Greg Tollefson

As hunting season nears, fall rituals get under way
Hunting season is in the air.

Mornings are cooler in September. The air seems purer. Blue skies appear to be just a little bit more blue. Distant mountain peaks have a crisp sparkle to them.
Young Natty Bumppo is getting himself in the right frame of mind for archery season with a week of eating nothing but food that he has either grown or killed himself. Lunch on Monday consisted of potatoes from his garden and one of the last elk steaks remaining in his freezer from last season.

“Without thinking about it, I threw in an orange. But I can’t eat it if I’m going to stick to my plan,” Natty grinned.
I guess you could view it as a purification ritual.

One day soon, cleansed and ready, Natty will greet a September dawn in his secret elk spot, miles from a road and high on a tangled mountainside.

By the way, Natty did tell me that he had to make two exceptions to his dietary scheme – coffee and olive oil. He also confided that he has discovered he can eat an entire squash and still feel hungry.

The Dude is having a hard time concentrating this week. He’s scheming about getting out with his dog Mono to find a ruffed grouse. The Dude is not an archer, so his elk hunting will have to wait until later, even though the supply of elk steaks in his freezer is also nearly gone.

“I want to use up all the elk before rifle season. I like to start with a clean slate,” he told me.
Meanwhile, he can’t resist the urge to get out there into the hills.

Erwin reported spending the last few days getting organized for his annual trip with Sleepy over to the east side of the mountains. The two of them always make an early season trek out onto the plains for sharp-tailed grouse. Erwin thrives on tradition and predictability, so that trip is necessary for his hunting season to get off to a good start.

One day last week over a piece of Sparky’s delicious huckleberry cobbler, he and I agreed that we need to get out in the hills to do a little hiking and maybe size up our elk prospects for later in the season. We do this every year. I mean we talk about getting out together before the general hunting season to do some homework and tune ourselves up a little bit. Those plans don’t always make it past the “we ought to” stage. But at least we have good intentions.All across Montana, folks who cherish the opportunity to head for the hills or the wide-open plains in search of game, whether feathered or furred, are feeling the call of the hunt. For many, the tradition of the hunt is a time to replenish the spirit, as well as the larder.

Here in Montana, despite the ruckus about wolves and ongoing concerns about changing trends in access to private lands, we hunters enjoy unparalleled opportunities to hunt abundant populations of big game, waterfowl, and upland birds. And the public lands where we all have permission to hunt are some of the most beautiful and rich in wildlife habitat anywhere. The seasons stretch from the beginning of September to December, and sometimes extend even beyond that. Even then, the weeks and months that yawn before us now will pass all too quickly.

One could say that when it comes to hunting, we Montanans are blessed with an embarrassment of riches.
With hunting season in the air, there is no better place to be.

Greg Tollefson is a freelance Missoula writer. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .