Dad wanted to see if he could make it back into a place where we normally hunt, so I decided to be his shadow today. Although he seems to be doing a lot better since his infusion a few weeks ago, it still makes me nervous when he attempts to do things that were all but impossible less than two weeks ago.
When we headed out, there was a heavy frost, which gave me a sense that Dad might get a crack at something. Wanting to be relatively close to him for the day, I decided to check out another place we usually hunt but haven’t had the time to go to. Every year, bears tend to go through there the last weekend of the season. We always see tracks and when I ran cameras in there a few years back, they would show up on camera. I’m assuming there must be a den in the area.
As I made my way through the darkness, a deer started blowing at me when I was close to the area I wanted to be at when it got light out.
A few steps later, I could see where a buck had walked through the snow in the direction where the deer was blowing. I figured it was probably him. He let out a few puffs before disappearing into thin air.
Not knowing what to do for the day, I chose to hang out and let my weary body rest. When Dad called me on the radio, I would base my day on what he wanted to do.
When he called me, he told me he was going to sit until 2. He thought he would have enough time to get out before dark if he left at that time, so I packed up and headed out with him.
We had a good day in the woods today. At the beginning of the season, I never imagined we would be able to do what we did together today. I’m thankful for today more than one can possibly imagine. Today reminds me of the day that is on the cover of my first book. We both celebrated that day for reasons unknown to both of us, and that day led us to where we are today and what we have become to each other while hunting. I was 21 at the time of the photo and Dad was 43.
