|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
I hunt Alone It would be dark soon and I knew she would be worried about me. I was still at least an hour from home but I continued to sit motionless on an old log with my back to an old Oak tree. A squirrel was moving through the limbs above me but I hardly noticed. My attention was riveted on a pair of does feeding on acorns just 40 yards away. One appeared to be nervous and kept looking back at the thick brush. I saw the horns first; just a dim outline was barely visible in the fading light. He was a nice 8-point Whitetail Buck. How lucky can you get on opening day? Darkness comes early to the Hardwood Bottoms and Swamps of the Alabama River in Southern Georgia. As a young man I had spent 7 years there in a small house on the edge of the Bullard Creek Wildlife Management Area. Living that close to a prime hunting area meant that all I had to do was start Hunting. I had no need to use my truck except to retrieve my harvest. I often hunted along the river bottoms. Moving very slowly, sometimes stopping to sit for a while on a log or stump, waiting, and always watching. It’s a comfortable way for me to hunt. I’ve never liked tree stands although I have taken my fair share of deer using them. To stalk an animal is the way I was meant to hunt. Maybe that’s why I prefer to hunt alone. It seems more personal that way, has more meaning. Don’t get me wrong I like my hunting buddies and there is the camaraderie and infectious excitement of spot and stalk. Watching your friend get his chance (using a spotting scope) is better than any Outdoor Hunting TV Show because your there and living it with him. A few years ago I was spending my December and January vacation time hunting Mulies in the Bradshaw’s. I have hunted the areas near my home for some time now and I have my favorite spots. The terrain often determines the escape routes that deer use in these areas and I had often witnessed deer pushed out of one particular area use a trail leading to the top of a mesa. I was hunting alone this day and had decided to climb up from the other side and wait for the deer on top. I thought it was a good tactic because this was the first day of javelina season and I expected the area to see some hunting pressure. After a pretty rough 2-hour climb I was in position. I had picked a spot about 30 yards below the crest. As I settled in and began to glass the little valley below I took a moment to just look around. At over 4000 feet above the desert floor the view is spectacular. Beautiful clear blue skies and not a cloud in the sight. I noticed something fly by. At first I though it was a bug but I quickly realized it was way too cold to be a bug. Actually it had suddenly gotten really cold. What happened next was a bit of a shock. There was a thunderclap that was so loud it was deafening. As I turned and looked back up the mountain a very dark, black cloud came rolling over the top in a rush. Now I had what I considered be warm clothing but I was not prepared for this. It really started to snow hard now and there was more thunder along with lighting. I opened my pack and put on every extra stitch of clothing I had and headed back over the top of that mountain. Only once before had I been this spooked. It had happened in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. I was hunting alone, again and had taken a spike on the last day of the season. Getting the animal field dressed I started to drag him out. It was getting dark and it started to snow really hard. I had to leave the animal and return the next day to get my venison. That experience was quite different from the one I now faced. It had been very quiet in those woods. The snow was deep, wet and heavy. This was completely different. It was more like a cross between a wind tunnel, snow machine and lighting storm all rolled into one. Visibility was extremely poor because I was actually in the clouds not to mention the snow. There was about a 50-knot wind and a stream of blowing snow now covered the ground. I knew I had to be very careful not to fall and break a leg. The hike, or what is probably a better term under the conditions, “descent” took twice as long as it did going up. The weird thing is that when I finally reached the truck the storm just stopped. I climbed in and fired her up. I was shivering uncontrollably. When I looked into the mirror I looked like one of those Mount Everest climbers you see in National Geographic. I was afraid to wipe my face because my mustache or eyebrows might break off. Well, I got back home after dark. She looked at me with that look I’ve seen for so many years and she smiled so I smiled back. I immediately started a nice big fire in the fireplace and as I set there beside my wife sipping a brandy and warming my toes I though about what a great day I had just had. Oh yeah, the whitetail at the beginning of the story. Well, it was only the first day of hunting season. God Bless.
Robert Glenn Willis Team AZOD |
|
||||||||||||||||||
About
AZOD.com
|
Privacy Statement |
Submission of info Policy|
E-mail the Editor |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
.JPG)
