LIFEGUARD INITIATION

I went on my first successful hunt yesterday. As we were driving back to Fairmont from Invermere I spotted a bull elk from the highway and pointed it out to the guy driving. Being native the driver doesnt have any restrictions on shooting elk as long as its still light outside and he isnt within 300ft of a road. We went back to his place and got a rifle as well as a few friends to help carry the carcass back to the truck.

It had snowed the day before so tracks were easy to spot. We followed the elk for about a kilometer until we spotted him down the hill on a frozen lake. Two shots brought the animal down.

After it's dead, the organs have to be removed quickly because they spoil the meat if left in for too long. It was pretty similar to gutting a fish. Slice the belly lengthwise, pull out all the organs, and skin it. The one difference is that this was at least 1000 times bigger than the biggest minow I have ever gut. Once that was over and done with, we had to cut the legs and head off to make dragging the carcass back up to the truck easier. Having never decapitated a large animal before, I was pretty eager to give it a try. I sliced away all the meat first, then went on to aimlessly hacking away at the spine. After realizing my decapitating method was going nowhere a guy named "Murder-Mark" stepped in and started twisting the head round in circles until it snapped off. He was pretty good at it, as if he had done it many times before.

The next part sucked, we had to drag it uphill to the nearest road which was about a half kilometer away. Having slippery street shoes the drag was hard as hell and I couldn't contribute much. Once we got up there, the truck came and we loaded the elk in the back. We brought the elk back to one guy's house where we began skinning it. I got a knife and went to help skin the elk when Murder-Mark approached me and asked if I had ever shot a gun. I told him I hadnt and he was pretty eager to show me how. We set up an empty beer can on a stump and he gave a quick run-down on how to shoot a rifle. I took my first shaky shot standing up and missed. The next one i took down on one knee and hit the can a little off center. On my second shot I focused more on aiming than I did on holding the gun firmly in place, and so it recoiled and the scope wacked me in the eyebrow. It was pretty cool.

Once it was completely skinned we loaded it back into the truck so it could be taken to the butcher the following day. We kept the heart and tenderloins to cook up for dinner. Dinner was amazing by the way, we had elk heart and elk tenderloins, with this sweet bread called bannock and home made plum jam. Satisfied is the only word I can think of to describe how I felt. It was very similar to the feeling of the first beer after your last final before the summer. Satisfied and content.