Alan Gingerich with his horses,
headed into the high country where the elk are waiting..



Astride Ol' Tom, this was Dablemont's first real experience with horses.
 Tom did a good job of staying under his rider.


Two views of our hunting camp high in the mountains. When you travel far, you travel light.
Camp is a bit more primitive. Trail mix and jerky make for a poor breakfast,
and Rocky mountain leaf litter makes a passable but not comfortable bed.




Mountain man and leader of our two man expedition,
Alan Gingerich with his bull elk taken shortly after our outdoor writer Dablemont
bagged his first bull ever.
For Gingerich, this is one of many in 25 years of
hunting in the mountains of 5 different states.




In mid-October the Rocky Mountains are bathed in the yellow and green of Douglas fir
and autumn aspen.
We traveled by horseback into the mountains about 8 miles to 11,000 feet,
where there were no trails but those made by the elk.



Finally, the columnist has become what folks always accused him of being...
a bull-shooter. This was a 5 by 5, 650 to 700 pound bull,
about 3 and 1/2 years old.



 

 

Fiona Ward, website co-ordinator and top-notch, high-up executive of Lightnin' Ridge Publications,
recently landed this 17 pound striper and 8 other stripers and hybrids on Norfolk Lake while fishing with Larry Dablemont
and fishing guide Tom Reynolds.
 Fishermen who would like to try their hand at striper fishing with
 Reynolds may contact him at www.stroutfitters.com, or call him at 877-246-4896.

 

 

 

We found this beautifully colored passion flower in mid-summer,
 being pollinated by a bumblebee deep in the Ozarks woodland.



This 13 month old buck, named Thunder because he and his sister, Lightning, were born in a storm,
are fed and watched over by Rich Jahrling of Bull Shoals lake.
Rich points out that the yearling buck has a fairly respectable 6 point set of antlers,
which debunks the theory that yearlings always sport spikes or forkhorns.
Rich says that he has not tamed the deer,
but they feed on corn he puts out and have become fairly accustomed to his presence.

 We received this picture of the Chuck-Will's Widow, closely related to the Whipoorwill,
 from Wayne Hill of Mountain Home, AR.
He relates: "We took this a couple weeks ago in Boswell, AR on the White River.
The bird would not move!
My five year old wanted to go back everyday and check on it.
 The second day we found out why she wouldn't move when
two young ones popped out from underneath her!"