Hi again,

Also wanted to let you know that you may want to use deer scents/lures to up your chances. Make sure to buy something at a shop once you get there and see what kind of scents are native to the area (don' t use apple scent when there are no apples for miles).

A space blanket may be good insurance, but don' t hunker down unless you have no other choice. At least a hunter or two die of exposure every year in the Catskills and Adirondacks from becoming lost and being forced to spend the night. I' ve used space blankets before and they only seem to get warm for me if used under another thicker blanket or sleeping bag. Temps. up there get well below zero at night, a fire may not even save you. Plan on getting out.

Watch the weather and if there is a chance of significant snow, stay close to your camp/vehicle and head back if it starts coming down hard. Whiteouts and blizzards are common and you may not be able to get a satelite fix with your GPS under these conditions. Not to get you worried though! Just treat the deep woods as if you only had you to count on, and use caution and common sense. Almost all hunters who I' ve heard of getting into trouble did something they shouldn' t have, like go in when there was a storm coming without adequate clothing and then try to stay instead of getting out, or stand on the very edge of a ledge or rock and slip off, breaking a leg.

Just make sure you have fresh batteries in your GPS, set a waypoint at your vehicle/camp, turn it off and put it in your pocket, and then goto the saved waypoint to get you back when you want to leave. Easier than setting routes and saves battery power. Make sure to set another point if you go up a hill face or through blowdowns and only find one path to do it. That way you can quickly get back to the opening without searching for it.

By the way, pay attention to the deer traffic on the logging roads since you said there are some. Deer take the path of least resistance and will travel any open path if the cover is extremely thick, especially big bucks since they have trouble navigating through the almost impenetrable cover with their wide racks.

And if all else fails, try some fishing for brown trout up there under those deep undercut streambanks, there are some lunkers and they spawn late October to November, but I' m not sure the season is open up there then (should be)!

Best Regards,
Mark
http://www.buckhuntersecrets.com