Ever since my husband and I returned from our Road Trip across the USA and Canada to Moose Hunt in British Columbia in 2013 (about which I blogged extensively:
https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2013/12/oh-canada-british-columbia-moose-madness.html is the post about my getting us our moose), we have been talking and dreaming about doing an elk hunt! That moose provided us with years of THE best meat I think I've ever eaten in my life; we both love elk, caribou, and other delicious game, and Dan, who hunted extensively in Alaska, Canada, Virginia, and other places, has been wanting to do an elk hunt for decades. Although our part of West Virginia, like many other places around the nation, was once Elk Country, (our inn, the Elkhorn Inn, is named for Elkhorn Creek, the great wild trout stream which runs behind our building, and the town of Elkhorn in 5 minutes down the road from us...), the elk population in our area became basically nonexistent many years ago. Elk have recently been re-introduced to West Virginia, but it will be many years before they are huntable again. Elk were successfully re-introduced into Kentucky, just across the border, however, and hunts there are now possible, and so every spring we have plunked down $20 for two elk tag raffle tickets from the
State of Kentucky Dept. of Fish & Wildlife: https://fw.ky.gov/Hunt/Pages/How-to-Enter-the-Kentucky-Elk-Hunt-Drawing.aspx, in the hope of winning at least one hunt there- and every year so far we've been disappointed. Elk hunts are usually wildly expensive, especially “bull” hunts for hunters who primarily want a “rack” for display- bull elk hunts are often in the $20,000 range and up! But we are not trophy hunters at all- we are meat hunters: we wanted to do a “fill the freezer” rifle elk hunt, and cow elk hunts are often much cheaper, as cows don't have a rack- and the meat is more tender, as well. As I learned from all my “Googling” and internet research (I now know enough about elk hunting to be seriously dangerous, LOL), elk hunting, which is often thought to be primarily in western states such as Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, and Colorado, can be done in many states (
https://metallens.com/elk-hunting-states/), but it isn't “just a hobby”, like, say, deer hunting- it's an absolute passion and an all-consuming lifestyle for many- especially bow hunters! There are many websites and forums devoted specifically to elk hunting, as well as numerous Facebook pages, YouTube videos, online courses, etc.
One great (and free) elk hunting course is available online on the Colorado Parks & Wildlife website: “Elk Hunting University”: https://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/EHU-CH2-L01.aspx Dan and I have also wanted to go to
Colorado for many years: Dan because he was stationed there while
serving in the US Army many years ago and wanted to return, and I, as
my grandfather, the fine artist, Yasha Rivkin, had painted a number
of beautiful paintings at The Garden of the Gods around 1900, making
it a place I have long wished to see in person:
And as we are both
“railfans” who love train travel, we also wanted to take at least
one of the many excursion trains Colorado has to offer, as well as
enjoy some of the state's many wineries, distilleries, and brew pubs,
and unique Colorado things, such as historic gold mines and hot
springs! And so, last year I began collecting tourism publications
on Colorado, and Googling, and signing up on Colorado tourism
websites, and joining blogs and forums, amassing quite the Colorado
Dream Trip File! But the COVID fiasco intervened, and resulted in the
cancellation of some of our travel plans, and Colorado got put on the
back burner... But then, in August, the possibility of a cow elk hunt
in Colorado in December materialized, AND our BFF agreed to stay at
our Inn and care for our pets while we were away, and it truly seemed
like all our Colorado and Elk Hunt stars were aligning... and so we
booked the “once in a lifetime” elk hunt we'd long dreamed of!
Oddly and interestingly, although COVID
wreaked havoc on our business this year, and forced us to cancel and
change many things, including travel plans, we had a wonderful
Caribbean cruise on NCL in January (my blog post on “railfanning”
the Caribbean:
https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/03/railfanning-caribbean-barbados-st-kitts.html)
prior to COVID, a great 9-night West Virginia Road Trip in July: (
https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-4-cass.html
is my 4
th post in this 5-part series), and this 3 week
hunting Road Trip out to Colorado in December-
so we actually
wound up traveling MORE this year than we ever have before! And
that was a great, good thing, too, as COVID restrictions forcing us
to to turn away guests at our Inn all year was absolutely
devastating, and the trips we were able to take truly helped us keep
our sanity!
