Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020

I picked my dad up at 5:00 a.m., and the headed to a place I’ve hunted since I was a kid. This place runs deep in my soul, and I will be forever grateful for having it to hunt when I was growing up. Now that times have changed, I never would have been able to do that if I were growing up now. Unfortunately, too many things have changed.

Anyhow, as the truck rolled to a stop, I still hadn’t decided where I wanted to go. I had a few ideas rolling around in my head, but neither of the really struck a chord. When I have that type of feeling, I know I have to go to the place that whispers to me and motions me to come forward. Whether it’s the wind whistling through the trees or a few crunchy leaves I have just stepped on, something tells me to go certain places when I’m uncertain about which path to follow. I guess it’s an inherited trait — or maybe it’s a sense that I’m lucky enough to have that others can’t relate to. I’ll never know for sure, but this trait has allowed me to kill many good bucks over the years.

Walking across slippery rocks, over blowdowns and around a few pockets of water, I didn’t feel overly optimistic about my morning. Just as I got to the spot I wanted to sit, I heard a deer crash through the timber. It was at the same elevation as me, and it ran up the hill. Being in big woods, I knew that was probably the end of my dad. After all, there are only so many deer in certain areas, especially areas the have received a tremendous amount of pressure for the previous six weeks of rifle season.

The morning passed quickly, and before I knew it, I was meeting Dad at the truck. When we met, we talked to Rob Miner, his son Chris, Steve Sawn and Doug Coons. Looking at everyone standing around, I found it amazing how fast life has passed us by. It seems that it was only a few short years ago when Chris and I were boys, not even teens yet, following our dads around on that same mountain. As we all got older, we went in our own directions. Nothing ever seems to stay the same in life, and you have to be able to roll with the changes. Chris and I both got married about the same time in our lives, and we both got divorced at about the same time. Relationships aren’t what they used to be. Now, it seems that people like to run from problems instead of staying through the fight and coming out on top. It’s sad that life in the United States has come to this, but their are many things that have led to it becoming this way. Unfortunately, Chris and I had to suffer through the Grass is Greener thought process from other individuals. In the end, I guess the grass was actually greener for both of us, even though neither one of us was seeking the green grass when things went down.

Hunting is the same way. People sometimes get led down a path where they believe the grass is greener in another place. Instead of taking a step back and analyzing the big picture, they just move here and there and think the new spots will solve their problems of not seeing any deer or not having any luck.

It’s kind of like a Colorado native once told me when I was hunting out there. He said, “Well, the damn Texans move up here to get away from their problems. Then we have a whole damn community full of Texans who are bitching because they have she same problems that they came to Colorado to escape.”

What’s the moral of the story? The Texans didn’t realize that they brought all the problems with them that were causing there discontent in Texas. Instead, they blame it on other people and things. Well, the same holds true in deer hunting. Sometimes, you just have to stick it out and figure things out when everything starts going south. If you choose to move to “better” places, those better places might just become what the other places turned into. The definition of insanity: to repeat the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

I had a good day today. Dad saw a few deer, but I didn’t see anything. I probably caused that myself. I just didn’t have that optimistic attitude today. Instead, I approached it like I wasn’t going to see anything.

It’s supposed to warm up and rain tomorrow. Hopefully, it’s not too miserable. Dad and I will be at it again to finish off our season.


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