The boss of our office is going elk hunting this weekend, up in the wilderness. With his regular hunting buddy, who also works for the outfit.

There will be good stories to hear from the experience. Always is.

And most of their hunting stories seem to involve considerable discomfort or inconvenience of the kind bossman, usually a result of actions of his hunting partner.

Like looking for the partner's lost horse in 8-12" of snow in the wilderness, finding it in the dark, and then spending the entire night standing with it in the woods. While the partner himself gave up and went back to enjoy a hot meal and warm bed at the cabin, not resuming the search until after a cup of coffee after sunrise.

It seems the partner brought his mules into town in preparation for this weekend's trip, and left them in the corrals until bossman got off work.

Boss asked if the mules knew how to open the corral latches.

No, they're smart, but not that smart.

Around midday bossman looked out the window to see two mule butts heading out the driveway. And gave chase. They ended up turning down the street towards the junction with the highway. He abandoned the foot pursuit and returned for assistance and pickup trucks.

Finding no broken vehicles or clumps of mule hide at the highway intersection, the searchers scattered. And found the mules on a dirt road behind Alco.

Would have made it out of town, but they were distracted by some horses in a nearby pasture.

Promises to be a good weekend.

Glad I'm not going.