Things That Don’t Go Bump In The Night
by: Gary Sorenson
For a guy who hated the dark when he was youngster, I have strangely come to enjoy my sashays in the back side of a day. I think it began with laying out over night while hunting that I got to enjoying the stars, the moon and how it lights up and produces shadows on the hills, and all the night sounds that go with it. It is all rather fascinating. Where we hunt now, many times it takes an hour or two of hiking before light to get where we hunt. This would be agonizing if you didn’t enjoy that time of day to some extent. You get to recognize the sounds of different animals and birds as they move away from your path and unfortunately some are of the kind you have come to hunt, but you’ve busted them out ahead of the daylight. Then there is the quiet ones.
It’s bad enough when you kick out a grouse from under your feet in the daylight, but in the dark it can cause the spring in your adrenaline meter to come totally unraveled. They really need to put a warning light on those critters and I’m sure there will be a whole lot less heart attaches in the woods.
About three weeks ago Sue and I were making our morning pilgrimage into Bear canyon when my head lamp picked up a crooked stick in the trail, of which I thought nothing of until I was about six feet from it and it began moving. He didn’t rattle or make any noise. He was just slowly making his way across the trail. I believe in prevention, so to prevent him from sinking his fangs in me next time when I didn’t see him, I started looking for a rock. Beings I couldn’t find one handy I looked back at the snake to find he had made a half moon turn and now was only a couple feet from us. Playing Russian Roulette with a snake in the dark isn’t my description of fun so we continued on and hoped we’d meet again some day in the light.
One of the strangest things happened the other night while Sue and I were sleeping out in elk country as we wanted to be close to where we were going to hunt in the morning. There was absolutely no moon and even the shrubbery around us was dark so we weren’t picking up any reflections from the stars which made it dark dark. I slept pretty good, but about 4:45 I was awakened by a sound kind of like a goose in distress at around 50 yards away. I had no idea what it was but shortly after an owl started hooting right near it and it calmed right down. So I’m assuming it was a juvenile owl which hadn’t learned to give a hoot yet. Sue and I had finished chuckling about it and were going to catch a couple more winks of sleep when off to our right we could hear something coming and the first sounds were like something panting. Sue sits straight up in her bag and says – “Whats that? -It’s panting! –Is it a dog? —A coyote? —-A wolf?” I got to admire her as her imagination is fast, and here I am still trying to get a handle on what I’m hearing. By this time I could hear hoofs hitting stones and then they were jumping the fence 15 yards from our sleeping bags and passing us by on both sides and it was so dark we never saw a whisker of movement anywhere. After I clued Sue in that we had just about got run over by a herd of elk, we heard one more coming. Only it was slower, bigger bodied and more deliberate in his running. I can’t be sure but it sure sounded like the bull I was after. I had him at 15 yards and couldn’t even see him. By this time our sleep was done so we got up, ate our breakfast bar and headed out to where we were going to hunt knowing full well the elk weren’t there as the last we heard they were heading northwest. Later when we got back to camp we found tracks as close as 10 yards from our bags.
On our way home I found myself humming a little tune that I thought I might have to sing to the grand kids. The title goes something like this, “Grandma got run over by an Elk herd!” Now that I got the title, I just need some verses to go with it.
To some, antlers are success. To some, meat is success. To others, fun is success and I’ve had way more fun then I deserve. As greedy as I am I’ll go for all three but if things don’t work out I can always have fun.
Tags: breakfast bars, elk, grouse, Hunting, nights in the outdoors, outdoors, sleeping bags, snakes
5 Responses to “Things That Don’t Go Bump In The Night”
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That was a very interesting read.
There are a lot of things that go bump in the night for sure. I don’t usually scare easy but I will say I have had the hairs raise up on the back of my neck a few times.
I’m glad all of those Elk missed you guys in your tent; that could’ve been bad.
Having fun is definitely what it’s all about.
Great story Gary. My imagination is right there with Sue’s . I walk in in the dark for about an hour or so. Doing my best to not scare myself with what I hear but can’t see. I agree that those Grouse ought to have warning lights on them too. Been groused numerous times this season. Missed a buck 3 years ago because of a Grouse. Coronary wildlife at its finest.
Glad Mr. Rattler left you alone, not partial to them. Sounds like a great trip into elk country and perhaps no meat this time, but what great experiences and memories you have.
Being out in the dark isn’t my favorite thing to do by a long shot… being that close to the elk you wanted and not being able to shoot them – now that would be tough, but at least it sounds like you’ve got a good start on a song about it!
Seems like my most poignant memories are those horseback rides before daylight. a simple 8″ tree down across a trail feels like a redwood when your horse jumps it unexpectedly in the dark.
Now with the addition of Griz to the equation in parts of the west, things that go bump in the night have the ability to keep even an exhausted elk hunter awake.