OPENING DAY

DOE-SEE-DOE

SUNDOWN IN THE DEER WOODS

Sunday, 8:00 AM.  42 degrees F at the ferry dock, 38 on the back porch.  Wind west, calm with light gusts.  The sky is overcast and there is considerable fog over the water.  The humidity is 96% and the barometer, currently at 29.47", is still trending down.
   The weather yesterday ended up pretty much as predicted, the gusty SW winds gradually calming, while the weather became relatively warm and sunny, reaching into the high thirties by afternoon.  I got out into the woods well before dawn and got  to a spot I had found along a pretty well-trod deer run, but it was cold and uncomfortable and I had a hard time staying still; so much so that I decided to go home for lunch and a nap, as I had been up since about 4:00 AM.
   Back in the woods, about three 0'clock I saw two deer while I was walking on the logging road.  They appeared, one after the other, on the crest of a hill, perhaps 125 yards away.  The first was a doe, that looked directly at me while standing broadside, which would have been a decent shot for me if it had been a buck.  She moved on and another deer immediately followed.  I could not see any antlers so had to assume it to be another doe, but it did not stay on the road long.  It would have been a quick shot and probably not successful had it been a buck.  I waited for a minute or so without moving to see if a buck would follow but one did not.
   I saw nothing after that until closing time at 4:45 PM.  I was getting cold again by then and the walk to the truck was a matter of loosening up stiff joints and muscles on slippery snow.  Two early morning's in a row seemed beyond my present ambitions, so Joan and I will go to breakfast at the Egg Toss in town and I will go out to hunt again this afternoon, when the weather will presumably change again.
   I am encouraged by seeing some deer, and maybe luck will be with me this season.  The fact that I hunt alone now complicates things, as I must take care to shoot a buck where I can get it out of the woods by myself.  If I can get it to the road I can always find someone to help me lift it into the truck.  At this point I can still drive down the logging road with the four-wheel drive truck, but if it gets slippery that nay not be possible.  Getting stuck would complicate things even more.