We got back to the truck had a quick sandwich and some of the best ice water we had ever drank in our lives.
I put the meat in the ice chest.
We donned the backpack & headed back up the mountain.
I finished the field butchering and filled the packs.
We would have one big final load in the morning.
Exhausted we got under the packs and left the mountain as darkness fell over my son's glorious day.
This is what it's all about....



We reach the bottom of the canyon as darkness fully engulfs us.
As we march along the faintly visible trail a bull blasts off a bugle in our faces not a hundred yards away.

At last we reached the truck, I tell my young man that he had just done something that not many others could and that something this good shouldn't be easy.
He had earned every ounce of this hunt.
Anyone that has backpacked a bull out of the mountains knows what I mean.
It was the way a youth hunt should be, just him & his dad.
Simply awesome.
We awoke the next morning and had a nice breakfast.
Just before leaving for the final load, a truck rolls into camp.
The driver gets out and asks "you guys seen a pistol lying around here?"
Apparently it had fallen off of his belt in the dark.
It felt really good to help out a fellow hunter, he was gracious and very thankful.

Our long drive home was filled with the gratification that comes through hard work.

It was......the best ever.