I parked on Shaker Jerry and followed an old ATV trail toward the rock where I shot my buck hast year. It was a shorter steeper climb than going up the side of the clear cut field. It thought it would be a quieter hike in so that is the route we would take to sit on the rock in the morning.I brought up wood so we could have a fire at night. There wasn’t much wood so it was a good thing that I did. (Bring wood up if you can).
We dressed warm as it seemed cold. I wanted Kevin to focus on his gun and hunting so I took my pack both days with extras for both of us. It was heavy. Both days the temperature started out around 34. It warmed up to mid 50’s. They said it may start raining Saturday afternoon and in to Sunday. I over packed with a blanket, rain gear, more gloves, etc. It warmed up quickly so we definitely overdressed. It didn’t rain until Saturday night and ended Sunday morning. So we didn’t get wet in the woods.
The flue was closed at the house. I opened the flue so we could have a fire. I closed the flue when we left so OPEN THE FLUE before you start a fire. Had a nice fire on Friday night.
We were up at 5:30AM on Saturday morning (Oct. 25). Had breakfast and out the door by 6:30AM. My plan was to be ready to walk up to the rock as soon as we could see and may get lucky and jump something on the way in. Didn’t see or hear anything on the way in. We settled in at the rock.
Kevin is getting over a cold. Not a problem until we were sitting on the rock for a while. He had to cough or clear his throat rather frequently
anytime we sat for any length of time. DO YOU THINK THE DEER COULD HEAR THAT!! I was frustrated as I like to sit for a good amount of time and QUIETLY blend in. Kevin was sleepy so rested for a few minutes while I kept an eye out fore movement.We can see the edge of the clear cut field at the top. Saw a father/son go by on the edge of that field mid morning. Kevin wanted to walk so we left the rock and went to the field. We walked across the field toward the ATV trail near the Squiggle sign. There is a clump of trees the guy left alone on the way to the trail. We went left. There was a deer in the clump of trees. We heard it but didn’t see it. It went right toward that little pond. 2 weeks prior Kevin and I saw a rub and a run right there. I wanted to go the direction of the deer but Kevin wanted to keep going left. WE WENT LEFT and ended up on the ATV trail about 100 yards from the squiggle sign. We continued left on the ATV trail going toward the landing. Saw another father/son coming up the trail. They said they hadn’t seen anything yet. We continued toward the landing.
I decided to take the swamp trail so we took a right before the landing. The ATV people have cleared the brush and fallen trees so it is much easier to walk. Didn’t see anything. Had Kevin in front of me 30 yards or so as we walked. I kept telling Kevin to SLOW DOWN and WALK QUIETLY all weekend as THIS IS NOT A HIKE … It is what it is with an 11 year old. Then again, I remember Rick telling me (no … he yelled at me) the same thing constantly when I started hunting. I was 30 at the time!
We saw another spot that overlooked a clearing and stopped there for a while. We ended up looping back around then back to the truck by 1:30PM. We had lunch at the house then back to the rock later that afternoon.The rain held off until we came out of the woods. I drove to the store to buy Kevin some cough drops to try to keep him quiet. We made spaghetti for dinner and built another fire. It rained real hard with wind gusts up to 40mph.
I was up at 5:30AM again on Sunday. Was still raining a bit and very dark because of the cloud cover. I let Kevin sleep a bit longer. The rain pretty much stopped by 7:15AM and it was getting light enough to see so we were out the door by 7:30AM.
We drove half way to where we were going to park and I realized I forgot the cough drops. I TURNED AROUND. We parked and went up the trail to the rock again. We sat for a while. The cough drops DIDN’T WORK!! Kevin didn’t struggle as much if we kept moving so we did a loop behind the rock in the pines down the edge of the field. Saw a run and a very large rub. Came back around to the rock. I suggested to Kevin we should walk 10 – 15 feet in from the edge of the field and go toward where we jumped the deer the day before. Instead, Kevin wanted to go to the ridge at the top of the clear cut field and have a sandwich. He went to the top and sat down on a rock. It
overlooks the lower part of the field. I was 30 yards behind. When I arrived I took off my pack and started to take out the sandwiches. I looked up and saw deer jump up and move broad side to us. It was 125 yards or so away. I told Kevin shoot. He raised and cocked his gun. Before he could pull the trigger the deer turned away from us and disappeared. NUTS. Kevin had a 20 gauge with a rifled slug so he may have made the shot but I'm not actually sure. I need to get him a 30/30 or a .243 for next year. The deer we saw was bedding down between the 2 birch trees at the far right of picture. The deer went left and through the notch to the left away from us. It was a good size deer. I left my binoculars in the truck so couldn’t tell if it was a buck or doe. It moved like a buck with its head down and no flag. We waited a while to see if the deer would loop back around but no such luck.
We had a Harvest Party at church that started at 4PM so Kevin wanted to get back for that. We went back to the house and packed up. We went to the rock at the bottom of the field for our last 2 hours. The rock is between the same 2 trees. You can watch the whole side of the field so it has an open view. I had a spike come out from the trees last year and feed the day before opening rifle so all I could do is watch.Kevin had a great time as did I. Lots of great Boys time memories.
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