Young man’s hunting feat truly was worth noting

I had planned this as last week’s column.

Events, however, conspired to have me write about Initiative 1183 instead.

Still, I wanted to get this one out even if it is a bit late in coming.

As you read this, I’ll be wandering the woods again somewhere south of Mount Adams. Said area being located in Western Washington and this being November, it’s very likely that I’ll also be standing in either rain or snow with temperatures dropping while praying that the gear I’m wearing will actually work as advertised — for a week.

It’s called elk hunting. It’s what I do shortly after spending 11 nights and 12 days tenting in the Okanagon Forest during deer season. Thankfully, there’s a break between the seasons which gives me enough time to clean everything off, recuperate from hiking hills that seem to get steeper every year, and explain to my wife that “not getting a deer this year” is the reason they call it “hunting” rather than “shooting.”

As I’ve said in the past, the best part of all of this is being able to get away from the commotion of daily life and the news and events that have us all on edge almost all of the time. In short, it’s a time and a place where I can turn off the radios, stop reading or watching the news, ignore my e-mail, not worry about Facebook, and just be alone in the woods for days at a time while paying attention only to the things that matter out there. Toilet paper being high on that list.

It’s rejuvenating. So much so that, when I return from these trips, I only very reluctantly begin reconnecting. After days of listening to the stream that’s constantly flowing behind my tent, the noise of a television tends to grate. After studying maps for days on end, reading the news is akin to an unpleasant chore.

When I returned from deer hunting this year, however, I found a front page story in this newspaper that jumped right out at me. It was about a young man named Justin Ristine who, at 11 years old, had just taken a deer on his first-ever deer hunt.

Admittedly, having a young man or woman get a deer on their first hunt happens fairly often. Fairly often, that is, until you consider that Justin was born without his right arm and still managed to do it. That’s pretty special.

The article went on to tell the story about Justin being helped by a group founded by Cindy Carpenter called Youth Outdoors Unlimited (www.youthoutdoorsu.org). This group’s mission, according to the story, is “to help children with disabilities or life-threatening illnesses, who have an interest in outdoor sports, go on a hunting or fishing trip.”

Bill Sheets, the writer, and The Herald did a great job with this one because they did something that’s very unusual. They presented a very positive story about hunting on the front page of a daily newspaper. I can honestly count the number of times I’ve seen that on the fingers of one hand and I wouldn’t be using very many of them to do the counting. In fact, I’m much more accustomed to writing letters to the editors of other publications whose general take on hunters and hunting is usually much less than flattering.

In many television and print outlets, hunters are often portrayed as loud, belligerent, obnoxious louts who drive the roads in large trucks, beers in one hand, rifles across their laps, and stopping to shoot at anything that moves. It’s ugly at best.

I’d be lying if I tried to say that such individuals do not exist because they do. I would offer, however, that there’s not a group, society, organization, business, club or association anywhere that does not have a very small minority of members who bring discredit to the larger group.

I would also offer that the vast majority of hunters are decent, hard-working, rule-following, tax-paying men and women who’ve spent a lot of time learning a difficult and very demanding sport. They often go home with only the memories of great times spent in camp and even better times in the woods to carry them until the following year.

Reading this story about Mr. Ristine and Youth Outdoors Unlimited was an unexpected pleasure.

And, Justin, that was good hunting. Hope to meet you in the woods one day.

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to larrysim@comcast.net.