Any elk hunter who spent the last week and weekend of October in the hills northwest of Yakima or northeast of Ellensburg already knows this: The season was, well, just OK.
The weather didn’t cooperate — too warm, too little snow in the higher elevations and, instead, just rain — and so, in many areas, neither did the elk.
Harvest figures won’t be known until after Jan. 31, the deadline by which the more than 15,000 modern-firearm elk hunters who hunted elk in Yakima and Kittitas counties must report to the state their hunting success or lack of it.
But based on anecdotal reports from game wardens, meat processing facilities and wildlife area volunteers and staffers, those numbers are likely to reflect a season somewhere between frustrating and fulfilling.