Saturday, August 9

Yesterday was a great day. Last night I managed to get in 5 miles with no pain in the knee. I think the time off (total of 3 weeks) has done it. Ok, sort of 3 weeks. Last week I was out of town and had access to a great workout facility. Everything I read about ITS mentioned that cross training was fine, so I took advantage of the stationary bike and rode hard. I was the Lance Armstrong of stationary biking for a little over 3 days. I coupled the bike with a mile or two on the treadmill, stretching, ice, and yesterday told me it might have worked.

Everything is nearing final stages in preparation for the hunt. Fletching is almost done, next step is to sharpen and spin the Montecs. Once done, I'll shoot each one, check flight, and pick which one gets the honor of being first out of the gate. Food and equipment is almost entirely put together. I need to start washing, packing, and separating equipment into the 4500. With a little over 41 days left everything is getting close.

Over the last couple of weeks since I have started Bowhunt Quest, I have been asked about "failure is not an option." So let me do my best to explain. About 4 years ago, I was making some banzai trips to Southern Ohio to hunt whitetails. I would wake up at 1am, make the 2 1/2 hour drive, be in the stand before before first light, hunt all day, and then make the 2 1/2 hour drive back home. That made for some long days, but I was determined. During those long days, I thought a lot about the efforts I was putting in, only to come home empty handed. I realized that with bowhunting, it doesn't matter how hard you work, 9 out 10 times you're probably not going to close the deal. I realized that in order to be successful, "quit" cannot be part of my vocabulary. Simply put, "failure is not an option" was my only option. It's what I had to live by, it had to define me.

After this thought I remember going to work and printing off different sized failure quotes to find the one that fit perfectly on my bow limb. I wanted it there so each time I thought about quiting that quote was right in front of me. Each year when the new Pearson arrives, I take it off the old bow limb and tape it on the new one. That quote has become as important to me as the sight on my bow.

Each year that I travel west only to come home empty handed has been, in my eyes, anything but a failure. Sure I would have much rather been riding home with a punched tag and a set of 6X6 antlers sticking out of the back of the truck, however each time I left, I left knowing I gave 110% of everything I had. Everything I had, I left on the mountains. With the ending of one season comes the start of another. And over the past year I have worked harder than I ever have before. In 365 days, I have covered a little over 1750 miles all in effort to tag my first Elk. Each day when I roll out of bed at 4am to pound out 10 miles before work, I keep telling myself, if I put in enough hard work, its going to happen. So if this year is not my year and I come home empty handed, do I consider it a failure? Absolutely not. If this quest has taught me anything at all, it has taught me that there is much more to this journey than just tagging an Elk. I will come home, tell myself"failure is not an option" and press on.