When it is sunny out and there is snow on the ground, it is hard not to want to be outside.  Last weekend, we brought in the trail cameras and tried to figure out where we should be hunting for the 2016 season.  It is never too early to start prepping for the next season!

I pulled up to where we normally park and as we got out of the car, there was nothing but deer tracks all around us. Big, little, going in both directions… all kinds of tracks.

Only a couple of feet from the roadway with this bed.  I stood in the bed and snapped another photo of the beds around it.  I posted that picture on our FB page and asked people how many deer beds they could find.

The deer bed closest to the road

Four more deer beds

If you look through the brush and above the snow mound, you can see my car.  I am always amazed when we find out just how close the deer are to us.  We know that we have a group of 3-5 does around so this grouping could be them all bedding down or it could be a couple of deer who bedded here on two or more occasions.

We could also see the super highway of trails running alongside of these beds and crossing the main roadway up to the Sky Condo.

A well used deer trail in the snow

We followed this trail to find out how close the deer were staying compared to where our tree seat and the Sky Condo are.  We could walk a few yards and find another well worn path or a deer bed or two or five.  During our entire woodland adventure, I counted 17 deer beds of all shapes, sizes and ages.  About seven inches of snow fell the week before so we could tell that the beds with the bare ground underneath were made the night it was snowing.  This also helped us age some of the tracks.

Dad blazed our path through the woods and we made a couple of large circles around the property.  We searched for well traveled paths that had the deer going both ways and we looked for areas that would make a good spot for me to sit in if we decide to move a couple of treeseats around.

We still have the better part of a year to wait but it is always fun to start thinking and planning, especially when you see these tracks!