When I woke up at 4:30 a.m., it was spitting some snow but not sticking to the ground. By the time I headed into the woods an hour later, the ground was covered. I could tell that it was going to be a mess.
My legs burned as I marched through the darkness. Unsure of what I wanted to do, I continued walking without any real plans. I’d figure it out as I went. The snow hung on the branches and cut any visibility to almost nothing. In some places, I could see about 20 yards. It was extremely difficult to cover much ground without getting covered in snow.
I trudged along in hopes of coming across a good one laying down or randomly wandering. There were times that I had no clue where I was standing. Nothing looked remotely similar to its regular appearance.
Finally, around 11:00 a.m., I decided to give up and head back toward the road. I hadn’t cut a track in over five hours, so I figured my chances weren’t too terribly good. When I made the decision to head out, a string hanging from a huge pine tree caught my eye. Unsure of what purpose it served, I moved closer to examine it, expecting it to lead to a tree stand. Looking into the tree, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The rope went around a limb about 30 feet up the tree. I’ll never know how the person got the string around the limb or what purpose it actually served.
At first, I figured the string had been used to hang a deer overnight, but when I looked closely, I couldn’t imagine that the string would actually hold a deer. It’s possible but highly unlikely.
That’s the beauty of the forest. There are so many stories you can come across and never know the reality behind them. You get to make your own stories so they can correspond with your imagination. It’s pretty awesome.
The weekend didn’t play out as I would have liked, but I did have an awesome time. As Josh and I sat on a log to eat our lunch, I felt like I was his age. When I’m hunting with Josh and Brian, I always think we are the same age. As we talked, I realized Josh is 20 years younger than me. He’s had a couple of incredible years in the deer woods, and I recall having the same kind of success at his age. It seems like it was yesterday. It improved over time as I gained knowledge, and the journey has been nothing short of phenomenal. I hope he and Brian continue expanding their knowledge and build upon the success they’ve already experienced. They are both hard-core guys who earn what they get. It’s nice to see guys from that generation doing what I did 20 years ago. It was hard to navigate through the woods with all of the snow.
