It was definitely not the best day of hunting we have ever had.  We had planned to skip Friday afternoon so that Hubby could come up with me, but thanks to an illness, he didn’t come and I missed the opportunity to catch the last couple of hours with Dad in the woods.

With the moon almost full, Dad and I figured that we would walk in extra early on Saturday and get set up before the deer started moving.  My 4 am wake up call (Mom coming to wake me up so an alarm does not wake the baby up) came at 4:26.  I have never jumped out of bed and dressed so fast!  The problem is that I sit when I hunt, so I dress in many, many… many! layers.  It also means that it takes me more than 30 minutes to get dressed so that I dont get over heated and sweaty before I leave the house.  Not that Saturday.  I was sweating and rushed.  A bad combo.

The moon had disappeared behind thick clouds by the time we started along the roadway.  We got the flashlight out and rounded the corner.

Snap! 

Leaves crunched off to our right.  My mind raced.  If we could get to the Sky Condo, then we could get ahead of this deer. Dad stopped. We listed and heard more steps.  We continued on our path towards the Sky Condo then stopped again.  More steps in the leaves to our right.  It was as though this deer was walking with us to the Sky Condo.  We continued on and as quietly as we could, climbed into the Sky Condo and waited to see if the deer would appear.

Dad walking from one stand to another

He never did.  The rest of the day was spent dealing with some surprising guests and looking for a good buck.   We found a lot!! of scrapes and some rubs. It is very clear that there are a handful of bucks around and marking their scent in as many locations as possible.

Three trees with varying levels of rub marks

A scrape and rub probably belonging to the spike

Saturday was a perfect day to be out in the woods because it was so quiet.  A deer could have stepped out at any moment, but none did.  We ended the weekend without seeing any meat to bring home.  We know there are plenty of deer around, we just need to figure out how to be in the right place at the right time.