Living large for the 4th of July

Give the opportunity to have 3 plus days of nothing better to do than go exploring, you better bet I am packing the truck and heading north. Leah, Kona and I made our way towards Utah Thursday afternoon with very few plans other to explore, relax and fish.
Check, Check and Check!
We made a big circle through some awesome country. We revisited some old favorite places and explored several places that we will go back to see more of for sure. We even managed to rendezvous with some great friends while escaping the rain on the later part of the trip.
Here's to another great adventure and many more like it.
Enjoy.

Cool stuff over at ORGhunt.com

Some times you meet people and you cant quite make up your mind about them. Some times you meet someone and you instantly tell yourself, "this is a good guy". Craig Steele is the latter for sure! Craig runs a really cool media company based around passionate,wholesome and awesome hunting content. You may recognize some of his work with names like Outdoorsman's Resource Guide, CEI Outdoors and now ORGhunt.com.
He is one of those guys you can just get carried away for hours talking about hunting strategies and stories.  A few weeks ago Craig paid me a huge complement and asked me to be a contributor to his site. I was honored to be enlisted to a team of folks who really share the same passions as my family and I. I will continue to try and keep posts trickling in here on our blog, but I encourage anyone who loves reading about western hunting adventures to follow ORGhunt.com. You can also find Craig on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/ORGhunt or on Instagram @ORGhunt.

Catching up and looking forward

Keeping on top of relevant post, blogging and sharing the stories of all the adventures we go on is not my strong suite... Going on the adventures, now that is a different story! My last post was on the tip of the hunting season last fall; where did the rest of the fall, winter and now spring go? This was a question I had to think of for a while. I did not draw any tags in 2013, but that dang sure doesn't mean I didn't go hunting!

As a hunter, especially in a state where tags are largely based on luck of the draw, its easy to feel bummed out and defeated. Looking back at the last 6 years, I have had only three big game tags in Arizona and one in Utah (albeit they were pretty dang good tags!). Plenty of hunters would love to have been as fortunate as I have in drawing tags. But where I feel the most fortunate is when I look back at all the hunts I have gotten to go on. I love being the guy with the tag, but  also I love being the guy with out the tag. Some of the best memories I have, were on hunts were I was just there to help!

This last fall was one for the books. I got to go on a ton of great adventures with a ton of great people. I know I tend to dwell on this subject but I really feel passionate about the reason I love hunting. I love matching wits with the biggest oldest bull on the mountain but just as much, I love sharing that chase and adventures with people who matter to me.  Before I proceed with my next photo dump from the second part of the 2013 hunts I was on, I have a challenge for you all. Don't be the guy who sulks in your bonus point count but rather go out of your way to help a friend on a hunt. Make it your priority to go on that hunt. Its easy when you are the tag holder to take off work and put your life of hold. Try putting that same level of excitement in to someone ease's adventures. You won't regret it.

 Now here is a real challenge, get your mother in-law to try hunting!

Weston's first elk. We got the whole dang family down that canyon to help with the packout!

 This is what a man looks like after he has just found the ram he has been chasing his whole life.

Draw results are just around the corner for the 2014 elk and antelope season in Arizona. I'm not holding my breath for tags that I might (not) draw, but I am waiting for all the phone calls from really excited friends who drew the tag of their dreams.