Big Cypress Preserve in South Florida. Archery season in September. 85 to 90 degrees and 85 to 90% humidity.

Get up at 3:00 am. Don't have to check the weather, cause I already know. Scent free soaps, deoderants, dirt scented clothes and snake boots, coffee and breakfast, and load up the truck. I'm already sweating through my clothes before I leave the house by 4:00 am.

Drive an hour to the check station and another 1/2 hour to where I go into the swamp. It is now 5:30 am. Put on my bug suit, gloves, treestand harness, headlamp and 50 pounds of gear on my back (including 10 pounds of water).

Walk 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile through muck and (if I'm lucky) only knee high water to get to my stand location. Try to get there before first light. Soaking wet from a combination of my own fluids and the swamp. Lots of snakes. Mosquitoes carrying off small mammals. Biting flies, chiggers and ticks. Spiders the size of ATV's.

Climb up the tree and set up. Wait all day and not see a single deer. Climb down from the tree and go through the same steps in reverse. Repeat tomorrow, enduring the ridicule of friends and family who, after a month start talking to me in a slow and calming manner.