Dang! Hunting Season is Over

I tried you arrange my work schedule so that I could hunt every day before work and have 4 three day weekends and 1 four day weekend during the season. It was not to be. Circumstances conspired to limit it me to one over night hunting/camping trip, two full individual days, and several AM patrols before work. Here is the story of my overnight hunting trip.



















You may be wondering why I included a photo of these boots. You may notice that the laces do not match. In my extensive planning and prepping I had a small planning snafu. I had greased my boots shortly before I left the house and wanted to let the grease soak in, so I wore other shoes on the way to the trail head. When I got ready to put the laces back in I realized that I had left one lace at home. DANG Never fear captain field expedient to the rescue. I used some white 550 cord as laces. I think I like them better that the commercially available laces. I left them in after my trip and it seems to have less wear than the other lace.



















This tree made me think of Middle Earth. I wonder what the bag limit is on fawns and ogres?



















1200 vertical feet later (in 2 hours humping a 60# ruck) I arrived at my home for the night.





















I dined on blue berries, lingon berries, and granola bars and wished I had that ever popular hunting supper side dish from years gone by.... Gummy Bears. As you can see I made my camp under a tree and then put my tarp up too. I was warm and dry all night despite the wind and rain. The next morning I climbed another 5 to 600 feet higher. When I started knocking rocks loose from under the moss and rolled for more that a minute I figured I was steep enough and maybe I should go down intentionally before I went down anyway.




While the moose hid well and the bears were taunting me (leaving tracks on top of mine) the sheep were visible but I didn't want to tackle such a steep hill on a solo hunt. I did not come back entirely empty handed. I brought some berries (in the water bottle) and a couple grouse.