Hunting season

I've been here a couple of years now, so I've gotten to see the whole cycle of hunters and RV people (often the same) coming up on certain cold fall weekends, and going home either with deer, with elk, or without. Some, I think, come up for turkeys or maybe even other things, but I don't see that clearly into what they're hauling out, unless they've strapped it to the back of their pickup trucks and the antlers are sticking out.

We in the mountains object when they just cut the antlers off or just cut the whole head off, and leave the rest for nature to pick clean, but that doesn't happen all that often. Mostly they seem to be polite and respectful to our ways and I would have to guess that if they haul a buck off on the back of their truck, somehow they've paid the state for the hunting permit that made that possible, and the state obliged them by allowing it all the while keeping their own eye on it. What I'm saying is that the majority of what I see appears to be legally obtained, all more or less above-board, and it doesn't seem to be endangering any of the species involved, or I think some of the locals would be bothered about that. I used to notice that lots of the larger deer and elk would simply go to town during the peak of the hunting season, knowing that the village itself is probably the safest place for them, but I think it's more accurate to say they know about the hunters and their schedules, they avoid any place with human contact at all during that time, and we are not as likely to see them as usual.

Another crowd that comes up here in this time is the Christmas-tree-foragers, who pay a fee to the National Forest and then just cut and take whatever tree they want - usually they trudge into the forest for a ways, as opposed to taking something out by the road which I think the Forest Service has asked them not to do. We see more trees on trucks this time of year than deer or elk - it's easier to catch a tree, which after all can't run away - and you're more likely to come home with a successful haul to unload when you get there.

So actually I'm all in favor of these things, though I know hunters in particular have their detractors. To me it's ok to have a small group of people maintain the skills and practices of using nature to feed themselves. against all odds, even though it requires carrying around all these firearms which I know can be dangerous in the wrong hands. I'm a little quesy myself in the presence of blood and guts and a sharp knife and a big mess, but I still respect them for the ability to do it and wouldn't want them to have to stop just because some people aren't comfortable with the killing of animals. We humans were born with two very sharp teeth and to me that means we were probably made to eat some red meat every once in a while, although nothing in my natural instincts seems to say anything about guns except to avoid them in the hands of angry people at all costs.

The RV's sometimes just park in the middle of the forest, but on the forest road, and I recognize that they are hopefully carrying out everything they brought in, including their own poop and garbage, as we have literally no services there in the middle of the forest. Sometimes these guys sleep in the RV's during the days, so they can go out into the forest in the middle of the night, but if they are bringing back carcasses with them, I am rarely seeing it, and I'm often wondering how you'd handle that with just an RV, and all that blood and guts all over the place. But that's their problem, and my guess is they'd have to be pretty comfortable with blood and guts before they'd even try such a venture anyway. I sometimes wonder if some of these RV people aren't just trying to get away from it all, get away from the city, get out and be left totally alone, and don't really want to hunt at all. But what do I know - I leave them alone, no matter what, just drive by, and though I can sometimes see whether they have guns and are wearing camo. (most often yes & yes), other times, I only see the RV, and don't know anything about it. Sometimes you'll come up behind someone, and they're driving really slowly, and they're driving in the middle of the road, looking both ways all the time and trying to keep from driving right off the side of the road, and often they don't even see I'm there, and don't know to pull over and simply let me pass, since, if they don't, I'm kind of stuck. For a few moments there we share the road in the middle of the national forest, but the animals themselves are long gone, knowing full well what's up, and the scenery is nothing I haven't seen a million times in the last year. Pines and more pines, and the possibility of other critters, if you hang around long enough.