Bear Season 2014

I arrived at camp on Friday, Nov. 21 around 8:30. It took me a while to get the stove working tonight. Temperature outside was 12-degrees, but it felt even colder. The sky was crystal clear and starlit. Morning came early, and I started up the mountain to where I had seen fresh bear sign two weeks before. Temperature when I left the camp was 3 degrees. I had a nice-racked three point walk up to me first thing in the morning. Later, I found some fresh bear tracks and followed them for a while. I lost the tracks when I hit the south side of the mountain and the snow was gone. A lot of shooting in the area today and I saw two bears being loaded onto trucks. I went back to camp around noon and used my leaf blower to clean up all the leaves that had fallen. The temperature had warmed up to around 25 degrees. A lost hunter showed up around 12:30. He had gotten separated from his group on a drive and heard my leaf blower. He followed the sound to me, and I helped direct him back to his camp. It's easy to get lost in these woods if you don't know your way around. I went back out hunting around 1:30. Some hunters told me they wounded a bear but hadn't found it, so I focused my hunting in that area in case I could find him. Around 3:00 it stared raining and I noticed it freezing on contact. I decided to head back down to camp to get down out of the mountains before the roads got too bad. My truck was coated with ice when I arrived back at camp. The roads were a bit slick, but I made it down to Cedar Run. The drive home was ok until I got to Jersey Mills. When I hit the bridge, I lost control of my F-150 but managed to keep it on the road. From then on, I drove about 20 mph with my flashers on. Just south of Waterville, the traffic was stopped. I sat there for 2 1/2 hours. I've never seen the roads this bad. When I got out of my truck to stretch my legs, I slipped right down on my can. The roads were so icy, I couldn't even stand up. The traffic finally started moving, but very slowly. When I got to Jersey Shore, things were no better. Cars littered the highway on both sides and in the median. It was creep and crawl the whole way to Williamsport. It took me about 4 hours to go 35 miles. I stopped for dinner on the other side of the mountain near Allenwood. The temperature was rising now. From then on, the roads were fine. However, in all of my trips up North, these were the worst roads I've ever encountered. This time of year, you need to be prepared for anything. Always have flashlights, flares, chains, etc in your vehicle. Now, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving with the family, the opening of Deer Season in Maryland on Saturday, and the first few days of Deer Season back up here in the Northwoods. I'll have a tough time topping last year's first week of deer season. I already tagged one in Maryland in the early muzzleloader season back in October. I love this time of year!

Turkey Season

I made the traditional trip to camp for Turkey Season on Friday night, November 7. Arrived at camp around 8:30 and lit the stove. The next day, I covered over 6-7 miles. I'm definitely not in the shape I used to be. My legs were very sore by the end of the day. There is an abundant acorn crop this year. We haven't had acorns like this in our area for many years. This is good for the wildlife, but it's going to make hunting tougher this year. I didn't see any turkeys today, but did see signs that they were around...as well as deer and bear sign. I'll be coming back up in two weeks for the opening of Bear Season.