Normally I don't like to whine or rant on here... but... tonight was a hunt from hell. To start off... work has been a grid all fall. Late hours and very few days off. Got home last night at 1 AM from work. Got to bed about 2 AM. Planned on hunting but don't remember the alarm going off. I think it was too scared to go off cause it would have gotten a beaten before I was a wake enough to stopped beating on it. Woke up too late to hunt so I got some much needed sleep. I've been waiting all fall to get into this one special place to hunt. In under a week the rifles will be blasting away at the deer and this spot will be over run with hunters. Now was the time to hunt it or forget it. The plan was to take my climber in and hunt the shelterbelt if I could access it from the east. It would be a 1.25 mile walk in. The wind gods were not friendly this afternoon and the wind was from the NW. NW wind meant coming in from the south. Coming in from the south meant going through a horrid cattail slough that knows no mercy. Packing in a climber was out of the question even though it was a shorter route ( 1 mile ). Earlier this summer I bought a pair of MUCK boots with the extension that you unsnap and can pull up past your knees. I bought them with this nasty hell hole of cattails in mind. On the walk in the first half mile was a breeze. I then hit the cattails. Nasty thick, 9 feet tall and an 1/8 of a mile of them . I found a likely looking spot to head into them. I busted my way through them with the water getting knee deep. Yay for the MUCK boots... I was still dry. Very tired from bulling my way through but dry. They are just so nasty thick so you fight you way through. I was not looking forward to the walk back at the end of the hunt in the dark. I finished the walk and found the old ladder stand a guy had left in the trees from a couple years ago. He is dead now so I figured he wouldn't mind. Check it to make sure it was safe. It was. Climbed up and enjoyed being off the ground for once. Had a doe come in and hang around for a half hour till the end of shooting light. She never gave me a shot. She was within 10 - 30 yards the whole time. I could shoot in 3 directions but she would not step in any of those spots. Maddening but kind of funny at the same time. Least I was seeing a deer. It was the only deer. I stand up so I can climb down and she finally realizes she isn't alone. She trotted off a little bit and kept looking back. Never blew. I gather my stuff and head for the cattails. You never walk your same path in cattails as the cattails are bent over the direction you are going and it is twice the fight walking back into that. So I pick a different spot and enter. It is dark. I get in a ways and I can't see anything. Just a wall of cattails all around me in knee deep water. I have to angle a little and take off in that direction. I am fighting my way through and thinking I am glad I didn't try to bring the climber. I figure I am half way through when I hit deeper water. Oh NO !! I am off course. By now it is pitch dark. I am beat. The only thing to do was keep on. I knew I was going the right direction. Well there was a tiny bit of doubt starting. Just a tiny one though. I push on. The water is getting deeper... the cattails are getting thicker and taller. The water runneth over the extensions on my new mucks. I am pissed and running out of energy fast. I wanted to stop to catch my breathe but I figured now wasn't a good time for a smoke break. I am in waist deep water now... hoping the nightmare ends soon before I have the massive one and never make it out. I push on. The tiny doubt is starting to grow. Am I going in the right direction ?? At this point in time... I am really thinking that a bait pile 50 yards off the road is the ticket. I am tired of hunting hard, working hard and would like to take the easy way... just once in my life. The water all of a sudden is getting shallower. I am thinking... YES !!! I made it !! Only to step in a deep hole and almost fall. I am grabbing for cattails with one hand and hanging on to my bow with the other. I regain my balance and push on. I finally get in shallow water and bust though the cattails to dry ground. I am puffing like a frieght train. I am sure I have scared all the deer out this area because it was dead calm by now. Too bad for the rifle hunters next Friday !! :neener_neener: I actually am exhausted and sit down on the ground. Well maybe not sitting... more like kneeling on all fours trying to catch my breathe. I can think of few times where I was as exhausted. I still have a half mile to go to get to the truck. I get up in about a minute as I just wanted to be back at the truck. Squish-squash... squish-squash for the next half mile. My poor Muck boots !!! I had to drive a couple mile before I could smoke a cig. It was awful !! :p Back to work tomorrow !! You guys are looking at a changed man. From now on only the easy way for this guy. Any little ole buck will due !! Even if he has spots, buttons and a milk stache... he is in trouble. If he is choking on a piece of corn from my bait pile 50 yards from the farthest road... he is in trouble. Hell... if he can't out run the old Ford... he is in BIG TROUBLE !!!! ( damn you Fran !! ) Tim
Sucks to have a day like that. Sounds too exhausting for me to try that type of spot..lol. Just curious though, did you catch any fish inside those muck boots? At least you would have something to show for the rough day. Matt
Just think, in twenty years or so you'll look back on it with fond memories and a story to tell your grandkids........or not! Blessings.......Pastorjim
It's those rough days that makes us appreciate the good ones more.And if your like most bowhunters I know,you gladly bust those cattails again the next time you get a chance.:D
Whoever came up with the saying "What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger" has never bowhunted. Keep at it and good luck. Where are you in ND? Hunt with friends around the Washburn area.
Says the internet badass right before shooting another 150"+. Hang in there, Tim. Just remember...no matter how bad your season is going, you can take comfort that mine is probably going worse. At least you didn't get poison ivy on your dong.
Man those are the worst, when you drop off into waist deep water unexpectedly. Same thing happened to me 3 minutes into my 12 day hunt in Alaska not 200 yards from the plane. Walked out and saw how the grass changed colors, didn't think much about it and took another step to only be in up to my freakin waist. Only pair of boots drenched, only one dry set of clothes left and its in the high 40s low 50s with 30+mph winds. I was freezing and miserable. The next day the sun came out and dried out my clothes and I went on to shoot 3 P&Y bucks. Maybe your luck trend will follow suit! I have no doubt you will drop a big boy before seasons end. hang in there!
Because that would have been 3.5 miles to get back to the truck going the easy way instead of a mile the hard way since I was parked on the south end. I am also german and stubborn. The place is surrounded by sloughs with 4 narrow routes in. 1.5, 1.25, 1.25 and 1 mile from 3 different roads ( North, south and east ). The 2 ways in from the east is out of the question as you will be walking through bedding areas. I will not walk through a known bedding area... ever. Not on the walk in or out. It is a sin in the bowhunter bible !!! Tim
Over towards the Northeast side. I ran that one by the wife... "What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger". She said I best not be doing that no more or she will slash my boots and forbid me to get over 10 minutes away from the truck when I bowhunt. I had to laugh at her... she doesn't realize how much trouble I can find and still be 10 minutes away from the truck. I is a fast walker. Tim
