Saturday, November 30, 2024

   I got to hunt with my dad on this last day of November 2024. I never imagined the time could go by so fast when I was hunting with him when I was 12 years old. I didn't know people wouldn't live forever, and I had no idea what people meant when they said, "The older you get, the faster the time goes." Well, now I'm well aware about what they were saying back then. Although I consider myself middle-aged, I know I am well past that, and my dad is old. I remember looking at my great grandfather when he was 80 and thinking about how old he looked. My dad doesn't appear that way to me right now, but I wonder if he would if I were a kid again. 

  We took our time getting into the woods, but we both arrived to our designations before daylight. Although there was still a lot of snow hanging on the trees, I felt confident. However, as one hour led into the next, my confidence began waning. 

  Around 11:30, Dad called me on the radio to tell me he was on the scoreboard; he had spotted the first deer of the day, not only one but two! Hoping a buck would be hot on their trail, he stayed put. In the end, nothing followed, and he began his trek out of the woods. In doing so, he came across people tracks... a lot of them. 

  After we sorted everything out, I made a disturbing discovery. We hunted an area that is not marked by a trail, and there are plenty places to park on the road, as the road is almost entirely public land. Well, when we walked out, we discussed what we had discovered. 

  Someone pulled in next to us and crammed their truck next to ours in a spot as wide as a piece of paper. I'm still not sure how their mirrors didn't take our mirrors off the truck. Then, the people followed our footsteps foot for foot for over a mile and a half. WTF were these people thinking? Why were they following us when there are hundreds of thousands of acres of public land to hunt in the Adirondacks? What possessed them to park right next to us instead of going somewhere else? We were parked before daylight, and one of my friends saw these people going into the woods with a flashlight right near daybreak. There were three of them according to what we came up with. What were they going to do after following our tracks for a few miles and walking up on us? Randomly cutting someone's tracks and following them for a short distance is one thing, but purposely following another hunter's tracks for over a mile through the woods is not ethical. I get that it's public land and all of that. However, a few weeks ago in Illinois, every time Brian and I pulled up to a spot and saw a vehicle, we went somewhere else. There's way more places to go here in the ADKs than there is in Illinois, yet we never moved in on anyone. It's common sense to avoid people and go someplace else. I just wish people would pay more attention to what they're doing and how it can affect other people's days.

  Well, that's enough of that. I can talk about it until I'm blue in the face, but it will never change. Some people just don't get it and never will. They don't care. It's sad. 

  We had a slow day, but it felt good to share my dad with Dad. He won't be hunting tomorrow, so I'll be heading out by myself. Temps are dropping, so I'll be interested to see what it does to deer movement. Movement has been slow at best in the areas I'm hunting.