After speaking with the elk hunt
outfitter and being assured that his cow elk hunts were “99%
successful”, and that a 3-day hunt was “more than sufficient”
for a successful hunt, (and also that the hunt would be largely done
by vehicle, as we're not kids, and hiking for 11 hours a day in the
wild isn't something we can- or want to- do, at this time in our
lives), I booked a 2-cow elk hunt for us for December 4-6, arriving
on Dec. 3, at a cost of just under $6000. Due to my young age, LOL
(I was born in 1959), I had to pay for, take, and pass a certified
Hunter Education Course in order to purchase a Colorado elk tag, and,
thanks to COVID, Colorado is now providing the course online. I took
it and passed it, and got my Orange Hunter Card! (Dan, born in 1946,
was exempt from that requirement). The course was actually quite
interesting, and although I have hunted, successfully, I learned a
lot of things! After I passed the course and got my certificate, the
outfitter then gave me the lot numbers for his land, and I was able
to buy us two cow elk tags from Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) for
$500 each.
Our original plan was to take Amtrak
from West Virginia to Colorado, which would have entailed a two-night
trip with a stop in Chicago. Although way more expensive than flying,
at over $2000.00 for two nights in a small “Roomette” that is so
tiny that Amtrak employees refer to it as “the coffin”, I thought
it would be romantic and fun to take the sleeper, and enjoy some
(hopefully) fine dining, as well as the glorious views along the way,
without the stress and aggravation of driving or flying... We thought
we'd rent a vehicle in Colorado, and then either ship the processed,
frozen elk meat from our hunt home and fly or take Amtrak back, or
buy a freezer in Colorado and drive the rental vehicle home. But
after 5 full days of trying to make a reservation with Amtrak, and
being given wrong information by every single Amtrak employee I spoke
to, we realized that Amtrak was, quite apparently and very
deliberately, making it absolutely impossible for hunters to take
their trains. The issue was our rifles, which we had to have for the
hunt, and while Amtrak states on their website that firearms can be
checked as baggage in locked, airline-approved cases (which are not
cheap, and which we bought, specifically for this trip), their
website gives no specifics; when you click the link for more
information nothing happens- it was clear that everything concerning
transporting firearms has been removed from the Amtrak website. Not
one Amtrak employee I spoke with over the course of 5 days, including
Supervisors and Mangers, could or would give me straight, factual
answers, or provide anything in writing stating the rules and
regulations that had to be followed to legally transport a firearm.
Instead, in addition to all the misinformation, I was finally told I
would have to drive 6 hours to an Amtrak station in northern
Virginia, where the firearm information was supposedly posted! After
5 days of calls, and being connected and rec-connected to an endless
number of Amtrak employees, all of whom gave me different and
conflicting information- and refused to provide anything in writing-
I gave up- literally in tears. I then contacted UPS and FEDEX, in the
hope that we could ship our rifles to Colorado, either to one of
their offices where we could pick them up, to the outfitter, or to a
hotel where we would be staying, but that turned out to be
impossible, as well. I then called the airlines, including Delta, and
got the same, loosey-goosey run-around, with no specifics (“contact
TSA” was their answer to everything I asked, and the TSA's website
information is loosey-goosey, as well), and nothing in writing or
online stating actual rules and regulations for legally transporting
a firearm. It became crystal clear that no one wanted our money or
our business, and that the only way we were going to get to Colorado
with our rifles and be able to hunt was if we drove our 230,000 mile
pick-up truck there and back. Which is what Dan wanted to do, anyway.
LOL(This was actually the same reason we
wound up doing a month-long Road Trip across the USA to B.C. Canada
to hunt in 2013, hauling a 7-foot freezer in the back of our pick-up
truck; that turned out to be the only way that we could take our
rifles, and definitely get the meat back home without it spoiling).
Dan likes to drive- thank goodness- and
we do enjoy Road Trips, which enable us to stop along the way to see
and do interesting things on the spur of the moment, but he was also
convinced that driving would be cheaper. Riiiiiight...
Once we had decided that we would be
doing a Road Trip to Colorado and back (and would be gone about 3
weeks), the next thing we had to do was buy a “camper top” for
our pick-up truck- which cost the same $2200.00 that Amtrak would
have charged us for a 2-night trip. LOL
Then Dan had to get the truck checked
out and serviced to make sure it would make the trip (and yes, we
have
AAA https://www.aaa.com/AAA_Travel/Travel/travel.htm- and wouldn't dream of driving anywhere without it), and we
had to buy a freezer for the elk meat we intended to bring home- and
in The Era Of COVID Shortages, that proved to be quite the challenge!
