WHITE RIVER NATIONAL FOREST — On the fifth day of the hunt, he appeared before me, crossing a meadow 300 yards downhill between aspen and pine groves, with antlers that cast long shadows on the morning snow. A crown atop the animal king of the Colorado high country. A bull elk. I’m seated on a ridgeline at 10,000-feet of elevation a month ago on public land when muscle memory calms a surge of adrenaline.