A Successful Elk Hunting/Camping Trip

Tents zipping open. Container lids being popped opened and then closed as a camper searches for some missing item. These are the early morning sounds of our camp at 4:15 am.

Exciting news! The victory bugle (all the hunters sound the elk bugle when coming back to camp if they’ve been successful) was sounded early this opening morning and it was Serenity who tagged out!

Serenity with her guide and brother, Wesley.

Her other hunting buddies.

And now a few hours later we hear another victory bugle. It’s Justus! He was hunting with his daddy.

Two out of 5 hunters tagged out opening morning. Yea!

Hunting camp is for me a wonderful time to practice Dutch Oven cooking skills, be with friends, play games, and make more memories to add to the many we have collected over the last 24 years of hunting camps.

Sleeping in the wall tent is the absolute best. The chill in the air, dirt floors you don’t have to clean, a lantern and best of all, the wood burning stove!

Cinnamon Rolls in the Dutch Oven was a challenge today. The wood burns till there’s only ash left. We had this same problem last year – there weren’t a whole lot of coals. It seemed to take all morning to make the rolls but when they were finally done, they were delish!

It was quite funny. At one point there was so much noise, I felt like as if I was in a construction zone.

Russell was busy building something for the outhouse.

…someone else was trying a new idea for a fire built inside a log and using a chain saw to accomplish it (picture of it below)

… and yet another was busy picking out the ground where I was going to start a fire for my deep pit cooking…

Busy, busy. 🙂

Squirrel hunting is popular this year. I had some for the first time and it tasted just like chicken but there definitely is not a whole lot of meat on the bones.

Here’s the Swedish Fire Log. It took a while for the water to boil in the pot but it did eventually.

I am so happy that the deep pit cooking was successful once again this year. I was a little worried because I felt like we had started the fire too late and that there wouldn’t be enough coals but the meat turned out perfectly tender!

This picture is before we covered the foil packets with roaster pans, which were then covered over with dirt.

Thank goodness the menfolk like to test their muscles out in log splitting competitions. It is wonderful to have plenty of wood split and ready for the fire.

Today (Saturday) friends brought their horses for the kids to ride on. That was a big hit!

Even Zachary & Hannah went on a ride.

It’s Sunday morning and we all joined together for breakfast, as is the tradition.

…then it was time for our Church in the Wildwoods. We were all blessed by the preaching. The setting is simple but special in its simplicity. The sounds of the wind in the pines, the tent rippling with the breeze – we are struck anew at the awesomeness of our God.

Games are being played in abundance this year.

And believe it or not, there hasn’t been one Dutch Blitz game yet!

Tomahawk throwing has made an appearance this year, as well.

But all good things must come to an end and so we had to say goodbye to several on Sunday and then on Monday we waved off the rest of the group.

We were able to get a group shot of those who remained till Monday.

But then it was another goodbye.

We could have left, too, but surprise, surprise, Seth, who has been away for 2 months was going to arrive and we decided to camp 1 more night!

We are so very happy to see him!

We’re home, showered and smell fresh once again!  Everything is all packed up until next year when we head for the woods to make more memories and to keep our elk hunting tradition.

Oh yes, all 5 hunters got their game!

And if you really, really want to see more of our elk hunting/camping trip here is a little video I put together BUT it does start off with some of the young hunters eating raw liver. You may find that part extremely unappealing. 🙂