We spent several weeks- literally- trying to buy a freezer, both
online and at an assortment of brick-and-mortar stores, including
Walmart, Sam's Club, and Lowe's, as well as amazon, eBay, and others,
but no one had them in stock! Every time I had one in my online cart,
it would mysteriously vanish the second I pressed the “Buy It Now”
button and be “out of stock”! (There was one seller on amazon who
had a freezer for sale, but he was in the Ukraine, and we wouldn't
get it until Feb. 2021. LOL) We finally snagged a 7-cubic foot chest
freezer for $199.00 at a
Rural King https://www.ruralking.com/
in Wytheville, Virginia: while Dan waited in the parking lot of
the Bluefield, WV Rural King (where they didn't have one in stock), I
managed to buy one online from their Wytheville, VA store, after
which Dan immediately drove there and picked it up! Phew! (And YAY!
for Rural King!)
The next thing we had to do was buy a
number of things that the outfitter recommended, such as camo leg gaiters
(which we never used, LOL), rifle scope covers (which we had to ditch
as they kept falling off and getting in the way), a shooting stick
(which broke almost immediately, and which we thus didn't have, and
didn't need), Blaze Orange hats and vests, which are required in
order to rifle hunt elk in Colorado, and some new hunting duds,
including Glommets (glove/mittens), long underwear, socks (
Heat
Holders are wonderful!), a new pair of hunting boots for Dan,
targets for practice, eye protection and ear plugs, bullets for both
rifles, and Scent Killer wash and spray... I also bought us two "Ghillie" masks, figuring that if we were forced into wearing masks on this trip at least we'd have really cool (and hilarious) ones...
I indulged myself in a
Boonie Packer Safari Rifle Sling: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2262497974/ , a new pair of spiffy, pink camo sunglasses, and a camo headband, and an absolutely Adorable camo makeup palette that included 5 colors of tan, brown, black, and green AND a little mirror- so I could feel like a Huntress again, and do a “smoky eye” without having to smear my face with real dirt. LOL
My favorite stores for hunting supplies and gear are
Cabela's https://www.cabelas.com/, Midway https://www.midwayusa.com/, and
Wing Supply https://www.wingsupply.com/, but I often find what I want- especially when it comes to clothing and footwear- on sites like Cabela's first, and then try to score them for cheap on e
Bay http://www.ebay.com or Poshmark http://www.poshmark.com! :-) (That's how I got my lovely pair of Ugg booties for this trip, and Dan's Eddie Bauer flannel-lined jeans and flannel shirts...) I dug out our 2013 hunting clothes, including our camo bibs and jackets, my fur-lined “Elmer Fudd” hat, camo purse and heels, and wonderfully comfy Cabela's She hunting boots, and I found my Lucky Hunting Charm from the moose hunt: my “Hello Kitty with an AK” pendant:
The dining room table was now piled so high with Hunting Stuff that we could have opened a branch of Cabela's at the Elkhorn Inn! LOL
And then we had to practice target
shooting with our rifles, as we hadn't used them since the 2013 hunt!
As we live in the Extremely Rural
mountains of southern WV where there are no ranges, we did what we,
and everyone else around here, does, to practice target shooting:
drove up into the mountains, found a place in the middle of nowhere
with a good backstop, taped up our targets, paced back 200 yards, and
shot, standing, kneeling, or prone- after which I posted my good,
“center mass” targets (I had bought a couple of elk targets to
augment the standard, circle ones) on Facebook to impress my friends. LOL Yessiree, ma'am: after 18 years here, this NYC-born gal is now a Real West Virginian!
(Side note: When we arrived at the outfitter,
and asked to sight our rifles to make sure nothing had messed up in
transit, he took us to his “shooting table”, which was a table
with an attached bench and a gun rest, about 300 yards from a target.
