Fall Colors

Autumn is a time of beauty around the Northern Hemisphere. All around you, day by day, the leaves on the mighty maples are changing to reds and oranges. The great oaks are following suit. High above the world in the Rockies, where I live, pockets of Aspen trees dot the evergreens with their brilliant yellows and oranges too. People, generally blue hairs, travel to the New England region to see the great hard wood forests of the north east changing colors. It is a spectacular sight.
Fall is a wonderful time of year for many. I look forward to the cooling temperatures, the thoughts of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving! My kids have returned to school, and the complaints of summer boredom, have left the air. New episodes of my favorite television shows return, and of course the return of the NFL! Many of my friends look forward to the ski resorts to open, skiers and snowboarders alike, I just roll down the mountain, like an oblong snowball!
A good many of my friends wash their camo. Break out the most common of the fall colors. The one that stands out among them all. Blaze Orange. That's right, it's hunting season!
I am not a hunter. Not big game, not yet at least. I am a native American, a hunter-gatherer. Although, mostly gatherer. My father never took me hunting when I was young. He wasn't a hunter either, at least not like my friends, that dream of getting the giant trophy bull elk. I would like to try someday, when I have time, and the ambition to sit still in the cold and wait, and wait, and wait. Right now, I have so much to do to keep food on my families table, that hunting isn't in the cards. Instead, I just buy beef and pork from someone who raises them, and then fill my freezer with a whole animal, of the domestic type.
Hunters are an interesting demographic. All year long they dream of opening day. These men, and some women, go out scouting for a good place to hunt this year. They spend hundreds of dollars on new rifles, optics, and the latest and greatest doe piss, that they will wear like the latest cologne fad. Then, by law, they add 500 square inches of blaze orange!
One of my best friends is a gun fanatic, like myself. He has a great opinion, of the blaze orange, and camo society. What's the point, if you must wear the orange? I like his idea. When, and if, I ever do go elk hunting, I will not spend hundreds of dollars on camo. I will wear my duck carhartts, with the blaze orange over top. With a fine tuned rifle and scope, I need only to get within about 300 yards of an elk to make a good kill shot. Camo or not the animal will see you with your blaze orange. They may only see in grey scale, but the orange is a flat color, with nothing to break up your outline anyway. It is only the archers who gain an advantage by the camo.
The muzzle loaders have a distinct disadvantage. They have a much more limited range for their weapon of choice, and yet still must don the great orange color. These people may as well be hunting deer in NY, where you must use a shotgun, and a deer slug. At least they would have a little better accuracy!
I don't complain much about the hunter society. Hunting is a huge part of Colorado's economy. Out of state hunters inject billions into the local economy. The licenses, retail gear, hotels, hospitals, and of course liquor stores reap the great rewards. A vast majority of those trophy hunters come from other states. I enjoy reading the newspaper this time of year, for the idiots. It's not surprising, where most of the idiots that I get to read about have come from. Texas!
Colorado is a great hunting destination for trophy hunters. We share some of the greatest hunting in the nation with Wyoming, and Montana. The many species that you can hunt here is terrific. Elk, mule deer, moose, big horn sheep, black bear, and antelope, just to name a few. Being an Indian I do not appreciate trophy hunters. You can take home a trophy even if you hunt with a Kodak, and not with a Ruger. It is still just as difficult to get that "shot." However, you don't have to wear the fall colors!