Last weeks of Summer has me ready to hunt

It seems summer only just arrived and it’s almost time to start hunting again.

I was fully in summer mode -- fish, garden, and keeping the house cool upmost in my mind -- when I checked the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks website this morning. I had applied for a number of special permits over the last couple of months and wanted to see if I’d drawn any of them. It turned out I was unsuccessful in my attempt to draw a sheep tag, but the drawings for elk and antelope tags are still pending.

That was all it took to change gears.

Although I’ve got a fishing trip planned for tomorrow and a bumper crop of tomatoes, corn and beans coming on in the garden, all I could think about was hunting.

I haven’t hunted since the first of January. It’s been a long wait. It always is.

For the first few months after the season closes I look forward to fishing and the return of warm weather. In the spring I plant the garden, put the snowblower away and check to see if the lawn mower still starts.

Then all of a sudden the Fourth of July has come and gone, the Yellowstone River turns green again and it’s nearly time to start packing a shotgun and chasing the dogs.

Summer is fleeting. There are only six weeks left, much yet to do, and much that just won’t happen this summer. I doubt I’ll get back to Flathead Lake, cross the Beartooth Highway or go crappie fishing on the Tongue River Reservoir. I’m not going to have time to float the Big Hole, fish the Missouri or put up a new fence around the garden.

And I’m OK with that. In less than two months I’ll be hunting grouse on the prairie and in the mountains. With a bit of luck I’ll draw an antelope tag and get the opportunity to crawl through the sagebrush and prickly pear in pursuit of them.

Later there will be ducks and pheasants to hunt in the marsh, and elk and mule deer in the Breaks.

There will be days, for sure, when I’ll miss the warmth of summer, the pull of a heavy fish on my line, and the taste of a tomato picked fresh from the garden.

But not as much as I miss hunting right now.

The wait is almost over.

Parker Heinlein is at

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