Tuesday, October 10, 2023

 


  The time is surely upon us. With every passing day, I can feel it coming. Then, it will be gone in the snap of a finger... not lasting more than seven weeks. I will cross streams, climb mountains, sneak through swamps and hope for a fleeting chance at a buck. In the end, it won't matter whether I succeed because every day I'm in the woods is a success. 

  I hunted today for a few hours. I just don't seem to be into it yet, as I'm not a fan of hunting in northern New York with a bow. It saddens me in some ways because I used to live for any moment I could hunt. Now, I pick my days and go out occasionally. I think all of the success in the Midwest has probably led me to where I am, but I can't be certain. 

  I decided to go behind Dad's place to try my hand. As I neared the area I wanted to sit, I spotted a big doe feeding. I spotted her before she was alerted to my presence, so I tucked into some brush and watched closely. Within a few minutes, I saw another doe and a fawn. They fed for about 25 minutes before heading down the hill and out of sight. I enjoyed every moment of the scene. 

  I recall being in the same place when I saw my first buck in the wild while hunting. It was after school, and I can still see it like it was yesterday. That small 4-pointer has stuck with me all these years just like my ties to the land. The land has been in my family since the area was settled, and I feel rooted to it just as the trees, grass, and rocks are rooted to it. It's who I am, and it's responsible for leading me to where I am today. 

  A short time after the deer disappeared, I watched a porcupine waddle around in front of me before deciding to climb up a tree. I watched it for about a half hour and saw it do things I couldn't make any sense out of. I don't know enough about porcupines to know what it was doing. 

  Eventually, the sun set shortly after I heard a flock of geese heading south. I packed my stuff up and headed back to the house. I had a successful day in the woods, and it brought me back to yesterday... 40 some years ago. 

  I will not be able to get back out this week, so I'll find myself in the woods on Saturday, which is opening day of muzzleloader season. I'm looking forward to spending more time in the woods beginning this weekend, and I have tentative plans of being in the woods almost every day for the next few weeks. I'll see what happens as I begin spending more time where I need to be. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Day

Image
   The alarm jarred me out of sleep. It was December 8, 2024, the last day of Northern Zone rifle season in New York. I had been going straight-out since mid-October, never missing a day and out of bed every morning before 4:30. Although I had loved every minute of every day, my body was finally beginning to feel the aches and pains associated with bushwhacking through swamps, scaling cliffs, climbing mountains, and crossing rivers. With the exception of two travel days, I had found myself in the woods every day from sun-up until sundown. While I've heard many others say they've done the same, I've often doubted it because I know how difficult a task it is to accomplish.    The embers in the wood stove shone brightly as I cracked the door open and stacked a few pieces of wood on top of the burning coals. Although the fire was just about gone, the fresh flow of air gave it some life, and there was a slim chance of hope that the newly added wood would catch fire and bu...
Read more

Monday, Nov. 27, 2023

  Winter came with a vengeance last night. When I got up this morning, I didn't expect to see what I saw when I looked outside. I figured every expert tracker would be in the woods, but knowing how most deer react after a big snowfall, I decided it wasn't for me. I've always noticed that some deer do move the day of the storm as the storm tapers off, but usually the deer will move much more 24-48 hours after the storm blows out. I've studied this for years, and it has held true in every area I've ever hunted.    Although I wasn't hunting today, I did get out later in the day to ride a few roads to look around. In my travels, I met a young man walking down the road. He looked bushed, as I'm sure he was due to the amount of snow that came down. There was about 10-12 inches of new snow on top of the few inches that still remained from the other day.    Although I wasn't going to go out, I decided to check a place out for my dad shortly before dark. I knew i...
Read more

End of the Year Flurry

  Near the end of the season, I was overwhelmed with a flurry of personal things that didn't allow me to keep active with the journal, and I apologize for my negligence in not getting back to it until now. Near the end of the season, I saw many things that really let me down when it comes to social media and the way certain hunters try to portray themselves. I just wish people could tell the truth about what they're doing. If people claim to be trackers, how come they very rarely kill deer before huge storms roll in at the end of the seasons across New York and New England and dump large amounts of snow, causing the deer to migrate and head to winter yards? As I've always said, and I still stand behind it, snow makes bad hunters good hunters. If you can kill deer at any time of the season with and without snow and everywhere you go, you probably have a pretty good idea about deer behavior and how to find them.    By the time late muzzleloader season ended in the Northern ...
Read more