This week’s featured blogger, Hollis Lumpkin, is excited about her trip to Argentina in search of Patagonia Red Stag.
I had the amazing opportunity to fly south last week, making my way back to Argentina for another hunting adventure. But, dove was not what we were after. Oh no, not this time. What, you ask, would lure us so far from home? The elusive free range red stag of the Andes.
It. Was. Insane.
Rather than our standard trip to Córdoba, we flew further south to the Patagonia region of Argentina, landing in Neuquen and embarking on a 4 hour drive away from civilization. Things got real remote real quick, and before I knew it we were off of paved roads, heading higher into the mountains on gravel and dirt.
Estancia Quillen is a tiny lodge nestled along the Rio Quillen, and it was to be our home for the week. Phone? Internet? Who needs them! With one satellite phone between six of us, it was goodbye real world, hello mountain life.
Each hunter was to be paired with a gaucho, but ol’ Otis and I would hunt together (naturally) with one, named Christian. After a long night and day of travel, it was time to hit the hay. Alarm clocks were set to go off in about four hours and our first hunt awaited.
Well, 4:45 am (3:45 in SC) came more quickly than I thought it would, but the anticipation of the hunt got me right out of bed. You know that feeling you get when you hear a turkey gobble before the sun comes up? When you know that one is close by and your blood starts pounding in your ears and you are almost too excited to sit still but know you must? That’s exactly how it feels when you hear a red stag roar – particularly if it’s the first time…
Continue reading about Hollis’s Patagonia Red Stag and visit her blog “The Bright Side of the Road,”
Hollis Lumpkin writes that she is a "simple girl living in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, but I happen to have a great love for the outdoors, particularly hunting and fishing." She is a duck-hunting freak. Hollis pens an exclusive version of "The Bright Side of the Road," for The WON. View all posts by Hollis Lumpkin
