Last Week of Deer Season

My son, one of his friends from college, and myself arrived at camp on Friday, Dec. 10 for the last two days of deer season. We opened the camp, lit the stove, and then hunted all day. We put on several drives in the thick laurel and I found out that I'm not as young as I used to be. The snow began around 9:30 am and it snowed most of the day. By evening we had not seen any deer, but had another 3-4 inches of fresh snow. My father and brother joined us later that night and we all hunted together on Saturday. There were numerous deer tracks in the snow, but we did not see a single deer between the five of us in two days. It's just been one of those kinds of hunting seasons this year. I've hunted four days in Maryland and three in Pennsylvania and have not gotten any shooting. Nevertheless, it was great to get out and hunt in the beautiful mountains of Tioga County. It's always great to shoot a nice buck, but no day hunting is ever a "bad day." It will probably be Spring until we get back up to camp again.

Deer Season 2010

Dad and I arrived on Sunday to open camp and start the furnace. It was a beautiful crisp November day. While the camp was warming up a bit, we took a drive around Leetonia to see how many guys were in the woods. We noticed that one of the camps was not even open this year for Deer Season. Most of it's members have died or are too old to come up anymore. The younger generation just didn't take over. It was really sad to see this as we always enjoyed chatting with these guys each hunting season. Back in the 70's it was common for there to be 10-15 guys in the camp. After a nice dinner of lasagna, my brother showed up and the three of us eagerly awaited the 4am alarm on Monday. After breakfast, we all went to our traditional first day spots and listened as the yelling of the first deer drive began across the hollow. Almost immediately, the shooting began. There was quite a lot of shooting today...more than the past few years. Unfortunately, none of the shooting was ours. I saw a few doe, and my brother saw several bear (the one's we didn't see last week in bear season). Nevertheless, a bad day of hunting (in my opinion, there is no such thing)is always better than a good day at work. I realized as I sat in my tree stand that this was my 36th consecutive first day of deer season in Tioga County. I've never missed an opening day since I was 12 and was able to hunt. We are really fortunate to have such a wonderful place to return to each year. Hearing the Tuesday forecast of 3" of rain and flooding, we decided to drive home Monday night. I went back to work today and saved my personal day for another day when the weather would not be so awful. We'll be up next week for the final few days of the season.

Bear Season

Dad and I traveled to camp for the day for the opening of Bear Season on Nov. 20. We expected to see a lot of hunters since this was the very first year that the season opened on a Saturday. We were surprised, however, to find that there were not that many hunters around. For the first few hours, we hunted in the area where I traditionally hunt on the first day of deer season. We did not see anything, and there was very little deer sign. In the afternoon, I decided to hunt the thick laurel. I saw several deer including one nice buck. Later in the afternoon, a group of young guys put on a few drives and moved some more deer past me, but they did not see any bear. There was no shooting the entire day in our immediate area. We began the journey home around 5:00. It was fun to have a day to hunt bear, but even more exciting to see more deer than we've seen in a while. Based on what I've seen this fall, I'm leaning towards changing my traditional opening day of deer season location. After spending the opening day of deer in Maryland this Saturday,
I'll be heading back to camp for the first two days of deer season.

Turkey Hunt / Fall Cleanup

On Friday, Nov. 5, I traveled to Bloomsburg University to see my daughter perform in the Fall Play. Afterward, I traveled up to camp. I arrived around 12:45 am on a very cold night. Opened camp, cracked a few windows and got some sleep. At 5:00 I awoke, closed camp, and warmed up in my truck. I traveled to a faithful hunting spot and had breakfast in the truck while waiting for the sun to come up. I hunted all morning in an area where I've seen turkeys in the past. I did see a few deer and a lot of rubs & scrapes. The buck seemed to be in full rut. I found an area where there was a lot of turkey scratchings. I did hear a few but was not able to get them to come into my call. Around 11:30, I went back to camp to clean up the leaves. It took a few hours to get the leaves cleaned up. Later in the afternoon, I hunted in the area where we saw the turkeys a few weeks ago. It didn't take long to discover why the turkeys were hanging in this area. Unlike the area around camp, there were acorns all over the place. This area may be a good area to pursue deer later in the year.

