Hunting Journal

I got out of work and rushed to the mountain that I wrote about in both of my books. It’s just one of those place I kind find peace when everything around me is surrounded with craziness. It’s so muggy that it’s hard to enjoy. I had two cameras up, so my main objective was to check them and see if I could find a few places where the deer had been feeding. I had a few does on the first camera I checked and quickly moved down the hill toward “The Rock,” which I reference quite a bit in both of my books. It has always been a good place, so I’m pretty sure this year will be no different. As I made my way down the hill I really expected to have something that might interest me on the camera. I walked in front of it as I do to all of my cameras when I check them. That way I know if it’s working when I pull the card. If my picture isn’t on the card then it’s not working. Pretty simple huh?

When I inserted the card into my viewer i was surprised to see myself in the only photo. There weren’t any images besides me walking past it when I set it up and then again when I picked it up.  I quickly loaded it into my backpack and searched for another place. As I rushed around I dropped my bow on the ground and bent the sight. The housing was clearly deformed. I know it would be senseless to shoot it at anything because the accuracy of the bow would be severely compromised. After noticing it I headed out the long way. On my journey back to the truck I covered a lot of ground and didn’t see much worth noting. It’s still early……………I’m sure it will improve soon.

The weather has been unbearable. I don’t mind a few days of warm temperatures, but it seems like it’s hanging on and won’t let go. Since it is archery season I decided to sit in a tree behind my dad’s house. I’m hoping to capture a few deer on film. I probably wouldn’t shoot anything even if it walked by me. I guess when it was all done I didn’t have to worry about it because the sun set and darkness consumed the sky without any deer making an entrance into the small field I was overlooking this evening. We’ll see what the rest of the week brings. I won’t be going out much in the high heat. I just don’t like being eaten alive my bugs and sweating up a storm.

I got up at 5:10 and headed north. Since it was supposed to get into the mid 70s I wanted to get an early start on the day. When I parked my truck the thermometer read 37 degrees. I welcomed the chilly morning as I stepped out of the truck.

I made quick time to the first camera. I wasn’t surprised to have a bear on it. Luckily this camera wasn’t disturbed by my black furry friend. After transferring the images to another SD card I headed to the next camera. When I got on the flat it’s located on I searched for a couple of scrapes from last year that had licking branches. I wanted to put the camera I pulled the other night in that spot. I found two nice scrapes and placed the camera in the first one. I don’t know what to expect. Hopefully things will follow suit and the deer will mark the licking branch with their scent right through the entire fall. Time will tell.

As I got near my second camera I could see the camera facing in the opposite direction from where I had left it. I knew a bear had gotten its hands on it. After opening it up and looking at the card I found a lot of deer and bear pictures. Nothing really stood out to me and a lot of the pictures were hard to see. I’m not sure I like that camera too much. The quality of the pictures is poor compared to the images from my other cameras. I changed the batteries since the ones in the camera were dead.

I spend the rest of the morning covering some ground. I took down a stand, the only stand I have in there, and moved it to the edge of a swamp. I have a lot of pictures of a spike buck, a fawn and big doe from the middle of the summer up until now. I think this place could get good during the rut. There are a lot of old rubs and scrapes along the edge of the swamp.

When I got to the last few cameras I had in the woods I was a little irritated when I found them on the ground. Bears had gotten to both of them. I might have to get some bear boxes to protect the cameras. I believe one of these cameras has been destroyed. I have a lot of fog in it. I got a picture of a nice Adirondack 8-pointer on one camera before the bear tossed it to the ground. I won’t be back there until the end of October. Something tells me the cameras won’t make it that far, but I have to hope they will. Here are a few pictures from my journey.

This bear is responsible for tossing one of the cameras to the ground.

He’s not a monster, but he’s still a nice ADK buck.

All week I waited with anticipation, so I could get in the woods today. I had a plan to check all of my cameras in my old stomping grounds. Since none of my stuff was organized I felt confused as I rushed around to get out the door. When I finally got in the woods it felt good to be walking quietly across the forest floor. I was back in my home after almost 10 months of waiting.

Upon getting to the camera I wanted to check the most I leaned my bow against a tree. I was very surprised to find no images on the SD card. I actually couldn’t believe it, especially since I had so many photos in the same place last fall. I guess that shows you how things change from year to year. I decided to pull the camera and search for a new home for it.

When I glanced down to pick up my bow I realized it had fallen to the ground. After looking it over I was agitated to see that the sight had been bent from the fall. I’ve witnessed a lot of freak accidents, but this one really agitated me. From that point I just did some wandering across the hills and through the valleys. I didn’t find anything that really stuck out. The woods are really dry…………too dry. We need rain badly. Hopefully it doesn’t come all at once and last for weeks on end, but even if it does we can use it.

I don’t plan on hunting this week or much of next week. The daytime temperatures have been hanging around 75. If I hunted farm country it would be different, but since I stick to the big woods I think I’ll keep my distance until the temps start decreasing. I’m going up north sometime this weekend to check cameras. Hopefully the bears didn’t beat them up too badly this time.