I had No Clue how to shoot from a shooting table, having never done
so, and I squirmed about, trying to find a comfortable position from
which to shoot accurately, while the outfitter acted like there was
something wrong with me, and got a Very Concerned Look on his face. I
tried to explain to him that in the Army (I was a Sgt. In the IDF,
1984-1986) I always target shot prone, resting on sandbags, and at
the range or in the field, always standing up or kneeling, without a
gun rest or a shooting stick, and that I thus had no clue how to
shoot sitting at a table, but I don't think he believed me. LOL)
Then we had to pack- and I, as usual,
took WAY too many pairs of shoes. LOL Our bulky hunting gear filled
one entire suitcase, and we each had a suitcase of other clothes and
shoes, a giant bag of toiletries, and boots and coats! Dan was
actually concerned that, along with the freezer, we wouldn't be able
to get it all into the truck. LOL
And then I had to map out our road trip
to Colorado- which for me is The Fun Part!
Having both Hilton and IHG
hotel-branded credit cards had enabled us to accrue a lot of points,
and I used the IHG points, and points we had accrued on our Capital
One credit card, to book all six nights of our trip out to Colorado,
saving us well over $1000! We couldn't leave until Nov. 27, and had
to be at the outfitter near Meeker, Colorado on Dec. 3, so I planned
our six-night trip there using
mapquest http://www.mapquest.com,
as I usually do, with approx. 4 - 5 hours of driving each day,
basically taking I-70 due west. (Yes, you can do it a lot faster than
that, but that's no fun- especially as you get older- and we like to
be able to stop when we discover cool things along the way, such as
historic sites and museums, as well as wineries and distilleries, and
nice restaurants!) I only booked hotels for the 6 night trip out to
Colorado, as after the hunt there were things we wanted to see and do
in Colorado, such as take an excursion train, and go to the Garden of
the Gods, an historic gold mine, and the hot springs, and we didn't
know exactly how long it would take us to get home. On the way back,
I was able to use our Hilton Honors points to book hotels as we
needed them, using my iPhone.
:-) Packed up and ready to go, I went to
the salon (
Beauty Concepts in Bluefield, WV https://www.beautyconceptswv.com/ is my new favorite salon here) to have my
hair cut, and treated myself to a pedicure, and Dan went to the
barber. Thus made suitably Vacation Spiffy, we celebrated
Thanksgiving with our BFF and his son, and the next morning, with the
freezer, our rifles, and suitcases loaded on the truck (and yes,
everything fit, LOL), we kissed our dogs and kitty on their noses and
headed west!
Next: First stop: Kentucky and the
Distillery Trail!
Road Trip Tips:
Use your hotel point credit cards
to accrue points- and use them! Don't let them sit there until they
expire!! We are primarily loyal to Hilton properties (Hilton, Hilton
Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, etc.), and IHG (Holiday
Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Intercontinental, etc.) at this time, as
we have enjoyed many years of using their frequent guest programs
and credit cards for free hotel stays all over the world, as well as
throughout the USA, and have credit cards for both, which allow us
to accrue points even when we're not traveling. Hotel-branded credit
cards often give sign-up bonuses, too: the American Express Hilton
card gave us a sign up bonus of 100,000 Hilton Honors points, which
covered 5 nights of hotels rooms on this trip! We also used points
we had accrued on our Capital One credit card for two lodgings in
Colorado: a fine, “boutique” hotel in Denver, and a lovely B&B
in Grand Junction.
As you plan your trip (I use
http://www.mapquest.com, and I make an old fashioned "calendar chart" on paper with a pen, Luddite that I am),
look up the places where you will be stopping online, and do
internet searches for unique, independent lodgings, such as
bed-and-breakfasts, historic inns, hot spring hotels, etc., as well
as cool things to see and do. We stayed at two hot spring hotels in
Colorado, as well as a lovely B&B. TripAdvisor, airbnb, and many
other sites list unique lodgings. One of the sites I love to peruse
is “Roadside America”: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/
which has tons of cool, and “off-the-beaten-path” things to see
in every state! TripAdvisor and Yelp are great for finding
attractions and restaurants on the road. State and city tourism
websites are excellent sources, as well, and many states have
winery, brewery, and distillery websites (Distillery Trail is a good
one, too: https://www.distillerytrail.com/)
and maps, as well as special pages and sites for music, the arts,
outdoor activities, history, etc. Researching your trip takes time,
but this really is The Fun Part- you basically start enjoying your
trip the minute you start planning it!
