The past week

Well, I dropped my boat off at Wiegel Brothers for yearly maintenance as I headed back home to Virginia (Appalachia territory) for a few days. We jumped on some big ATV’s and checked out the Hatfield/McCoy trailhead connector construction along the VA/KY line before stopping at a popular elk gathering spot. The elk were still down in the cooler hollers waiting for evening.

The amount of time/money Virginia has spent on both the Trailhead and the elk herd restoration is really paying off. Growing up in the “coal belt”, we never saw ANY wildlife except a few squirrels due to the noise and pollution associated with the billion dollar coal mining industry. We could only catch catfish and carp in the local rivers with the occasional “red-eye” (rock bass) hitting the bank. The first deer I ever saw was in 8th grade and had to drive 2.5 hours away to hunt them! Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be seeing bear, turkey, whitetail and elk in my county…………35 years later. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation comes to my county to help the local land owners plant the correct food plots on the old strip-mine “benches” left behind from the mountain-top mining techniques. Last year, Virginia opened up a nation-wide Elk tag lottery and 5 lucky folks got to come to Buchanan County, Virginia and shoot the first elk in several decades. One of the 5 hunters came from New Mexico and got the award for the furthest distance traveled. Pretty awesome stuff!

I drove back North to Franklin yesterday, picked up my boat and landed in Warren last evening. It was a very cool few days.:)