Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994 TAG: 9402210325
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Jim Crumley and three friends sublease a bowhunting camp in Utah.
``Utah certainly isn't known for producing the biggest elk, but being in a spike camp with three friends and doing it on your own is more important to us.''
Crumley is best known as a turkey hunter, the inventor of Trebark camouflage, a business he operates out of Roanoke. But when he lured his first bull elk with a call in 1987 he learned that the thrill of bugling an elk is similar to that of calling a wily turkey gobbler back home. Well, to a point.
``To me, it is like calling in a 600-pound gobbler that can smell.''
RICHARD LAWRENCE
``If you've ever been to my office, you know I've done a lot of hunting all over the world,'' said Richard Lawrence, a prominent Roanoke defense lawyer whose wall space is decked with trophies. ``But I like elk hunting best. I like the horseback riding, packing the mules.''
What he doesn't like is leaky tents, bad food and incompetent guides. To avoid that, Lawrence bought his own elk-hunting outfit where he delights in guiding others into Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness.
``We are 16 miles from the road. There are no roads, no telephones, no electricity, no motors, no anything. So we have to pack everything in and pack everything out. We live in wall tents and have wood stoves, and it snows. You don't have any slob hunters, and you don't have people coming in to bother you, because 16 miles is a right long ways.''
MELVIN MITCHELL
At age 12, Melvin Mitchell began reading about hunting in the West. He got his chance to go in 1970.
``I was so excited about it that for a year in preparing I hardly could sleep. When I finally got out there, I never fired the gun, but to this day I have never had anything like the thrill of that first hunt.''
A retired engineer for Babcock-Wilcox, Mitchell lives in Forest where his taxidermy work has gained national attention.
Mitchell's daughter, Mary, had heard her father talk so much about elk hunting that she wanted to go. In 1991, she got the chance, when her parents gave her a trip as a college graduation present.
``After Mary went the first time, the following year my wife [Shirley] went. Then when some of the guys found out my wife was going, they wanted their wives to go. Now I think half the wives go.''
ALEX RHUDY
An old-timer among local elk hunters, Alex Rhudy has missed only one year of elk hunting since 1968.
``I got out of the hospital the day I was supposed to leave and my wife wouldn't let me leave.''
Rhudy, a bowhunter who operates a hardwood flooring business in Roanoke, has killed two bulls that are listed in the national Pope and Young record book. But the trophy he remembers best was the first he killed, on a frosty morning in 1973.
``We had been hearing him up in the woods. The sun was shining and this meadow was covered with crystals and he had the same crystals on his horns. He danced out into that meadow and it was the most beautiful thing I ever looked at. I can see it just as well today as the day it happened.''
MIKE ROBERTS
Following his first elk hunt in 1983, Mike Roberts was so engrossed he began going West as much as three to four times a year. He carries a camera 90 percent of the time and his photographs are used in Return to Nature, an outdoor program that introduces Virginia youngsters to the joys and appreciation of nature. Roberts lives in Huddleston and works in the drafting department of Babcock-Wilcox.
``Last year I hiked into an area with a camera and I got in on this particular herd of elk. All of a sudden I was between five big bugling bulls. I mean I was like 25 or 30 yards away.
``It was really scary, because these animals had no fear. They were right in the middle of the rut. The bulls were thrashing their antlers and running in. Finally I had to get out of there. It was an awesome display of the power of elk.''
JOHN ROKISKY
Bowhunters can anticipate less than a 10 percent success ratio when they go after elk, which makes John Rokisky's two bucks in four years something special.
``The past fall I had the most exciting 10 minutes of hunting I've ever had in my life,'' said Rokisky, a sales representative for an orthopedic supply company. ``We were eating lunch on top of Gem Mountain, about 7,200 feet. We had basically given up. It was windy and the elk we had called that morning were going away from us.
``Then we heard some bugling. It got closer and closer. We threw our lunches back into our packs and grabbed our equipment, then ran 60 yards and set up. The elk was mad and covered with mud and bugling every four or five steps. It just shakes the trees, it seems like. Your heart starts pounding. Here comes this animal that is anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pounds with a sizable set of antlers on him and he is looking for you and you are hiding and trying to ambush him.''
CURTIS WORRELL
``I think the thing I like best of all - and I hunt a fair amount around Virginia - when we were in Montana we hunted for 10 days and I didn't see another hunter during that period other than the guys I was in camp with. We got to see bears, moose, lots of mule deer and elk.''
A financial planner in Roanoke, Curtis Worrell hauls a camper out West for do-it-on-your-own bow and muzzleloading hunts.
``I've never been one who wanted to go with someone who told me when to shoot and when not to shoot. This last trip we didn't see very many elk. I think I saw seven in nine days, all bulls. [The fact we didn't kill one] didn't faze us in the least. We had a real good time, we have real good people we go with and the country is just awe inspiring."
by CNB