This year the dear opener was a little different from past years as we had to pack bug spray and sun screen along with orange camo shorts. It is not normal to be in the deer stand with Coppertone #45 on, I mean this is Minnesota where we should have a couple of inches of snow on the ground and everyone complaining about how cold is to hunt. Never in my life have I had to go in because it was to hot to sit in the stand, global warming or the Herschel Walker trade? You decided.
The group included Mike and his son Jack, Wade, Jeff and Tom. We arrived in camp early Friday morning and were greeted with a mess inside the 606. The bus has not been used in over 5 years and after several hours cleaning and gallons of bleach it was back to is original form. We set up stands, chopped wood, although I do not know why, and got the deer camp back in order.That Friday night we had our traditional center cut pork chop dinner and I have to say the chops were out of this world.We hit the sack and all dreamed about aggressive mice chewing through our sleeping bags, or least the rest of them did I slept like a baby.
Opening day 5:00 am found us sitting at the dining tables watching the percolator and waiting for the morning cup of Joe. That done gear checked and appropriately put on it was off to seek our good fortune, or at least a deer. The woods were quite, the birds starting chirping. the squirrels rooting around and the deer staying as far away as deeringly possible.We had one deer hit and tracked the animal of about a mile however it was just nicked and not doing to present us with success. The group had a late breakfast and it was back out to the woods, the old saying :never shot a deer in camp" seemed to motivate us. That afternoon/evening was the windiest hunt I have been on. Sitting or should I say swaying in the tree stand I was wondering if I get a chance to shot how am I going to take this damn wind swaying the tree into consideration when shooting? Unfortunately we did not have to worry about that.
Dinner on Saturday was semi smoked Salmon, a recipe that cannot be shared outside of deer camp, along with several great stories. The group had a blast and recapped the day and of course previous hunts were as in fishing the deer get bigger each year and the distance of the shot does so as well. Daylight savings was upon us so another early night.Sunday we drove the property and kicked up one deer however now one had a shot. we packed up cam as we all had pressing obligations back in the real world and we vowed to reconvene in 365 days time to battle all over again.