Fall Getaway

I had Columbus Day off work, so I took the family up to Camp for a one-night getaway. We got to see a black bear and a flock of turkeys on the way into camp. We arrived in time to have a campfire and roast some marshmallows. The night was unbelievably clear. I've never seen such a starlit sky. Around 10 pm the Hoot Owls put on quite a concert - one like I've never heard before. We awoke to a temperature of 40 degrees. The sleeping bags felt great, but it was hard to crawl out of them. After a breakfast of pancakes, we had time for a walk and then a bike ride on the Pine Creek Trail. The drive home proved to be interesting as we encountered thunderstorms, hail the size of quarters, and then a beautiful rainbow. There's nothing like Fall in the mountains of Northern PA. The leaves around camp were past their peak. However, around the Steam Valley area they were absolutely gorgeous. As always, it was great to get back to camp...even for just a day. I hope to make one more trip to clean up some leaves before hunting season. On the way down the mountain, we saw a flock of turkeys. There seem to be a lot of them around this fall. We snapped this picture of the last few to cross the road.

Summer Vacation

We spent our annual week-long vacation at Pettecote Junction Campground in Cedar Run. It was a beautiful week weather-wise...especially for August. Temperatures were in the 70's during the day and 50's at night. We only used the a/c one night. One of the highlights of the week was hiking the Turkey Path from Colton Point down to Pine Creek and back up to the top again (see picture). Our kids were really troopers. I don't think many 3 and 5-year old kids have made that trip on foot. It is truly a beautiful trail. There are some beautiful falls near Four Mile Run. We're anxious to hike it again when the water is running higher. I spent a day at Camp mowing the lawn and picking up some fallen branches. The porcupines are still chewing up everything at all the cabins. I ran into Paula (Mountain Girl). She was replacing Charlotte's porch floor down in Cedar Run. Our daughter remembered her from two years ago. She said "she was the woman who showed me the snake." We got to see a few nice deer, and several bald eagles during the week. Of course, one of the favorite activities is doing a slow float down Pine Creek in an inner tube. It's always great to get to the mountains of Tioga County.

Spring Clean Up

Yesterday, we got a chance to go up to camp to do some mowing and clean up. It was a beautiful two days weather-wise. Last night was a beautiful full-moon which lit up the entire forest. We mowed the grass, and fixed up a few things around the camp. The grass was very high and everything looks very green in the mountains. However, the streams are extremely low. We never remembered the streams running this low 20-30 years ago. However as we were talking, we realized that there is a lot more vegetation in the woods than there was 30 years ago. That could be the reason for the lack of water in the streams. Last evening, we took a drive down to Cedar Run for some ice cream. We saw several deer on the way back to camp. A potent storm must have come through in the past week as we had another tree come down behind the cabin and noticed many others down while driving around. Any chance to get to visit the Tioga woods is welcome change to the daily grind. This trip was no exception. The time always goes too fast when were at Camp. We hope to get back soon!

Rainy Day at Camp

This past week, I had a rare day off work. I was going to travel up to camp for a day of Spring Gobbler hunting and trout fishing. However, the weatherman was calling for steady rain the entire time and his prediction proved to be true. When I got home from work, I decided to ask my 3 year-old son if he wanted to go up to the cabin with me. He was so excited, he was practically packing his stuff before the words were off my lips. We left home around 7 pm and drove straight up to camp. As the weatherman promised, it rained hard all night and all the next day. We spent most of the time inside the cabin playing games and telling stories, but it was a great day together. Our first father-son overnight trip to the mountains. There was one 20 minute long break in the rain which was long enough for me to cut up the downed trees (got a new spark plug for the chainsaw). However, the torrential rain prevented me from getting the grass cut. Oh well, that gives me another "excuse" to have to go back to camp again soon. This was one trip that I was glad that I left the gun and fishing rod at home. A lot of memories were made on this trip.

Spring Trip

We took our annual Spring camping trip to Petticote Junction Campground the last weekend in April. I had the opportunity to visit camp on April 24. Everything seemed to be fine after the exceptionally hard winter. The snow brought a few trees down. However, everything else seemed just fine. The porcupines are still chewing all of the wooden edges of our cabin and deck. They seem to be working on all the cabins in the area. I wish we had a solution for that problem. I took my chainsaw with me to cut up some of the downed trees, however, I couldn't get it started. My wife, kids, and I took a nice afternoon hike. As we were approaching a clearing in the woods, we walked right up on a nice mature gobbler that was strutting out in the opening. He saw us and didn't hang around long, but it was quite a treat to see. We saw a few other hen turkeys while driving in the truck. We saw a surprising amount of deer sign and bear and turkey sign were just about everywhere. After we enjoyed our picnic lunch, we headed back to the campground. That evening, we enjoyed a nice meal at the Cedar Run Inn to celebrate my wife's birthday. The food was delicious as always. On Sunday, we headed back home. It was great to get away to the mountains for a few days.