They say records exist to be broken.

Well, actually, I don't know if they say that at all.

But they should.

Not even sure what my record was. I'd have to tally up the data sheets to find out. But it's gotta be well over 25.

At least twenty-five elk telemetry flights without once throwing up. And that's gotta be the toughest wildlife flying there is, next to grizzly bear telemetry flights. And eagle surveys. And waterfowl surveys.

Aaaanyway, for me it was a remarkable record.

Until today.

'Course you know you're in trouble when you look at the windsock as you taxi down for takeoff, and it looks like this.

Yeah, it was windy. When I called dispatch before eight this morning to let her know we would be flying, she asked "Are you sure?"

"You're supposed to have gusts over 65."

And this advice from a gal sitting in a windowless office 150 miles away.

But she was right. We canceled. But due to the snow settling down on the Divide, not because of the wind.

But right at 11 o'clock, the pilot calls. He's got blue sky, now. Do we want to go?

Well, yeah. Weather's just supposed to get worse the next couple of days. Really wish I could have taken him up on his suggestion to fly on Monday, which was perfectly calm and sunny, but they don't let us work holidays anymore.

We speed down runway 22 with the engine working a little harder than normal, straight into the fierce headwind. And all of a sudden we're jerked into the air like we're on a bungy cord. Never been mashed into my seat like that on a takeoff before. And we're immediately high above town, barely able to make out the wife's office windows as we fly past.

It was windy.

Relocating the elk was pretty straight forward, except for the one frequency the pilot had forgotten to program into the receiver after our last flight.

But bumpy.

And somewhere in our pursuit of elk 582, the sixth elk of the day, at 11:56, I lost it. The combination of writing on the clipboard, turning to track a signal, and bumping along in the wind, my record was ended.

Neatly, as usual, but ended just the same.

In addition to the stomach distress (which lasted hours after landing and lunch), the skies were cloudy and grey, yielding not much in the way of photos. But here's one of the herd containing elk 522.