Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024


  I started my weekend off on Friday evening with a bow. I tried to circle the top of a mountain to see how much sign was on it, and I came back to the truck without finding too much of anything that interested me. It felt good to check that off my list. The next morning would be the opener for muzzleloader, and I felt good about it.  

  You couldn't beat the bluebird sky and heavy frost this morning. It was an absolutely perfect morning to be a sitter. While the leaves weren't overly crunchy, you could still hear a deer coming from a ways away. I love to hear them coming before I can see them. It makes the adrenaline rush through my body. 

  When I woke up in the morning, my insulin pump needed to be calibrated due to losing signal with the sensor somewhere in the middle of the night. Amazingly, my blood meter read 270 when I checked it. I couldn't figure it out because I didn't eat anything that could've broken down in the night to cause the problem. After checking it, I packed my gear and headed into the woods, figuring it would drop as I walked the few miles to the place I had chosen to sit. 

  Halfway into my walk, I glanced at the pump and saw that my blood had only dropped 20 units. Not paying attention to it and figuring it just hadn't caught up yet, I continued toward my predetermined location. 

   After getting there and changing out of my sweaty clothes, I rested my back against a big yellow birch and closed my eyes as I waited for the sun to come up. It wasn't long before the animals of the forest began scurrying around while preparing for winter. The temperature was about 30 degrees. 

  Then, all hell broke loose when my pump started sending me alerts and telling me the insulin flow had been blocked and the pump wasn't delivering. I knew I was in danger, so I packed my stuff and headed back toward the road, knowing the level would drop a little bit by the time I get there. 

  Well, after getting out and connecting a new infusion set, my blood eventually began coming down, but the episode had destroyed my body. I lost a perfectly good day. I did head back out into the woods that evening, but I just didn't have much energy, so I took a short jaunt of two miles total. I didn't find much sign and called it a night. 

  My buddy Caleb did have some luck shortly after daylight when he anchored a nice 5-pointer to the ground. He's always done well with a muzzleloader, and this year was no different. He's off to a good start. I'm still trying to see some deer. 


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