So here in Southern Virginia we've had rain for days and it looks like nothing is changing soon. Yesterday while driving home from work the rain broke for a minute, since I am able to hunt a small piece of land close to me I texted my wife to let her know I was stopping by on my way home. I got to the property took out my gear and started walking to my stand. There is a creek I have to cross that I usually have to step from stone to stone to get over but the water lever was up too high. I found a downed tree and gingerly crossed that. I felt my phone buzz on the other side and checked to see if my wife was responding but it wasn't her so I put it back. No more then 20 more yards past the creek and the heavens open up and it starts down-pouring. I stop, put on my rain jacket on and decide to try to find somewhere to hunker down for a bit. I should mention that while I had brought an umbrella to hang over my stand, I left it in the truck in my urgency to get in the stand quickly. After a little more walking, slipping, and falling in the mud I decide to turn around and head back. Right then I realize I don't have my phone with me. I didn't take my usual path to my stand (again trying to hurry) so I spent a good amount of time walking around the woods pretty aimlessly trying to retrace my steps. Once I gave up all hopes on my phone I found my way back to the tree I used to cross the creek. I decide to try one more time and walk back on my trail and find my phone lying on the ground! Well I continue to head out and just make it over the wet tree and get back to my truck. Now soaking wet and frustrated I start to drive home and no more then 5 minutes down the road the rain stops and I'm certain there are no less then a half dozen of big deer sitting under my tree stand playing cards and drinking beer. Lessons learned- DON'T RUSH- so much of this could have been avoided if I had calmed down and took my time (umbrella, phone) DON'T NEGLECT MINOR DETAILS-Even on small trips take the time to check your gear and be prepared. HAVE A PLAN- I knew it could start raining again but figured I would wing it. If I had planned to stick it out or just turn back when it started I could have saved some time and mess (my gear got filthy) I'm very much a rookie hunter so hopefully this can help other first timers avoid botched trips like this!
Most of us have all made a lot of those mistakes. It sounds like you definitely learned a few valuable leasons. Glad you found your phone and things didn't end up any worse than they did.
I thought for sure this post was gonna end with you either falling in the water and ruining your gear or phone, or you stuck on the wrong side of the creek with no phone after the creek rose 5 feet! Consider yourself lucky!
Had a similar thing happen in my much younger years. I too was crossing the stream on the log. I got halfway across and the log broke. I had the climber on my back and fell back first into about 5ft of water. Lucky for me it was early season and still warm out and that the stand didn't get tangled in anything under the water. I got out completely soaked and shorted out my cell phone and my auto car starter but i got away without drowning
You just reminded me to make one last purchase for this hunting season, I need to buy a tree umbrella lol. I had one, but left the thing that screws into the tree that holds the umbrella up in a tree last season, I no longer hunt those woods so no longer have a functional tree umbrella. I know all too well about misfortunes and hard earned lessons when it comes to hunting. That's all part of doing what we love and it seems every year I learn another valuable lesson that will help me become a smarter and more efficient hunter in the years to come. It's easy to rush things and forget useful gear. I made a similar mistake once (but payed a bigger price), by going out when I knew there was a chance of it raining without taking any rain gear (mainly because I was in a hurry to get in my stand to hunt the last couple hours of the day after work), feeling I was fine since I was so close to home and could simply get out of the tree when it started to rain. Well it started to rain, I decided to stick it out for a bit and next thing I knew I was drenched to the bone. It was only about 40 degrees outside and relatively breezy, so needless to say I was damn cold as well and it didn't take long. I was using my uncles climber stand at the time (one of those old heavy tree lounge climber stands), it was my first year as a archery hunter (this will be my 5th year archery hunting) and hadn't invested too much into gear at that point just feeling it out. Well due to being so wet and cold, my body started to shut down, I was very fatigued and weak I was actually starting the first stage of hypothermia and didn't hardly have the strength to get myself back to the ground with that heavy climber stand.. What would have normally took me nothing more than a few minutes took me a over a half hour to get down that tree, at that point I was scared I was never going to get out of the tree. I also didn't take my cell phone to call for help. After finally getting out of the tree and getting inside and warm, I was actually upset with myself realizing how much worse things could have gotten for me due to my own ignorance and overconfidence on what elements I thought I could handle. I ended up getting sick and had to deal with a nasty sinus infection and bronchitis shortly after the incident. The moral to the story is, novices make mistakes and the only thing you can do is learn from your mistakes. Just like with anything else in life, it never pays to rush something, that's when accidents happen. I put myself in a bad situation simply because I was in a rush and overconfident, I also didn't follow my initial plan. That incident humbled me in a lot of ways and I now respect the elements a lot more. Getting in a rush and overlooking something is not worth risking your well being for. I now pack all of my rain gear for every hunt even if there's 0% chance of it raining on the forecast because I never want to be put in that situation again.
