Autumn sunrises find Steve Swope tucked away in a deer hunting blind with keen eyes and ears alert for an approaching buck or doe.
At the moment of truth, when a deer steps into range, Swope's finger isn't on the trigger. He bites down gently and trips a trigger with his mouth, then feels the adrenalin rush that all hunters know when a well placed shot does the job.
What is ALS?
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes muscle weakness, paralysis and ultimately, respiratory failure.
ALS attacks certain cells in the brain and the spinal cord needed to keep muscles moving. Early signs and symptoms of ALS include muscle cramps and twitching, weakness in the extremities and difficulty speaking or swallowing. As the disease progresses, it is characterized by:
•The inability to move any part of the body
•The inability to speak or communicate
•Complete reliance on a feeding tube
The senses, including hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch, are not affected by the disease.
— ALS A Life Story Foundation
Modern gun deer season
Modern gun deer season opens Saturday in most of Arkansas and runs through Dec. 4, and Dec. 26-28 in Northwest Arkansas deer hunting zones.
See the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission hunting regulations pamphlet or visit www.agfc.com for more information.
— Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
There's no quit in a dedicated deer hunter and not an iota of quit in Swope, who has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis -- or Lou Gehrig's -- disease.
Swope, 47, is out there most mornings. He hears birds sing and watches the woods from his seat, which is more like an all-terrain vehicle than a wheelchair. A crossbow sits cocked on a stand that holds it near Swope's chest. He can't move his arms or legs or speak. The trigger is near his lips, so is a small lever the hunter grips with his mouth to aim the crossbow, moving it left or right.
When a deer steps in range, Swope bites the black square-shaped trigger, the size of a snack cracker, to send a bolt from the crossbow flying to its mark.
Deer hunting is teamwork at the Swope household in rural east Benton County. Swope's wife, Jackie, walks beside her husband, working a control to steer Steve's chair through the couple's 40 wooded acres. Instead of wheels, Swope's chair moves on treads like a track hoe or bulldozer. A brace holds his head on the bumpy trip of a few hundred yards over rocks, branches and uneven ground.
The portable ground blind is lightweight, camouflage colored and similar to a dome tent. Jackie lifts a corner and Steve's chair moves inside. She sits beside her husband, cocks a bolt into the crossbow and the hunt is on.
Swope's in his element, in the forest hunting deer. He walked to the woods before the diagnosis of ALS came in 2008.
"As it progressed, he had to find a way to keep hunting," Jackie said. "He used to use a compound bow. That washis favorite."
Steve and Jackie showed how a deer hunt takes place Swope style on a recent late October afternoon. Steve was decked out in camouflage, his crossbow at the ready but uncocked. Jackie steered Steve's all-terrain chair across a pasture, then to the blind. She adjusted Steve's camouflage hat, which got tilted on the 15 minute trip from their home.
Jackie doesn't hunt herself, but gets as excited as her husband when deer come around.
"I'm excited for him, because, as you can see, it takes quite a bit for him to come out here," she said.
Swope is out every deer season with his wife's help and help from family and friends. Kenneth Paul, his friend, neighbor and hunting buddy, helped Swope outfit his all-terrain chair for hunting and helps the Swope family any way he can.
"He's one in a million. Steve's has such an enjoyment of life, especially during deer season. He gets to be out in the woods and enjoying the scenery," Paul said. "He has a deep religious faith and the will power to get out there and hunt. He's a very motivated man."
A display of buck deer in the Swopes' living room are a clue to Steve's skill.
"When he gets a deer, I don't get it out of the woods myself. I call in reinforcements," Jackie said.
Steve's mom and dad, Ken and Alma Swope, live close and help out. Friends step in to skin the deer and process the meat.
He has help, all right, but Swope has helped other hunters as well. His friend and fellow deer hunter, Jon Hobson, met Swope at a convenience store years ago before the ALS diagnosis. Hobson lives a few miles from Swope on Beaver Lake.
Hobson asked the store owner if he knew of any place he could deer hunt. Back then Swope worked for a dairy and was delivering milk to the store. He overheard the conversation, stepped away from the milk cooler and and invited Hobson to come hunt with him on his property.
"Not many people are going to take you to their secret locations to hunt, but that is Steve Swope," Hobson said. "I've told people about this man, but until you meet him, you don't understand. He's had ALS for many years, and he has never once complained about it. You never see him have a bad day, though I'm sure he has."
Swope can't speak in words, but Hobson said the deer hunter communicates.
"He smiles at you with his eyes. He and Jackie, opening their home, land and friendship to me all these years, has been a blessing. I love him like a brother."
Swope uses a computer at home. In the woods, he, Jackie and his friends have a system that uses a notepad with the alphabet written on it.
His no quit attitude isn't just about hunting. The Swopes have a mule that Steve still rides, aided by friends and a platform that gets him into a specially made saddle.
When archery deer season nears in September, Swope practices shooting his crossbow so he'll be ready for that moment of truth. He got to show how accurate he is when Willie Robertson from the Duck Dynasty television show paid the Swopes a visit. Robertson heard about Swope through the ALS Association, Jackie said.
"Steve showed him how he shoots and made a perfect shot."
It's a shot Swope hopes to make next time the sun rises over his camouflage blind in the quiet woods.
Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAFlip
Sports on 11/08/2016