Back again!

Aren't you just overjoyed to have me back again? ;-) I just got back around 1pm today to a cat who seems to have missed me. So here's the story of my weekend:

Dad came over about noonish with the scamp in tow and we headed out from here. We made it all the way thru the cities before we blew a tire on the scamp. If we had to blow a tire, we couldn't have done it any better. Had it blown 10 minutes earlier, we'd have been in the middle lane of the tunnel in St Paul. Yeesh!

After taking a twenty minute stop to change the tire (thankfully, we had a spare) we were back on the road again. We got to our campsite about 5:30, so it was already getting dark. Set up the tent (and the rest of camp) in the dark and then had a bit of supper. About 9pm or so we found my uncle Otto -- he managed to sneak past us and set up his camp a bit below us instead of next to us. Wasn't a big deal though -- he snores. ;-)

4am was up-and-at-em time. At least for the hunters. ;-) I stayed in bed until about 10am, then went out to the hunt site with a walkie talkie and radioed dad. Nothing. So I went back to camp and took a 3+ mile hike. Normally, a three mile hike isn't much of a big deal to me, but the area we hunt in (Whitewater) is all steep cliffs and valleys. That was a helluva trek -- I got winded enough to have to stop a few times. But it was fun. I saw a couple of doe, heard some turkeys, saw bear and fox scat, was harassed by gray squirrels and otherwise saw a smattering of birds.

After my hike, I did a bit of reading, and then went back out to the hunt site. I sat in the truck until dark and waited for dad. Still nothing -- he didn't even see a deer, and Otto only saw one tail. It was an unusually quiet opener, but probably due to the full moon and the rain.

The next day was much of the same. I did a little less hiking and a lot more reading. Though when I did go out, I saw three more doe in the ditch. Dad saw one doe, took a shot at her and missed. Otto saw nothing.

Dad managed to twist his knee out of place, and so that pretty much ended the hunting. We camped on Sunday night and then this morning broke camp and came home.

Over the weekend, I slept outside in the tent. The weather wasn't too bad, but it did get below freezing at night. However, I also got to listen to coyote and bard owls which dad didn't (he slept in the scamp). But I stayed warm enough, and it was nice not being woken up at 4am while he was getting ready to head out.

It sucks that we didn't get any deer this year, but it sounded like we weren't alone. Very few parties filled out this year, and what we did see on the road was pretty meager. A couple of really nice bucks were taken (some women got a 24-point buck while bow hunting last week!), but overall, no one seemed to have much luck. But it was still fun -- I managed to work my way thru 2.5 books and go on some really fun hikes.

But now I'm back in the saddle again, and see that I missed plenty of work while I was away. Yee haw! ;-) I hope everyone else had a fun weekend as well!