Peek - A - Boo we see you...

So here I sit at 6:05 pm with about 20 minutes of light still left in the day...

What relevance does the above statement hold you are asking yourself - Well anyone who knows a deer hunter knows that you stay in the woods as long as physically possible.

Today I actually finished my scheduled jobs and made it home in time to get in a few hours of hunting. It is archery season here in the great north woods and now that the mercury has finally dropped as well as the majority of the leaves from the trees I have been itching to get out and spend some time in God's majestic creation.

I decided to hunt the property behind my house. I set my smaller ladder stand up in the woods a few weeks back but due to my recent injury and the amount of work in our area I have not spent any time hunting or scouting until today.

I made my way into the woods and settled into my tree stand. In order to cover up some of the noise I made coming into the woods I blew my doe grunt a couple times. Like most of my hunting trips there were lots of squirrels, chipmunks, a red tailed hawk and a Big ol' owl (unsure what kind - I think it was a great horned owl due to its size).

The squirrels were making LOTS of noise moving the acorns to and fro when I began hearing some crunching of leaves that just sounded different from the squirrels and stood out from all the other nature sounds. I focused in on the noise and sure enough it was behind me, as I turned my head I spotted 2 does coming towards me. They were about 15 yards behind me so I stood up grabbed my bow and waited for them to step out into the logging road. Instead of committing suicide they began to walk away from me and as soon as they were in the only spot I didn't have a shot they jumped the road and into the woods directly behind my stand. I lifted my bow over my head and twisted so that I could face the other side of the tree and immediately realized that due to a large branch there was no way I could draw back while standing. I took and put my left leg up on the seat of the stand and went to kneel down on my right leg when I heard the sound all hunters dread - a loud wheeze and several foot stomps! I never even saw the other 5 deer getting ready to cross the logging road until it was too late, in an instant they were gone.

When I looked back the original 2 deer were still standing in the grove of saplings (at this point I was really wishing it was gun season) and continued to stand there for over 15 minutes trying to figure out what spooked everyone else. They finally felt at ease and started browsing around.

I calmed myself back down and waited for them to work their way into the shooting lane on my left. They teased me for almost 30 minutes and despite being just over 10 feet away they never stepped into the opening. Then all of a sudden they threw their flags into the air and bounded through the opening and over the knoll. As I turned to sit down I found out what spooked them - it was me! Just as I began to sit down I noticed the original 5 deer that I scared - they had worked their way back around and were standing in the logging road, directly below my stand and all 5 of them were staring up at me trying to figure out what exactly I was! Needless to say this all took place in a matter of moments and before I could let out a sigh of frustration they were gone.

Now if this was the last day of the season I might be upset and feeling defeated - but its not - this was my first day in the woods! So despite walking home without a deer dragging behind me I have a smile on my face - not only did I see a deer - I saw a whole bunch of them and they were up close and personal - not 200 yards away like the shots made on most of the hunting shows they have on TV.

I hope the rest of my 2008 hunting season is as eventful as today's trip was but even if it isn't I will still enjoy my time in the woods, whether it is with my kids, my friends, or all by myself.

Here is to hoping for a full freezer and my next hunting post being filled with photos!