Have TWO map apps on your cell
phone. One for the route to where you are headed that day (such as
your lodging), and one to find cool stuff along the way, such as
historic sites, museums, wineries, distilleries, breweries and great
restaurants! While Dan drives, I “ride shotgun” and hunt for
cool things to see and do on my iPhone!
Take “old-school” paper maps
of where you will be going, and paper copies of all your
hotel reservation confirmations, etc. Do this even if you have
“everything” on your cellphone. You WILL find yourself in places
with no cell phone reception and no internet access. Trust me!
Take a notebook or a journal, and
a pen. Trust me!
Have at least $200 in cash, as
well as credit cards. While paying by credit card is often the best
bet, there are times when it isn't, or isn't even possible, and you
will want and need cash for tolls, tips, parking meters, and other
things. Trust me!
Get AAA coverage for your vehicle,
(this is non-negotiable as far as we are concerned), and then get
the free AAA Guide Books for all the states you will be traveling
through. They have great information, list excellent restaurants,
and provide hotel ratings and details, such as if the hotel has an
electric outlet for plugging in a freezer... something that even
hotel staff don't often know! The AAA books were absolutely
indispensable for our Canadian Road Trip, as our GPS surprised us
and didn't work in Canada! Many hotels and attractions also give
discounts for AAA members, as well. Whenever we pay for something I
always as if they have a discount for seniors, military, or AAA
members- and most do!
In addition to your toiletries,
vitamins, medications, etc., buy, and take with you, every OTC (over
the counter) medication you think you Might possibly want or need,
such as Pepto-Bismol, Imodium, Senokot, Advil, Benadryl, iodine,
tea tree oil, etc., as well as bandages, duct tape (a MUST for any
road trip!), a sewing kit, etc. That way you won't need any of it.
:-)
Given the COVID situation and the
constantly changing rules and regulations, openings, and closings,
CALL every place you want to go, and speak to a Real Person before
you book! Do NOT rely on website information, as many websites are
not being kept updated, and the information on them is often
inaccurate.
My best Travel Beauty Tip is to
use the sugar packets you will find everywhere in lieu of sugar
scrub! Sugar is an excellent and gentle exfoliator, and it's one
less thing to pack!
Buy things you can eat and drink as souvenirs to take home. That way you can extend the fun of your trip by eating and drinking them, remembering all the cool stuff you did while gaining weight. LOL Wine from wineries, booze from distilleries, local honey, oils, hot sauces, condiments, candies... you get the idea! My other favorite souvenirs are books, and locally made art and crafts, especially by artists and craftspeople we meet and get to know...
Yes, you can do a road trip wearing a pair of sweatpants, a fleece, and booties every day, but that's no fun! Take (and wear) the nice clothes you rarely get to wear, and makeup, and have some fun dressing up for dinner- and reminding each other of why you fell for each other in the first place! :-)
Once you get home, take the time
to review all the wonderful places you've been, and all the great
things you've done, eaten, drank, or seen on TripAdvisor, Yelp, and
other review sites. As we know, having an historic inn in West
Virginia for 18 years, great reviews can truly help businesses,
especially small businesses, many of which are
literally struggling now simply to keep their doors open. Do NOT
bother to review places you didn't enjoy. Let it go! If we
have a problem somewhere, we take it up with the manager or owner of
the property right then and there, and almost always get
it resolved. If not, when we get home I contact the owner in
writing, and again, almost always get the issue resolved. For that
reason, I have well over 100 reviews on Trip Advisor and they are
all 4 and 5-star ones, with photos, to prove we really did
the things we reviewed!
Travel with an open mind and as
few preconceived notions as possible, remain flexible and
optimistic, don't live in fear or sweat the small stuff, and- most
importantly- HAVE FUN! Once you hit 50, almost everything you do
seems like a “bucket list” event, so we try to glean as much fun and joy as possible from all our trips!
What are your best Road Trip Tips?
Tell me in the comments so we'll know for next time! :-)
I indulged myself in a Boonie Packer Safari Rifle Sling: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2262497974/ , a new pair of spiffy, pink camo sunglasses, and a camo headband, and an absolutely Adorable camo makeup palette that included 5 colors of tan, brown, black, and green AND a little mirror- so I could feel like a Huntress again, and do a “smoky eye” without having to smear my face with real dirt. LOL 
And then we had to practice target
shooting with our rifles, as we hadn't used them since the 2013 hunt! 
