Vai Sikahema on Missions

If you haven't read former BYU and Philadelphia Eagles football player, Vai Sikahema, and his recent series of posts on missionary service, you need to. Powerful and totally enjoyable in light of the sport he played. You have to read these....good stuff.

Missions and Football Part I

Missions and Football Part II

Missions and Football Part III

Missions and Football Part IV

Missions and Football Part V

Missions and Football Part VI

Elk Camp 2010

Dad, Dave, and I set up elk camp high atop the Manti-La Sal mountain range above Mayfield, Utah this year. We camped in Dave's trailer at 10,000 feet at Twelve Mile Flat and hunted along the logging roads and canyons in the high country for 5 days. It was awesome! We were in elk herds every day, and we had opportunities at spikes almost daily. We still-hunted pine and aspen forests, climbed high peaks, and walked ridgelines and mountain meadows, all while enjoying each other's company and working hard together to connect on a spike elk. On Friday morning, the fourth day, Dave finally connected for us as we moved in on a herd, and he had a spike elk run right at him - he shot it from 30 yards. W

e quartered the animal, de-boned the meat, and packed it out through a high meadow to a logging road. The weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful time being together as family in some of the most beautiful country on earth!

This is how you look for elk.

Dave, Joe, and Dad with the one elk we downed. Dave shot him from 30 yards after we closed in.

Dave, Dad, and Joe.
My weapon of choice - a Remington .30-06 Model 700 with Leupold scope.
Lying back on a peak looking for elk in the evening after hiking in on a ridgeline in the afternoon.
Dave and Dad toward the end of the day ready to head back to camp. We cooked our dinners over a campfire, grilling chicken and steak over pine logs.
One of the basins we hunted all week. The elk bed it the north facing pines and feed in the open meadows early and late in the day with some movement during the mid-day.
A ridgeline we hunted. The elk bedded in the north facing forest on the left. Heavy game trails run all through the forest.
Dave shot his elk in the meadows below.
Dad and his woolen hunting trowsers - "The perfect hunting pants," he says.
Good times!