Since I didn’t think I was going elk hunting this year, there was no reason to get into mountain shape. Normally I would have used July and August to get in as good as mountain shape as you can get in the flats of Wisconsin. As the days tick away towards get away day I have been using every opportunity to at least not embarrass myself when the hiking starts. 

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