Looking for Love

Yes, my short out-of-town weekend was spent in Elk County, Pa. I've been going up here camping since 1992 and unfortunately I haven't been up enough these last few years. But going up later in the summer or early fall is by far the best time to be in Elk Country. Labor Day weekend brings out the lovers in the elk world, it also bring out too damn many people. Rude people. Prime elk viewing time in the evening will leave you following the crowds, people parking on the road to run back behind some one's house to take a picture with their disposable camera. Evenings for me, on weekends such as this, I can be found in a lawn chair by the fire enjoying a cold Straub. Saturday evening, from fire side, we watched the crowds form so we walked over to see what the fuss was. The fuss was this guy keeping track of his girls. Three cows and three calves and lover boy here. This is the time of year they call the pre-rut or early rut which basically means the bulls are looking for love but the cows ain't. He followed them around but each sniff left him singing the blues. As dark settled and the crowds were dispersed by the State Cops ("You have thirty seconds to clear out or I'm writing tickets") this old boy continued to bugle into the night. What an awesome sound. Next morning I saw him mixing it up with a raghorn. It was still fairly dark and foggy and right in front of someone's house, I left the camera on my lap.