5 The Long Way Home by Shawn Clark

In the early 2000s, we lived in a little town in north Idaho called Osburn. I was a wild game hunter and wanted to teach my daughter how to respect the wildlife and our forests while hunting deer to put food on the table. It was a chilly November when I asked K if she wanted to go hunting with me. She was only around 12 or 13 at the time, so her interests were jumping all over the place, but she still loved hunting with her “pops”. That’s what she would call me when I wore my old man hunting clothes. She might have been a rugged and tough little blonde girl, but she sure had her mother’s sense of style. She always had to look good no matter what she was doing or where she went.

So the next morning, I woke K up bright and early to get ready for the hard day of trekking through the woods and becoming one with nature. After a hot breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and fried eggs, we loaded up the truck. We beat the sunshine and headed to the gas station to get a hot cappuccino for the princess deer slayer. After topping off the gas tank and getting that oh so important cappuccino, we were on our way.

The town of Osburn is very small and nestled in the woods, so getting to our destination didn’t take long. Within a couple minutes, we were already on the dirt rounds and heading up the treacherous and narrow mountain side road. These roads are very narrow and suited better for ATV’s or side-by-side, but I was able to hug the mountain side in my 4×4 Toyota pickup.

I had driven these roads more times than I could count, so it wasn’t any big deal to be on the edge of the mountain and looking straight down a ravine that could gobble up my miniature monster truck. After a couple miles of bouncing up rocks and ruts in the road, I could see an old orange truck heading right at us. I instantly looked for a pull out to let him go by us. I know this road like the back of my hand and noticed a wide spot just ahead about 20 feet.

I slowed to a crawl to pull over when all of a sudden, an enormous black bear jumped off the hillside right in front of us. Of course, I stopped real quick out of terror of hitting him but also hoping it wasn’t a grizzly bear for fear it might attack my truck. K was instantly scared and let out a little peep then started laughing uncontrollably. I knew right away she was using a tactic I taught her, which was to laugh when you get really scared to help you deal with and overcome the fear. No exaggeration, the back of that bear was taller than the hood of my truck.

After the shock of the situation started to wear off, I finished pulling over to the side of the road and let the orange truck pass. When the orange truck got beside us, the elderly man had a grin as wide as his old truck. He said that was the biggest bear he had ever seen. We shared a couple laughs, and he let K know that in her whole life she’ll probably never see another black bear that big again. We shared a couple more wisecracks and stories before we passed and moved on to our hunting destination.

We kept our path forward, still heading up the mountain. K looked so ready to put food on the dinner table. We talked about that bear and how cool it was to actually see something so rare and only a few minutes from home. I was so happy in that moment because I knew K and I would always be able to talk about that awesome experience. Then all of a sudden from the left side of the road, a small deer leaped up from the ditch below.

It moved so fast that I didn’t even see it at first, but K did. I suddenly hit the brakes. That was not Bambi. That was a mountain lion. A cougar stood right there not even 5 minutes away from where we were almost run over by an enormous black bear. Now we had a cougar right in front of us walking down the road while we just sat there in amazement.

I was in awe of the magical moment I was having with my daughter. I remember thinking that I hope she never forgets this little trip. We hadn’t even put a gun sling over our shoulders and we had already seen a huge bear and a cougar all in the same trip. All of a sudden K started crying. I mean uncontrollable wailing. I didn’t know what was wrong with her, but I start freaking out and hit the gas pedal to get her home.

Of course, as soon as I gunned the truck into beast mode, the cougar ran off the road and down the hill. I reached over toward K’s seat and grabbed her hand and just kept trying to calm her down. After the cougar left the road, K yelled at me, “WHY DID YOU DO THAT”? She was suddenly really angry. As she was wiping away tears, I could see her calming down. She finally admitted, “I was scared, but I couldn’t talk”. She went on to say that she tried to start laughing like I had taught her, but her emotions came out as tears and uncontrollable sobbing. We both shared some wonderful laughs at the whole situation and our incredible luck at what we got to experience that morning.

Once we regained our nerves, we start heading back to our destination that at this point seemed to allude us for greater experiences. After a few more minutes of traversing the rough, rocky road, we are almost to our little honey hole of a hunting spot when K spotted a huge blue grouse sitting right on the side of the road, maybe 25 feet away from us.

I slowly stopped the truck, and K jumped out while grabbing her little 410 shotgun that I always keep in the truck for just the occasion. You see, we love to eat grouse, K especially. We would always go deer hunting but come back with grouse and be just as content as having a steak. She loved shooting her little shotgun, and she is a great shot with it and employs all the safety precautions necessary. After shooting that grouse and gutting it herself, she bagged the bird breast and put it in the ice cooler.

After K got back in the truck, she looked at me and asked, “Pops, can we just go home?” I asked her if she was okay. She said yes, that she was fine, but all the excitement made her super tired. She didn’t want to fall asleep and miss something else exciting, so she preferred to just go home. We both laughed at her reasoning, and I agreed to take her home. Before we headed back down the hill, we stopped at our spot to take a bathroom break and check out the area for any big game. I could spot some elk way off in the distance through the binoculars. We both watched them for a few minutes before we took off.

On our way home, we had to cross an intersection at the very top of the road right before descending down the mountain top. I slowed to a crawl while crossing through the intersection when suddenly a moose walked out from behind a bunch of huckleberry bushes and started walking right beside our truck.

K was so scared she was bawling again, only this time she was loud and trying to crawl out of her seatbelt because she thought the moose was going to somehow get her. I think it was the size of the spoons on that guy. This was an enormous moose. I kept telling her to calm down, that it couldn’t get her.

Once we got to the other side of the intersection, he walked off into the trees right off the road. After he left the road, I stopped the truck again and shared some more laughs with K. Just as we started rolling down the hill, I looked in my rearview mirror and wouldn’t you know it, there were now two moose standing in the middle of that intersection behind us. I stopped and told K to turn around and look. It was such a great moment just sitting there watching them stare at us.

After pulling away from those moose, our trip the rest of the way down the hill was uneventful. Running through my mind, however, were the stories we could tell and the awesome memories we would have forever. I was so happy for K’s luck and blessings for everything she got to see that day.

I have never seen anything like that again since that day. It is so rare to actually see any one of those animals in the wild the way we did, but for both of us to see them all in one day was something I’ll never forget. I’m sure K won’t either. She might be my rough and tough, bird shooting, pink camo-wearing princess, but she is also just a little sweetheart with a heart of gold, full of love and respect for nature.