Archery elk season opens here in Oregon this week and I’m so excited, I can’t hardly stand it. The weather has just started to turn “elky”: cool nights and warm days. Without looking at a calendar, I know elk season is upon us and I look forward to it every year. The pre-season excitement grips me like a kid anticipating Christmas morning. I love being in the woods anyway and there’s some magic combination of the weather, the elk bugling, and the challenge of finding and sneaking up on elk that grips me with elk fever. Hearing a bull elk bugle in the pre-dawn darkness is one of the great experiences of life. I will hike ridge tops and bugle down into the canyons, straining to hear a reply. And when the bull answers, like a moth to the flame, I will charge down there through head-high brush like a complete fool.If you also experience elk fever, I wish you good luck this season. And if you have never experienced this madness, it’s never too late to start!