Elmer Fudd Rides Again

I experienced a bit of an adventure last Friday. I rode 42 miles on a 4-wheeler (4-wheel-drive ATV) with my husband. True, I limped for a couple of days afterward (arthritis is not my friend) but it was a lot of fun and it provided an opportunity to take numerous shots with my camera. Those were the only shots fired that day, incidentally. ;)

My husband and his brother, Jeff, decided it would be fun to take their wives on a 4-wheeler ride. This was a thinly disguised hunting adventure. =) However, the only animals I spied that day were a moose and a squirrel. Moose and squirrel . . . hilarious, but only if you are a die hard Bullwinkle and Rocky fan. ;)

Here's the picture of the mommy moose and baby moose I captured with my trusty digital camera toward the end of our ride that day.


I didn't get a picture of the squirrel. He\she was bouncing from tree to tree much too fast for me to zoom in on. But I did get a great shot of a scene that makes me excited for Christmas. Along one hillside were all of these beautiful red berries.


Combined with the bright green pine trees and the snow in that high elevation, it made for a great Christmas card scene.


And here's a shot that shows just how much snow is up on top of the mountains these days. (Also the reason why we were all bundled up, looking like a character from the ever-popular movie, A Christmas Story.)


We stopped on top of one mountain to take some scenic shots of the valley below. Yep, we were in nosebleed territory, but it was beautiful.


By the way, I love the first picture featured on this post. My husband and his brother, Jeffy, as we call him, had decided to climb up even higher on a ridge. My s-i-l, Dannyel, and I gracefully bowed out of that adventure, deciding if they wanted to roll down the mountain, that was their choice. =D Fortunately, they climbed up safely and returned in one piece.

We did have one mishap about halfway through our adventure. Since good brother Jeff is much more familiar with the trails we were riding on that day, he and his wife, Dannyel, led the way. There were several other hunting parties out and about, and since my husband is a social butterfly, we stopped to visit with every one of them. ;) This meant we were usually a few minutes behind Jeff and Dannyel during a goodly portion of the jaunt. After Kennon had commiserated with a small group of hunters about the sad lack of bucks in the area, we headed down the nice dirt trail after his brother and his wife. As we came around a corner in the road, we saw a strange sight. Dannyel was lying face down on the road, and Jeff was reaching for his rifle. I wondered if this was a new hunting tactic: Dannyel was listening for deer while Jeff was getting ready for the kill.

We soon learned that Jeff had taken that corner a little fast, and had nearly tipped the 4-wheeler over. When it went up on two wheels, Dannyel had jumped to what she hoped was safety and had landed face down in the dirt. Jeff was reaching for his gun to make sure it had survived the topsy-turvy moment. It's nice to know these menfolk have their priorities in order. ;) Luckily, everyone survived with minimal damage and we were soon off again.

We paused on top of yet another ridge for a Kodak moment. This time Kennon and I posed in front of a beautiful mountain. Too bad my husband doesn't like to smile when his picture is taken. ;)


All in all, it was a fun day. Toward evening, when the temperatures really started to drop, we headed back to where we had parked the trucks. Just as they were in sight, Kennon stopped our 4-wheeler and reached for his binoculars. Excitedly he told me that he had finally spotted a deer. I hastened off the ATV and hurried into Jeff's truck to warm up with Dannyel as Jeff took my place on the back of our 4-wheeler. Off the two brothers went, hurrying up the hillside. It was all to no avail. They returned several minutes later with sad faces.

"It was a propeller-head," my husband explained. (This means it was a doe, a female deer. I recently learned that avid hunters call them names like propeller-heads, indicating the lack of horns---doe people just possess large ears. I'm sure this isn't their fault and names like this hurt their feelings, but I digress.)

By then, Dannyel and I had regained feeling in our feet and hands compliments of the nice heater in Jeffy's truck. This was good. ;) We quickly loaded up all of our gear into both trucks, and headed home. And I heard it exclaimed 'ere we drove out of sight:

"Nayner, nayner, nayner!" Indicating the bucks had won this particular round of hunting. ;)

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