Photo Credit: Steve Barker

Below is an excerpt from an article I wrote for goHUNT.com:

Now is the time to start planning every meticulous detail of your elk hunting season, whether it is over-the-counter or draw tags. During your planning and excitement, make sure to not overlook one crucial detail: your fitness.

Hunting elk is different from hunting any other animal. Elk are typically found in areas that are difficult to get to and, to make matters worse, they do not like to stay put. Elk are a nomadic species, covering large amounts of ground in relatively short amounts of time. This means that as a hunter you have to be able to cover quite a bit of ground in steep country — all while carrying a pack, bow or firearm, water and the rest of your supplies! If this were not challenging enough, there is what I like to call “the inevitable sprint” that occurs on nearly every elk hunt: that small window of opportunity in which you have to cover a lot of ground very quickly in order to get a shot. Oh, and by the way, all of this takes place at high altitude where there is less oxygen. If you want to hunt elk and have a decent chance at success, you must be in “Elk Shape.”

For the rest of the article, please click here to go to the goHUNT website