My vacation for deer hunting this year has coincided with the disappearance of deer all around these parts. The extreemly heavy rains we had on Monday (3" ) and Wednesday (2" ) last week kept me inside because it was a downpour . . . and I did manage to harvest a large doe Tuesday evening--she was one of the 2 or 3 I saw all last week.

But this heat . . . . [:@]

Yesterday, after another uneventful morning hunt, I asked my wife if she wanted to take a drive down to Skyline Drive in the Shenendoah--since the temps here were already in the mid 80' s and it was only 11am. We left here a short while later as temps continued on toward 90 degrees--no point in hunting in that kind of weather.

I thought we' d surely seen TONS of deer on Skyline Drive since every trip we take down there results in hundreds of deer sighted including some huge bucks. By 1/2 hour after sunset, we had sighted just one lone doe--and 4 BEARS! [] The remainder of the trip back up Skyline Drive resulted in a few more doe sightings (very few) and one small 6 point, but nothing at all like it has been in every year prior. The stinkin' heat is causing the deer to stay in the coolest place they can find until well after dark and to be back there before sunrise.

It' s supposed to be around 80 again today with heavy rains coming back tomorrow.

I slept in this morning. [:@]