It is with incredible pride that I have the opportunity to tell you about Avah and her first successful big game hunt. Avah is an 11 year old two time cancer survivor, and thankfully her leukemia is now in remission. Avah has spent many weeks in Seattle Children’s Hospital with their incredible staff all working to make her better. And with our own newborn daughter receiving care from this same hospital, I can partially appreciate the level of stress Avah and her family must have felt as she went through treatment. 

Avah is Outdoor Dreams’ inaugural dream and we couldn’t have found a more deserving child to help get into the outdoors. Avah is an incredible young woman who posses patience, calm, and wisdom beyond her years. Everything I taught her she picked up immediately and seemed genuinely interesting in learning. I feel thankful for Avah’s hunt taking roughly a week and not being over quickly. It gave Hannah and me a chance to get to know who she is. We loved listening to Avah’s experiences over the years hunting with her parents, her successes in softball, her love of her pets (especially her 6 toed cat), and the strong relationship she has with her younger sister Palix. When we asked which bull Avah wanted most at the beginning of the hunt, she looked at us and said, “Peg leg for sure.” Peg leg (also know as IHOP) was a three legged bull that was roughly 7 years old and lost his leg more than two years before. The damaged leg healed and somehow he survived predators and other hunters despite being a 6 point in 2022 (something you rarely see in SW WA). The bull is somewhat of a local legend and had been spotted on many occasions over two miles away doing his typical loop and tending his harem of cows. The lack of a leg clearly didn’t prevent him from being a dominate bull and moving freely through the thick timber and brush of Western Washington. For whatever reason Peg leg’s antlers regressed this year to become a heavy 5-point, but that did not take away from his impressiveness one bit. Avah had a lot of bulls to choose from, but Peg leg was ‘the one’ from the beginning. 

During the course of Avah’s hunt we had many close calls and had the pleasure of watching her local elk herd staging for the upcoming rut. Since Avah and her family live less than a mile from the property we were hunting, it made it easy for Hannah and me to drive down and meet them during the week (or as easy as anything gets with a newborn). Watching elk just being elk is always so much fun as they have been my favorite animal since I started hunting 30 years ago. The bulls had all recently rubbed off their velvet and were feeling their oats as they set the pecking order amongst the herd. The cows were just trying to mind their own business and put on the pounds for the coming fall. A few of the bulls were spotted chasing around cows hoping to find some early action while the competition was limited. 

As things often happen while hunting, Avah was within seconds of filling her tag on a few occasions, but we decided those opportunities simply weren’t meant to be. With her special damage tag from the landowner John Wildhaber and thanks to Scott at the WDFW, Avah had all the time in the world to wait for everything to be perfect and she showed absolutely zero frustration or impatience. She just seemed happy to be there. 

On the 6th day of the hunt we crawled into position on the herd well before first shooting light. As they always seemed to be, the bulls were toward the back of the field and standing between 400-450 yards. We started off the hunt using Avah’s rifle, but with the length of the shot being over 300 yards, on day three we brought out mine to see if it would work for her. Avah and I spent a good amount of time familiarizing her with my rifle, and with its ability to shoot tiny groups out to 1100 yards, it would make the current shot very ethical. After lots of time behind the rifle, Avah was feeling very confident and her technique looked great. 

As Avah settled behind the rifle at first shooting light on day 6, I walked her through the shot sequence and breathing routine one more time, and she indicated that she felt ready. With the rifle on Peg leg at 432 yards and the crosshairs steady, Avah put a perfect double lung shot on the bull. He ran about 10 yards and could no longer move. As the bull stood breathing his final breaths, Avah fired a second merciful follow up shot high shoulder breaking the bottom part of his spine and again hitting both lungs. The old bulls was expired in seconds and you really couldn’t ask for two better shots, or a more humane death. Especially considering this bull was destined to be eaten by predators at some point due to his limitation to move quickly. 

Walking up on the elk, taking photos, breaking it down and reminiscing afterwards is all kind of a blur of happy memories for me. I felt so proud of Avah and also so thankful for the decision to create and start Outdoor Dreams. The many hours spent building the charity seemed to be all suddenly worth it, and the feeling of accomplishment was overwhelming. It seemed surreal that we had helped our first child fulfill a dream and at the same time, I feel like I am doing what God intended for me. The icing on the cake was seeing how thankful and happy Avah was for the experience. 

I hope you enjoy Avah’s story and I also hope it motivates you to consider giving back. We could not do this without our donors! Thank you to everyone who has given to make this possible and for those who have helped me get to this point. Hannah, Tino, Jeff, Mark, Scott, Josh, and so many others. Thank you John Wildhaber for allowing Avah to hunt on your land and giving her sole access to the property. We could not do this without you. This is just the first of many lives we will be able to change for the better and I cannot wait to see what the future holds. 

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