LAST EDITED ON May-10-08 AT 11:03AM (MST)[p]These are the lead paragraphs of an article I wrote a while back titled, "IS IT A TROPHY?" -TONY
Competing for some warmth, two other guides and our six hunters from New Jersey and Texas huddled closer to the dwindling campfire. While they continued swapping hunting tales on that eve of the 1976 Colorado deer season opener, I placed a fresh log on the coals, then watched the flames prey on the hunk of wood.
The pine pitch warmed quickly. With no breeze to alter their route, the sooty smoke curls lingered a bit before drifting away into the night sky. I peered up at the star-flecked blackness and smiled, recalling a question my now 45-year-old son, Keith, had asked as an inquisitive 5-yr.old in 1967.
We had camped among the ponderosa pines in northeast Arizona?s White Mountains, and the mid-summer night temperature had fallen to the low 40s. Wrapped tightly in his heavy coat, Keith had pushed in tight against my wife for extra warmth and had intently focused on the fire. After 15 silent minutes, he suddenly asked, "Daddy, where does the smoke go."
Knowing I would have no plausible answer, my wife smiled when I told the toddler the smoke just goes all the way up to heaven.
Right then, a client interrupted my musing, but I heard only my name. "Sorry, I was dreaming. What did you say?"
The man from New Jersey repeated his question. "What do you think our chances of taking a good trophy are?"
Thinking about the irony, I paused several seconds. Although the question was less far-fetched than Keith?s had been, I had no definitive answer simply because I needed to know what comprised a trophy for him.
Little has changed since that night in 1976. Today, the adage, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," still fits. The problem is one of definition; a trophy for one guy might be a non-shooter to the next guy.
At one time or another, many hunters will harbor the spirits and desires of a trophy hunter. Unfortunately, reality usually takes precedence over spirits and desires.....
