WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK - It was a hard climb for Charlaine Sattler, but she's used to those.

In the more than 31/2 years since she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the 58-year-old retired school teacher from Parker has scaled one physical and emotional mountain after another.

The hike to the top of Rankin Ridge on Wednesday evening was just another test, one that drained the color from her face and made her stop several times to collect her breath. But there was a wild reward waiting at the top:

She got to hear the call of a bull elk for the first time in her life.

It came faintly through the light breeze from one of the small brown shapes in the hazy green valley 700 yards below - a mix between a whistle and a squeal, punctuated with guttural grunts.

"Did you hear it?" Bob Sattler said hopefully, turning to his wife.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," Charlaine said, eyes beaming as she scanned the distant scattering of elk. "Oh, that's good."

She gave a high five to volunteer guide Jerry Hirrschoff of Rapid City, a member of the local Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation chapter. And she got a hug from her husband, who clearly couldn't decide which was more spectacular - the distant bugle or the fact that his wife was there to hear it.

"She's incredible," he said. "She amazes me all the time."

Charlaine Sattler intends to keep that up as she and her husband work on her life's bucket list, a collection of must-do adventures. It began Wednesday night with that first faint bugle in the accessible wilds of Wind Cave National Park. The Grand Canyon is also on the list. So is Mammoth Cave.

"This one was pretty much the first one on my bucket list," Charlaine said. "So we'll go from there."

That first elk whistle - more typically called a "bugle" - was just one of many, however, that awaited Charlaine Sattler in her bucket-list visit to the Black Hills. She heard it again, then again, from Rankin Ridge. Then, Hirrschoff led the Sattlers down to his truck and on to several stops in Wind Cave and adjoining Custer State Park.

It was rewarding duty on familiar turf for Hirrschoff. He is an experienced elk hunter and caller who handled the guide and host duties on behalf of the elk foundation, which was contacted by the Sattler family with Charlaine's request.

"They said she wanted to hear an elk bugle in the wild," Hirrschoff said. "This isn't something we have a program for or anything. It was just something we wanted to make happen for her."

It happened for her many times in many ways, first at Rankin Ridge and again - closer and more emphatically - an hour later as she stood under a stunning ceiling of stars along a trail in Custer State Park. There, a coyote joined two nearby bull elk somewhere off in the darkness in a hair-raising chorus of wilderness music. Midway through the symphony, an owl startled the small group of listeners by sailing by 10 feet over their heads.

"It was everything I hoped for and more," Charlaine said. "It's just one of those things that makes the little hairs on your arms raise up. At least, it does for me."

It did for her husband, as well.

"I won't ever forget that night, standing under all that starlight and listening to those elk call," Bob Sattler said.

They followed that grand Wednesday night with a Thursday morning trip back to the wilds of both parks. Again they heard the elk bugle - a stirring sign of autumn that marks the beginning of the elk mating season - but also saw them up closer.

"Oh, it was so wonderful," Charlaine said Thursday afternoon. "We could hear them perfectly clear. The big shrill call and the little cackling ones, the whole bit. It was pretty awesome. I can't say enough about what Jerry has done."

But Hirrschoff wasn't finished. He had another trip planned for Thursday night and still another for Friday morning. Along with the elk, they saw mule deer and white-tailed deer, antelope and buffalo, prairie dogs, woodpeckers, nuthatches and hawks.

Charlaine Sattler didn't miss a thing, stopping to examine a sparkling rock or a delicate flower, peering up into ponderosa pines to see the source of birdsong.

It all went into the bucket, as part of a planned succession of outdoor experiences that Sattler believes is both inspirational and life-sustaining. She recently received another round of chemotherapy, as doctors manage and adjust treatment in an effort to stay ahead of the cancer.

"I feel like the treatments are doing what we hope for. As long as they can keep modifying it, so the drugs keep working," she said. "I have the good lord to thank, and a bunch of good doctors."

Sattler fights fatigue, the lingering impacts of extensive surgery and the effects of chemotherapy, including nerve damage to the arms and legs that limits her mobility.

But that won't stop her work on the bucket list.

"I look back on that climb up to that first ridge, and it was very tough for me," she said. "Bob told me I was looking pretty pale. But I do as much of this as I can. I want to keep doing it. I don't want to give up; let's put it that way."

Hear the elk

Visitors to Wind Cave National Park have a chance to hear the bugle of the Rocky Mountain elk in ranger programs offered through September.

The high-pitched whistle of the elk heralds the arrival of fall and the mating season of the majestic animals. Rangers give brief interpretive programs about elk before leading a caravan to a nearby pullout to listen for their call.

These programs are offered Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings through Sept. 26. Participants meet at the Elk Mountain Campground amphitheater at 7 p.m. and are encouraged to dress warmly and bring a flashlight and a blanket to sit on.

To hear a recording of an elk bugling, visit the park's Web site at www.nps.gov/wica. For more information, call the park at 745-4600.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com