Emily 2.0

For years, I’ve been the lucky man that is by Emily’s side. Being her man is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and for those that know her, I’m sure would agree.

When it comes to hunting with Emily, she’s always been a willing participant. Fo years, following behind me as we hike, waiting for me to glass up an animal. Once she kills an animal, she’d take pictures while I butchered the animal and I packed it out.

It worked. We have some many memories hunting together, and they are some of my most core memories. But something has happened to Emily. In the past year, Emily has flipped a switch. Her walk speed is a little faster, she gets behind the binoculars now and is finding her own animals.  She is more mentally invested in the hunt, and wait for it…wait for it….she likes to field process the carcass.

Yes, the new 2.0 version of Emily the huntress, is a bad ass. This year, she decided elk was what she wanted to hunt and we were all in. The hours she put in sitting/hiking in late-season conditions, with frigid winds that take the hat right off your head and sucks the warmth from your chest, with zero complaint. Don’t get me wrong, she still loves a quick cat nap when the warmth of the sun kisses your cheeks, but truly, she has stepped up her hunting game by a lot, and it’s been fun to watch.

Her elk hunt was nothing short of amazing. From passing on bulls most people only dream of tagging, to racing towards bulls and having to cross a willow-choked creek where we had just seen a big boar grizzly (Emily’s nightmare), to the heartache of missing a chance at a dream bull.

In the end, she settled on a beautiful bull, smaller than several she passed earlier, but she rolled the dice. She put the effort in, and the harvest was picture perfect. She laid prone, with seconds to spare, and put a perfect 600 yard shot on the bull. He tipped over on an open hillside, just 600 yards from where we could get the machine.

This was her first elk that she has killed in the morning hours. She typically kills in the evening, which adds a different level of rush and anxiety in grizz country. She definitely prefers the morning elk and we had the rest of the day to take care of the elk and haul it out…just Emily and I. We stopped several times through the day and verbally acknowledged how special that moment was.