The adventure of the year had begun and we found ourselves traveling toward southwest Colorado near the Four Corners which was near New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and our target of San Miguel County, Colorado.

We were nearing the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass which was 11,312 feet above sea level and stretched 3,100 miles. Fortunately for us, we did not need the tire chains for this hunting trip but we were prepared for any weather conditions. Skies were blue and the forecast was sunny on this date.

We arrived in Gunnison, Colo., and closed roads made us look for lodging and a hot meal before meeting our group the next afternoon. We would be meeting at a rifle range to make last-minute adjustments if necessary for our hunting rifles.

To my surprise, I found fellow Pennsylvanians at camp and three were from the southern Butler County area. Jim McAtee and Scott Zahran hailed from Renfrew and their buddy Daniel Berman was from West Deer Township in Allegheny County. The connection with Butler County and being Steeler fans paid off big later on in camp as we cheered them on to an OT win!

A near disaster happened as we settled into our camp. Dan Berman was being buzzed by yellow jackets and one went near his ear, in self defense he slapped at it and flung off his hearing aid into the gravel parking area.

Good news … we knew it was nearby, bad news …it was the same color of thousands of rocks. We searched the area for an hour to no avail and then the camp helper, Tara Alexander, came down to look.

She claimed that we looked for stuff like typical men … not very well. She proceeded to have Dan search his clothes, hair and boots. He claimed no luck in the search, but Jim McAtee looked over his attire and lo and behold, the hearing aid was tangled into his boot laces! I claimed good Karma for Jim and that he would have good luck befall him.

Jim had hunted at the same camp a year before and the same three amigos came out to hunt. Scott and Dan were successful, but not Jim. I told him that this was about to change and made the call.

Jim was set to hunt an area that was called the honey hole for being such a good location. He was a good shot and there were some long shots to be made. Later in the evening, Jim was on stand waiting for a bull elk and a nice 6x5 sauntered into range at 215 yards.

Jim was very confident and made a clean shot, dropping the first elk for the Renfrew Crew and the Butler County contingent.

In the meantime, my brother Jimbo was having the time of his life seeing many elk and mule deer. All I was seeing were black bears and some great bird life. Mountain blue birds, ravens and Black- billed Magpies and a Golden Eagle kept my interest.

Jimbo ended up dropping a decent 5x4 bull along with a fellow from Texas, who bagged a nice 6x7 bull on the same evening. I was considering my options of a cow or bull as the week ticked by

My guide in camp was another Pennsylvanian transplant from Brookville, Jake Kepler, who also was a trout fishing guide on the Gunnison River. We decided that we would try a new area called the Lost Water Hole that butted up against a pine forest and was located in a transition area of aspens, sage brush and a small water hole.

The wind was causing us havoc as a front was moving in and no wildlife was moving, we decided that the bowl area was a good choice as it was calmer cover.

We arrived at our blind and immediately started to glass the area and mark distances in our mind just in case a bull gave us a chance. My range finder was kept busy as I looked at likely spots that an elk might appear.

My closest shot was about 150 yards and stretched out to 450 yards. I was using Beaver Boys’ Fierce rifle in the 300 win.mag and I was very confident in the rifle’s accuracy. Suddenly, a bull elk stepped out of the tree line and I waited for it to clearly show itself. The range was 350 yards and the animal looked huge in the scope to me.

I took a few seconds to breathe in and hold onto my aim point and then squeezed off the shot … it was true.

Jake slapped my shoulder and said “You have harvested a Colorado bull - PA boy.” We went down to the bull and it was a 6x5 600-pound animal.

I guess you never know if you are going to have a trick or a treat when you are on an elk hunt. The elk that I harvested wasn’t the last elk in camp that week, Daniel Berman and Scott Zahran both took bulls on the last day with Scott shooting a dandy 6x6.

All I can say is that Butler County represented itself very well on this hunt in Colorado.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle