Well, Gary asked, and I am here to deliver... read on at your own peril .
Thursday afternoon, I was getting the itch. Hadn't been out since opening day, the weather looked great, and a hundred other reasons I "needed" to get away for a hunting trip. So I messaged BriarFriar and quickly worked out a deal to borrow one of his lovely canoes for the screaming price of "just bring it back in one piece".
Friday afternoon I was on the road, with a short detour to load up my water chariot. By 5 o'clock I was paddling across a lake to check out a creek and hopefully find a place to sit the next morning. The thing about canoes though, is they are only worth the price of admission if they get you somewhere that has animals, and though I found some oak trees, the sign was slim to none of any deer or pigs. Drat.
Soo, on to plan B. Saturday morning I had the boat in early, and the dawn found me working my way in the general direction of a different feeder creek.
Well, the views sure seemed to make the whole thing worthwhile if you ask me. Anyways, it was a mile across open water, and I hit the creek right around legal light like I planned. The stratagem was to just go upstream till I found a hot crossing, then pop up in a tree and rain down shafts of death on all the unsuspecting deer and pigs. This is public land after all, and we can't be picky.
However, the best laid plans of mice and... well, lets just say I eventually had covered two miles of creek bed without finding a single good crossing to hunt! Not one to quit, I decided it was time to just start taking expeditions into random spots. This was problematic because the banks were steep and slick. So as soon as I found a spot I could safely slip and slither my way up to the forest, I did. And I found myself... in squirrel heaven. My goodness, there were pecans EVERYWHERE. And squirrels running rampant through the leaves! Well, I had a judo tip in the quiver, and I decided a bird in the hand was worth two deer in the bush. This trip had just become a squirrel hunt.
Ssssss-thwack! And down went a bushy tail. I was on the board! I scarcely had time to clean blood off the arrow before it was away after an oblivious skwirl sibling. Missed by a hair, but the pecan siren song was too great, and the cheeky little guy hopped a couple feet left and tempted me again. Out came the pig sticker, a Magnus stinger tipped arrow with trad vanes. Ssss-thwak! and I had a brace. Possibly enough for pie now!
After much blundering around I managed to scare the rest of the tree climbers back into their leafy homes, and I decided I needed to go scout a new creek. Back to the lake I paddled, only to find I'd made a serious mistake in judgement. Remember how calm that water looked in the light of the dawn? Well the wind was howling away and the whitecaps were absolutely not safe for a mile trip in a crosswind. I was stuck. So I texted my wife, told her I'd be late, and did the only logical thing. I went back upstream to hunt till the wind died down!
Well, the rest of the day was eventful, but fruitless. I whiffed shots on another 5 squirrels. But I plucked fur on two, and no arrow was off by more than an inch. To cap it all off, I broke my cardinal rule, and tried to shoot a squirrel from his tree. I missed in rather glorious fashion, and if you find my arrow in orbit, I'd like it back please!
The wind did die down, and I made it back safe to the truck right as dark was starting to fall. All in all, a great break from the day to day routine.
Thursday afternoon, I was getting the itch. Hadn't been out since opening day, the weather looked great, and a hundred other reasons I "needed" to get away for a hunting trip. So I messaged BriarFriar and quickly worked out a deal to borrow one of his lovely canoes for the screaming price of "just bring it back in one piece".
Friday afternoon I was on the road, with a short detour to load up my water chariot. By 5 o'clock I was paddling across a lake to check out a creek and hopefully find a place to sit the next morning. The thing about canoes though, is they are only worth the price of admission if they get you somewhere that has animals, and though I found some oak trees, the sign was slim to none of any deer or pigs. Drat.
Soo, on to plan B. Saturday morning I had the boat in early, and the dawn found me working my way in the general direction of a different feeder creek.
Well, the views sure seemed to make the whole thing worthwhile if you ask me. Anyways, it was a mile across open water, and I hit the creek right around legal light like I planned. The stratagem was to just go upstream till I found a hot crossing, then pop up in a tree and rain down shafts of death on all the unsuspecting deer and pigs. This is public land after all, and we can't be picky.
However, the best laid plans of mice and... well, lets just say I eventually had covered two miles of creek bed without finding a single good crossing to hunt! Not one to quit, I decided it was time to just start taking expeditions into random spots. This was problematic because the banks were steep and slick. So as soon as I found a spot I could safely slip and slither my way up to the forest, I did. And I found myself... in squirrel heaven. My goodness, there were pecans EVERYWHERE. And squirrels running rampant through the leaves! Well, I had a judo tip in the quiver, and I decided a bird in the hand was worth two deer in the bush. This trip had just become a squirrel hunt.
Ssssss-thwack! And down went a bushy tail. I was on the board! I scarcely had time to clean blood off the arrow before it was away after an oblivious skwirl sibling. Missed by a hair, but the pecan siren song was too great, and the cheeky little guy hopped a couple feet left and tempted me again. Out came the pig sticker, a Magnus stinger tipped arrow with trad vanes. Ssss-thwak! and I had a brace. Possibly enough for pie now!
After much blundering around I managed to scare the rest of the tree climbers back into their leafy homes, and I decided I needed to go scout a new creek. Back to the lake I paddled, only to find I'd made a serious mistake in judgement. Remember how calm that water looked in the light of the dawn? Well the wind was howling away and the whitecaps were absolutely not safe for a mile trip in a crosswind. I was stuck. So I texted my wife, told her I'd be late, and did the only logical thing. I went back upstream to hunt till the wind died down!
Well, the rest of the day was eventful, but fruitless. I whiffed shots on another 5 squirrels. But I plucked fur on two, and no arrow was off by more than an inch. To cap it all off, I broke my cardinal rule, and tried to shoot a squirrel from his tree. I missed in rather glorious fashion, and if you find my arrow in orbit, I'd like it back please!
The wind did die down, and I made it back safe to the truck right as dark was starting to fall. All in all, a great break from the day to day routine.
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