Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 5 · column 1 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
As the first seed was planted, all those many weeks ago, I thought that the September bowhunting trip to Idaho would never get here.
We had at first decided on flying out to Boise, then renting a fourwheel-drive vehicle to get back in the hills as far as we could and backpacking in.
Later, as we talked with the game biologist, we found that our primary area of interest east of Elk City, Idaho, had suffered a severe forest fire during the summer.
As we talked to the Idaho Game and Fish personnel, we found that their knowledge and information of specific areas was excellent and we developed some interesting friendships over the phone.
After the summer forest fires raged through our primary area, we started plans on our second area of interest.
First came the trips to get topographic maps and looking at aerial photos at the offices in Reston of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
We found that one particular drainage in our area had a good water supply and a number of remote mountain meadows. Both the water and meadows would be important for finding our primary target —elk.
We talked more to the game biologists about this specific area and found that it would be excellent for elk and some good concentrations of mule deer and bear.
So the plans started coming together, just about the time of the United Airlines strike — the airline from which we had bought tickets. So, the plans were changed again. Oh well, we really didn’t mind the prospects of a 2,800-mile drive out there anyway.
We agreed that my partner would take his Ford Bronco, and the three of us, he, his son, and I would load our backpacks into the Bronco and simply drive out there. Not so!
As the weeks passed and our non-resident elk, deer, bear, small game and fishing licenses came in the mail, we realized that because of overlapping seasons we also would be able to hunt a nearby area with rifle for elk on the last three days we had planned to be there. So, the plans were changed to include rifles, ammo and blaze orange clothing required by law.
As the weeks have slipped by and the time has drawn near, we have practiced many hours with our hunting equipment, bows and arrows, and backpacked many miles carrying some of our equipment, on check-out trips.
Some of the camping gear — tents, sleeping bags, etc. — has seen many years of service and choose now as a time to give up, necessitating replacement. The cost of the trip continued to climb.
93.2%