The first thing I wanted to find was water. It's been a very dry summer so I figured if I could find water, I'd find deer. As I walked south down a trail from camp, I followed a fenceline that was private land to the west. There were several blinds along the fence on the private side and figured the public land must get a lot of pressure during gun season and smart private hunters sit on the property line waiting for deer to cross. I also thought that may mean there are feeders on the private side. So my amended game plan was to follow the property line and find a good trail running into private land. This method paid off fairly quickly and I found a good trail headed across the property line. I followed it south but didn't see any tracks or scat. There was pig sign EVERYWHERE. The trail petered out and I drifted south until hitting a big creek running east/west.
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| One of the buck rubs found |
Yes, I was camped out alone. It can be done, but you have to make sure and take proper precautions. I always leave a note at the house before I leave with where I plan to go, what I plan to do, when I left, and when I intend to return. I have a chl and keep a gun or two handy at all times. In the national forest you can't carry a pistol without a chl and there's a ton of pig and E Tx meth addict sign so there's no way you'll catch me out there without a blaster. Griz makes a pretty good alarm too. The poor thing is afraid of the dark and with the burn ban in place, we couldn't have a campfire. Well, right at dark an armadillo decided to make a trip all the way around our campsite...what a ruckus! Poor Griz about came unglued! I got tired of him freakin' so grab the pistol in one hand and the six-cell mag-lite in the other and head off to chase the dang thing outta camp. Griz was VERY worried but refused to leave the truck...little weenie.
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| Home Sweet Camp |
The night was absolutely gorgeous and I just love sleeping out under the stars, but the weather had other plans. Just about midnight the wind started blowing and I could smell the rain so we had to move the party into the cab of the truck. It was still awesome to listen to the fat raindrops hitting the roof of the truck and the lightening put on quite a show.
The next morning we headed back out with the plan of starting at the trail with the rubs and choosing a good tree to put a stand in. The wind started coming out of the east and it looked like the buck was traveling from east to west as all the rubs were on the northeast side of the trees. When choosing a tree I tried to find one large enough that it wouldn't sway a whole lot in the wind. I also wanted a tree that was straight and easy to climb, but that had some branches for cover. Luckily the trail was in a fairly open floodplain so I wouldn't need to cut any shooting lanes. I don't want anyone to come upon my spot and decide they like it as much as I do. Unfortunately, the wind started changing directions so I don't know how this spot's gonna work but it's the best place I've found so far. Only time will tell...
I settled on a couple of trees...one oak that was very straight about 15 yards from the trail. I don't want to be right on the trail as the deer would see me, but don't want to be too far so that I can't get a shot. A cedar also looked like it'd work and I liked it for the cover-scent properties and all the little branches sticking out that I could use for cover. I plan to go back out with my stand to practice setting it up and will end up using the tree that is the easiest to get set up in and gives me the best shooting opportunities.
Once I settled on a tree I decided to follow the creek bed back to the east and do a little exploring. The rain the night before gave me a great opportunity to see exactly what animals were moving at what time of day and what direction they were headed. The creek had a perfect sandy bottom and the rain was right at midnight so I knew that all the tracks I was seeing were from early that morning. I was able to figure out that all the deer tracks were headed north, which made sense as all the fresh tracks I'd seen from the night before were headed south.
I saw lots of coyote tracks and they were moving up and down the channel all along its length. There were a few deer tracks and tons of pigs tracks and wallows. This creek is perfect for pig hunting because the banks are really high. If I ever want to come and hunt pigs I know just where to go...just sit up on one of those bluffs above water and wait.
I ended up hiking about three miles southeast down the creek channel before heading back north to camp. Unfortunately I didn't see any critters that morning. I thought for sure we would sneak up on something in the creek with as quiet as the rain made the leaves. All we saw was a dead armadillo, though. I was surprised to find some cow tracks down in the creek, too. They were very fresh and at one point I could smell the cows, but never did get to see them.
Overall it was an awesome weekend. When we got back to camp I dozed off in the shade in my zero-gravity chair. Heading home was so hard but I was outta food and HUNGRY. Can't wait to go back!
On the way back we stopped at Coffee Mill Lake to see if it was holding any water. Griz loves to pose:
Lessons:
Don't forget the binoculars in your pack!
You can never have too much water with you.
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