We jump out of the Jeep and I am blown in the face by the cool wind. The cleansing scent of the pine, fir and spruce trees, the sound of the river running in the distance and the wind rustling through the trees surrounds me. The feeling of excitement overcomes me now that I see the vast land we have to explore for the next few days.

We start to climb with all of the gear weighing down on us. With every step I take, the air gets thinner making it more difficult to catch my breath.

We reach our first checkpoint after hiking all day and we decide to set up camp for the night. It doesn’t take us long and we start cooking up some food over the crackling campfire. The provisions we bought for this trip taste much different than home-cooked food due to the wood were cooking on. We all laugh and tell stories by the fire to keep warm on this cold night.

All of a sudden, there is a strong smell of musk in the air around us. We all know that means there is an elk nearby and sit silently hoping to catch a glimpse of it. The leaves rustle nearby and the scent gets stronger but just as fast as it approached it runs off deeper in to the woods.