Ken Fitzgerald
Member
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- 2,322
It was 1982 and I'd moved from Chicago to Lewiston, Idaho. One of the radiologists suggested we start running to get into shape...he for skiing..me for elk hunting and we did. One morning Lou slept in and left me standing at the dikes on the Snake River by myself. Along came a retired Marine Lt. Colonel and we ran together. Talking and panting while running he discovered my reason for running. The next fall, he invited me to attend a meeting of a local wildlife club. A few meetings later he told me another member was looking for someone to elk hunt with for 1 season to help share the costs of feeding his pack mules and He'd recommended the guy invite me before I ran an elk down and cut it's throat. And so my relationship with Larry began. We hunted elk together for 17 years until we both became too old and out of shape to continue. We were the only two in the camp of 6 hunters who could tie knots other than those used on shoe laces and the only two with experience of working horses and mules. Thus we did all the packing of elk out to camp. We hunted on foot and used horses and mules to pack the elk out. Larry's pretty wife volunteered to do duty as camp cook and took a week's vacation each fall to take care of us in camp. The meals she cooked made many other hunters jealous.
Today, his 73rd birthday, I took a card to him. It's the 5th time I've visited him this week. I don't know if the coma is natural or medically induced so that he may improve but I"m betting he doesn't leave ICU alive.....
Larry and I are about as different as two friends could be....politically and other ways too......he a Democrat ..me a Republican ...he a union die-hard and I'll never work for another union.....but we had some things in common. We loved braving the high country this time of year...pursuing elk .....helping our friends....packing their elk out for them........fishing the high mountain often wilderness lakes for trout in the summer......shooting craps with Mother Nature this time of year. Most hunters hunt the early part of the season. We chose to hunt the late part.....more snow...fewer hunters.....don't have to worry about meat spoilage and yet...there's been years when we drove the road out to the main road every hour on the hour all night long....to keep the snow drifts broke out so we could break camp and get out the next morning....big huge....generous man.......
I looked at his huge graying frame......a machine breathing for him...food being put into him via a tube.......
Pappy.....what I wouldn't give to walk that miner's trail down to the miner's cabin with you one more time!
I'm hurting....
Today, his 73rd birthday, I took a card to him. It's the 5th time I've visited him this week. I don't know if the coma is natural or medically induced so that he may improve but I"m betting he doesn't leave ICU alive.....
Larry and I are about as different as two friends could be....politically and other ways too......he a Democrat ..me a Republican ...he a union die-hard and I'll never work for another union.....but we had some things in common. We loved braving the high country this time of year...pursuing elk .....helping our friends....packing their elk out for them........fishing the high mountain often wilderness lakes for trout in the summer......shooting craps with Mother Nature this time of year. Most hunters hunt the early part of the season. We chose to hunt the late part.....more snow...fewer hunters.....don't have to worry about meat spoilage and yet...there's been years when we drove the road out to the main road every hour on the hour all night long....to keep the snow drifts broke out so we could break camp and get out the next morning....big huge....generous man.......
I looked at his huge graying frame......a machine breathing for him...food being put into him via a tube.......
Pappy.....what I wouldn't give to walk that miner's trail down to the miner's cabin with you one more time!
I'm hurting....