No birds, just deer. Funny when you are deer hunting it’s no deer,just turkeys.
With no birds gracing our setup. We picked up and decided to cover some ground to see if we could run into something. The woods were starting to green up the “baby leaves” on the oaks. The leavers were small but perfectly shaped, a light lime green not yet dark green in full working order of dark green. I think my girls would describe them as “cute”, or “cute little leaves’. Any way the woods were green. The evening rains have given way to clear pastel blue sky. The small leaves held remnants of the evening’s rain and the woods took joy spilling it on us we slithered through underbrush. The old leaves underfoot were mushy and quiet. Nice for getting to our destination a small opening at the bottom of a very steep ridge.
We approached the ridge and I looked at Alex, he is 21 and in excellent shape. Me, not so much. We going straight over? What about the path I cleared last year?, It was easy walking, angled into the side hill with an easy steady grade. Kind of winding like a road up a mountain.
“No let’s go straight over, we can follow the deer path” My son said.
My mouth said, “Ok”. my mind said, “Really?” At least it was down not up, always looking for the positive. I understood the logic. More steps more chances to get busted before we get there. I thought what about the fat 56 year old bowling ball bouncing his butt all the way down when he takes a misstep? I am sure my son thought of that too. A win win for him. Over the ridge quick and surprise some birds or split a gut laughing at the old guy bounce. I get it.
Which leads me to some questions. Do old deer or old turkeys take different paths for different reasons compared to the young ones? I am sure some old deer’s knees hurt just like mine. I am sure some trophy dude has overstayed his visits to the food plot. I might have to consider this the next time I set up stand. Or not.
At mt limit
-Mark