Boy's hunting trip (by Ben)

Well, It was September 2012, and James was finally old enough to learn what it was like to go hunting. Being 9, I knew that he would have the stamina to some real hunting, and I had not done quite enough scouting this year (scouting = looking for good places to find elk before hunting season starts) to know right where to go. So I decided that James and I could do some scouting together.

Hunting season (bow elk) starts on Saturday, so we went out to the coast on Friday afternoon to get a taste of the wild. We tramped around some woods, and checked a few trail cameras I had set out, which turned out to have taken no pictures. Bummer. Anyway, we got to see lots of beautiful wilderness and practice walking quietly in the woods. Here's James walking alongside a creek just off the Humbug Refuge near Elsie, OR. 

After an afternoon of scouting around, we decided to have some dinner on the beach. We drove to Seaside, and James got to pick Dinner. Of course he picked his favorite foods: Steak, Cheetos and root beer. We built a fire from driftwood, and got warmed up.

We got to enjoy a beautiful sunset with warmer than expected weather. The fire was just the right size to keep us warm.

James ate about half the bag of cheetos before we could get the steaks ready. 

Instead of using a grill, we just skewered the steaks onto some marshmallow roasters and cooked them alongside the fire. It was ingenious, and delicious. James finished his whole steak and asked for some of mine. the steaks were perfectly seasoned with some montreal steak seasoning and I had to decline his request.

We slept in a tent under the stars just off the road a ways, and got up before sunrise. It was too hard to get pictures in the dark, but James was eager. We walked for miles up several different forest roads that branched directly off Highway 26. Most of them were grown over with several feet of weeds. It was pretty readily evident that there weren't many elk in the area. No scat, no bugling, no rubs, no sign. There were alos lots of spider webs crossing all the roads we walked down so I knew there hadn't been game in a day or two. James had a new camo outfit, but I left an orange hat on him for safety, even though it was bow season, and most bow hunters won't shoot from more than 50 yards. It is pretty easy to tell the difference between a bow and an elk from that far, but I wasn't taking any chances.

James was very excited to be out int he big outdoors. But, he did get tired. After walking, backtracking to the car, and then driving to another forest road to repeat the process for about 5 hours, he was tuckered out and politely asked for no more walking. He was very excited to find a shed deer antler that I had stepped right over without noticing. He's got eagle eyes. It was mossy, having been on the ground for a few years. He thought it was a great memento.

We decided to head back to seaside to get some treats and explore some more. We had lunch at the Pig and Pancake (a family tradition), and then bought some ice cream and walked around town. We checked out the Shark exhibit just by the beach at Seaside (which was a bunch of pictures of sharks and a few models.)

  

James like to pretend that he was beating up the sharks.

Except this great white looks like it won their battle.

 

An uppercut to a hammerhead.

 

James seemed to think this one looked friendly and deserved to be pet.

 

All in all, I was proud of James for being so tough and walking as long as he did. Just a few more years of training and he'll have the skills he needs to go on a hunt of his own, instead of just tagging along with me. Heck a few more years, and I probably won't be able to keep up with him.