This weekend marks my second year deer hunting at the "Forty" and it looks like it was just going to be me, my cousin Rob, and his step-son A.J. hunting this year. The DNR changed the seasons around again, so instead of the normal 3-day season, they expanded it to an 11-day season, but I still only got enough time off work to hunt the opening three days. Rob got a few more days off work so he would be staying up there until Tuesday.
I left my house in the 'burban on Friday around 1200. I had worked the night before and only got about 4 hours of sleep, but I was pretty excited to get up there. I met Rob and A.J. at their house in St. Michael and we then we both headed north from there. We had to take two vehicles since I had to be back on Sunday and Rob was going to be staying longer. The traffic heading up wasn't too bad. I think a lot of fellow deer hunters were leaving early also and add to that some snow/sleet that was falling, the normal two hour drive took about 2 1/2.
When we pulled into the Forty, I noticed the driveway was pretty wet looking again. I know they had got some rain up there but I didn't know how much. Rob was pulling a trailer with an ATV on it and got stuck once, I didn't get stuck at all, but I still was able to remember how get down the drive from a few weekends ago. I would say the road was a little better than the second weekend of duck hunting, but not by much. The 'burban was covered in mud AGAIN! After we got the cabin opened up and the vehicles unpacked, we headed into town to get some dinner. We chose the Bowling Alley again since we had good luck there the past couple years. After a very good dinner and a couple of beers, we headed back to the cabin and crashed. We were all very tired and with a full belly and the new propane furnace on, we slept very well.
We woke up on Saturday morning to about 1/2 inch of snow, 20 degree temperatures, and a sustained wind from the northwest at 25 mph, and gusts up to 40 mph. So needless to say it was a little chilly. We had three stands up this year, Rob's permanent one in the valley, the one I put up between the two sloughs on the top of the hill, and the portable stand in the woods behind the cabin. Rob and A.J. went to the permanent stand, and I headed to the one on the top of the hill. The three of us made it about 2 1/2 hours before we were totally frozen. Neither one of us saw a single deer. We headed back to the cabin to warm up and have a snack and plan the rest of the day.
After our snack, we made the decision to move me to the stand behind the cabin in the woods. I was very happy with this since the other stand I was in, I had the wind blowing directly at my face the entire time! We finished up shooting hours after spending about 4 more hours in the stands. Neither one of us saw anything. We figured since the corn was about 75% still up, the way the wind was blowing, and having an 11-day season, the deer just weren't moving. The other bad thing about the temperatures dropping is that all the mud we had on our vehicles from the driveway is now frozen to a concrete like consistency...but at least the driveway was frozen too! After we got warmed up at the cabin and got the blaze orange off, we headed into town for dinner. Tonight we let A.J. choose dinner and he wanted to eat at the Pizza Ranch. I personally made it my point for the Pizza Ranch to not make money with my servings! We all left and headed back out to the Forty and weer all in bed at 2100 hours! The wind really took a lot out of all of us!
The next day when we woke up there was only about a 5 mph wind but the temperature was about 8 degrees! We all headed back out to the stands we ended up in yesterday and listened to the woods wake up. I was very excited to be able to hear things in the woods today, with the wind blowing the way it was, you just couldn't hear anything yesterday. We sat for about 2 hours and we were totally frozen again. Rob and I both determined that we were going to have to do some shopping for new deer hunting clothes and boots before next year, we were both very cold. We headed back up to the cabin to warm up and have a snack. We figured since we needed to move around and get warm, we would get the cabin cleaned and our things packed up in the vehicles. We then actually had to leave and drop A.J. off at Rob's dad's cabin up the road so he could catch a ride home with them. When we got back from dropping off A.J., we headed back down to the stands for a while longer.
I only ended up making it about an hour longer in the stand once we got back. My feet were ice cold and I could not get them warm. I headed down from the stand and let Rob know i was leaving and hit the road. The 'burban made it out of the frozen Forty just fine and the drive home went very fast...almost no traffic. It was very nice being back at 1500 so I could see Shannon and Maeve.
I had a great time deer hunting this year and really wish I would have had a chance to take more time off work and head back up for another weekend. Hopefully Rob will have more luck during the week and the next weekend. Well, until next year, the white tail wins again!
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