The snow quietly fell on the evergreens that lined the short trail I was walking to reach camera #2. Familiar smells of pine, spruce and balsam helped my mind forget the cold and remember that some hunting memories are made on the walk to your tree stand. It's a scene you won't find in a grocery store aisle.
So, I paused to take a quiet, deep, icy breath before I made my final approach to my ground blind. Despite my best efforts to camouflage, reduce my scent profile and predict the wind direction there was nothing I could do about the crunching snow that plagued my every step. All I could do was make a slow two or three step stalk along my newly cut trail.
I had only placed game camera #2 on the north corner of my 2-acre property a few days ago. A deer trail exists here that extends in to the surrounding 900 acres of forest encircling my home. It became a back-up plan to the recently completed rifle season for deer on the family acreage in another location. Cameras there shot some footage of some large bucks, but none were seen during legal shooting hours.
Our redeployed game cam captured an 11-point (with a slight lobster claw) buck walking along the deer trail in my back yard for 2 straight days - just before legal shooting time ended. Which created the reason to create a small ground blind and the inspiration for my noisy stalk.
Finally, I reached a large pine tree that would shield the parts of my body that the freshly-cut evergreen wall in front of me would not. After doubly checking the broad head on my arrow, I knocked it into my compound bow's drawstring and began 'the wait'.
The cold wind began to work on the layers that protected my body's core, but I smiled knowing I was downwind of game cam #2. Confident with my set-up, I grunted twice on my buck call and began to scan the forest in front of me. Within 20 minutes, I started to hear the subtle steps of a deer. The hard snow was the only thing that helped me pick her up early. By the time I saw the doe, she was 35 yards north west of me. Immediately, I wished I was 20 feet up in the air. I could tell she sensed that something was not quite right. Her pace slowed and every step was accompanied by numerous ear twitches and looks in my direction. Fortunately, the pine tree beside me was large enough for me to hide behind except for my knocked arrow and a portion of my bow.
This was not a play from The Drury playbook.
She allowed to me to watch her for 20 minutes as she closed within 20 yards or me. I could hear her breathing in the cold air that was now starting to creep beyond the shell of my hunting coat and black fleece. For 5 minutes I watched helplessly as she profiled a full broad side shot at 20 yards.
I did not have a 2010 doe tag.
Suddenly - her head snapped back behind her.
What happened next is not clear. I think I moved too quickly from behind my pine tree cloak to see what caught her attention behind her. At that moment, she stomped her front foot and ran back in the direction she came. My cover was blown.
Somewhere, just behind her and just out of reach of game camera #2 (and a shivering bow wielder), a large buck snorted, wheezed and ran straight north into a shower of brown pine and spruce needles with a pinch balsam. He was never seen on camera #2 until 7 days later - under the cover of a silvery moon.
The kind of moon that comes out after bow season ends.
