AFC Meeting 8/10/02
Wild at Heart, Trek 6.
    Josh's eyes popped wide open, straining for any light to help identify why he sat bolt upright from a dead sleep.  His heart pounding, he held his breath until his lungs burned.  Then it came again;  a long, fierce scream pierced the night.  Their tent offered no insulation from its deafening, wind-up sirenlike wail.
    "That's a bull elk bugle!" his dad whispered excitedly.  "He must be right outside the tent!"
    Another bull announced a challenging return.  They were close enough that their stomping and snorting was clearly audible.  A fight was brewing and Josh and his dad had front row seats!
    "Do you think we can pull it off?"  Josh asked his dad, his eyes adjusting enough to see him slip on his pants and boots.
    "I don't know, but we've got to try!"
    They slowly unzipped the door and slid out into a belly crawl.  Another bugle from the original caller froze them to the ground.  Just ten yards beyond the tree they hid behind were two massive bulls, blurry in the pre-dawn moonlight.  Movement was slow for the eye to recognize but the occasional flicker of antler or dew-covered hair allowed them to track their actions.
    The encounter was quick, but with brutal, deadly force.  When they locked up antlers, the echoes came back from the mountain walls in stereo.  The two wrestled back and forth, each emitting grunts of great effort until one finally weakened and dropped his head in submission.  He would live to fight another day for a harem of his own.  Puffs of breath from his nostrils became further distant as he slowly limped into the trees in defeat.
    The champion turned toward Josh and his dad and stopped his gaze upon them, staring.  Josh thought for sure he saw a glint in this warrior's eye that seemed to say, "Follow me if you want to see some real adventure.".
    And that they did.  They stalked quietly, twenty yards behind.  Not fifty yards more, he led them to a herd of about thirty other elk, mostly cows mixed with a few less mature bulls in a protected marshy meadow.  Josh and his dad crept into the meadow on hands and knees and felt the wet grass immediately soak them.  The herd grazed around them a while and then one by one, they would circle in place and lay down into a tight ball.  As their body heat built, their musty scent filled the damp meadow.  Josh and his dad sat back and enjoyed the wonder of the dying meteor shower with the herd.