A text message woke me up at about 2:30 a.m. It was Jim telling me he was backing out on our plans. I had watched the weather all week and knew the morning would present a good opportunity to see deer moving. The pressure was rising and the temperature was falling. I quickly texted him back and told him that it wouldn’t be a problem. About an hour later, he called me and told me he changed his mind… he was going.
I’m never good when I don’t get enough sleep, and the three hours I got didn’t give me a very good feeling. When I got to the area I wanted to sit, I laid down on a fallen log and rested my tree on the stump. I quickly dozed off. There was still well over an hour left before the sky would begin to get gray. When I came to, it was still too dark to see anything, but I could begin seeing trees in the darkness.
Eventually, it got light out, and I felt good about my chances. I was on the edge of a swamp and at the base of a couple of steep fingers that ran off some high ridges. There were two large scrapes on both sides of me, but neither one of them had been pawed out yet this year. I’m not sure if the licking branches had been worked, but there was a lot of deer sign in the area.
After a long sit, I wandered up the ridge in front of me and did some exploring. Before long, I found a flat where some bucks had left their calling cards. Instantly, I knew it was a good place. I found a few really large scrapes, and there were rubs scattered around the area, including one pretty good one.
Shortly after finding the spot, I met with Jim, and we headed out of the woods. I grabbed some lunch and headed to another place further north to meet Brian.
Once there, I hung a stand for my dad and looked around for a few minutes before it got dark. I saw a lot of bear sign, which told me why the deer activity has slowed down during the last week. I also found this picture when I opened the camera and checked things out.
