Guys - I spent all day walking some public land on Saturday, scouring the seemingly endless acreage for hot stand sites for 2008. At this point, I've lost count on days and hours in this place. It's immense.
1.3 miles deep - I walked into this:
Picture a hugehollow running North-to-South - with thebottombeing a swampy mess of cascading beaver dams, stepping down the hollow, dam-by-dam. The east-facing slopeis a rosebush jungle, replete with bedding activity, gnawed-up timber, beaver slides, black cherry, andred oak. Above the bedding area, there's an overgrowncoal strip benchcarved into the mountainside - the opening is smattered with scrub bush and open grazing. The ridge runs long and steady, withendless bedding area on the bank between the beaver dams and the old coal strip. The whole area is thick with deer sign.
The coal strip on the bench aboveis scattered with deer droppings, suggesting some of the highest deer density I've seen yet. Not much real fresh stuff, but a lot of older scatthat's been laying around for a while. It's abundantly clear that they're not yarded-up in great numbers inthere now, but they'll be back in due time. This area isn't a one-hit-wonder. This puzzle has piecesstrewn everywhere.
So,there I am, sipping on someorange Powerade, leaning on my walking stick at the bottom treeline of this ancientcoal strip ona faint trail traversing the bench parallel to the hollow. Things start coming together. Details start becoming more and more relevant. The lay of the land and its relationship to these trails start making more and more sense. One area in particular bottle-necks the bench tight up against the ridges above and below, pinching the trails together, leaving a visible concentration of activity.
One trail in particular stands out. It'snot just any deer trail- it's intelligently placed just above the bedding area and just inside the coverbelow the open grazing area.Just out of sight and only one leap away from the dense thicket below. A few smallish rubs are sprinkled around the pinchpoint.
I know this is a buck trail... But why? Why is he here? What is it about this place? Why doesn't it look like it's seen much recent use?
The wind is dead still. Air is stagnant. As I stare down across the bedding area below, my breath rises and thegentle thermal sweepsthe steam right back into my eyes. Oh yeah. Asked and answered. This is it. The boys will be here when the time comes.
"Mark it."
"Done."And my buddy puts his GPS back in his bag, smiling like a butcher's dog.
Stand #7 is signed and sealed.
About 200 yards around the ridge, I found a little bit of evidence to reinforce my gut feeling.
5.6 miles of clambering through thickets and ledges yielded zero sheds, 4 sore feet and 2 doe carcasses.Suffice it to say,it was a pretty uneventful day, with the only real points of excitement being one new dynamite stand site, a few really big signpost rubs, and one really close encounter with abig old tom.
Hopefully Mr. Tomlearned a life-changing lesson about how his lustful pursuits can get him into a really sticky situation.
As it stands right now, Imay nothave much time to hunt these stands this fall, but I'll at least get twodays per week, and maybe the first week or two in November. I'm planning on hunting this stand for the first timeright around 11/1. And I'll be therewith bells on.