The Good List
The Good List: When OnX pins and headlamp beacons converge on our prairie camp home. Circling the wagons and saying goodnight. Cozy and warm in the bed of the truck, listening to the rain drizzle and drip on the roof of hotel tundra above our heads. Waking in the fog to the drop of the tailgate and my husband’s good morning grin, as he exuberantly greeted the dark before dawn while I slept on. Hiking to sit, sitting to glass, glassing to plan, planning to shoot without a living creature in sight. Digging with rocks at the base of a buffalo skull cemented in sediment from many years ago. Whoops, hollers and hugs for Casey’s triumphant return with his first big game harvest, a feat conquered all alone.
Camp chili, crown and coke and a well-traveled birthday cake savored in the lantern light glow. When bed by eight feels very very late. Rising before the light to enjoy the two-for-one special of defrosted windshields and dash-warmed burritos down a middle-of-nowhere road. The morning spot and stalk miles and the humbling sound of an antelope doe snorting an “I’ve spotted you” warning. My husbands calm, cool, collected shot that causes a buck to drop back into bed. Speed goats a mile away, who are still going about their day unfazed. A back breaking crouch walk and a 100 yard crawl through the prickly pear and sage to find they’re still 600 yards away. Slinking over mesa rims, shocked to not have given ourselves away as we navigate the world from a coyote’s point of view. A canyon wall sheared off at our feet that sends us around the other way and still the pronghorn stay. My steps following yours, we move as one, together in purpose, together in pursuit.
They’re just up ahead. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast” plays in my head as we hunker behind a small bush or two. Rifle on rest, crosshairs on a pronghorn wandering into view. Aim small, exhale, and the resounding echo of another antelope laid to rest in this sagebrush sanctuary gives way to quiet reverence. A phone call to announce that the Hutton’s have tagged out. Tired, elated, grateful, relieved and the real work begins beneath the summitting sun.
One by one, quarter by quarter, every precise flick of the blade renders us another meal to savor and sustain. Tethering the weight to our packs, and cinching hip belts to give shoulders blessed relief, we begin marching endless miles in the heat.
People who go out of their way to help, friends who meet you simply to share the load, these are the ones to keep. Provisions from the prairie aren’t given without demanding their pound of flesh, and yet we marvel at the tough beasts who call this harsh, forbidding landscape home. Battered, bruised, sweaty and sunburned, we return from where we came to rest in the knowledge that we’re closer to who God designed us to be. Rewarded with the deep sleep that hard work and a clear conscious bring. We’re reminded of our own inconsequence, gifted a simple, soulful part to play in the everlasting. This is an honest life we’re living.
Photos by Rick Hutton