Hunting is an agreement between predator and prey...we held up our end of the bargain, but the deer are not to be trusted. Headed out early on Friday and made the woods by 10ish. Grandprize was already there and fully set up with his Nappin' Cabin; having kicked around in his own empty house long enough that morning. The boys all showed up in their normal order and we set up camp and then went to check our stands. Merrick was hunting all on his own this year, headed out down the north road to set up a popup blind while I headed west toward the grouse trail before heading north to come at Merrick and my area from different route. Our plan was to leave the area between us 'unsoiled' in the hopes to have more deer come through. The weather was amazing and it was the most relaxing opening weekend in a long time. Both of us sat all from dark to dark on Saturday and were back out before light on Sunday...we did our part. There was signs of another hunter near my stand and I wanted to get there as early as possible to stake my claim. Somewhere during Flatcar's chili and chit chat I set my watch wrong, apparently the whole tent was relying on my alarm as nobody was up at 4:45 when our intention was to leave at 5. Hitman & Paulo had similar concerns with their stands, but Merrick felt he was in the clear but was planning on heading out with us anyways. At any rate we rushed to get ready and packed a muffin in my mouth on the way out the tent flap. Merrick and I were able to communicate via text from stand to stand which was a nice way to check in and made me feel better knowing he was had arrived. It also let him text to ask if he could shoot a turkey as they were putting and gobbling like crazy in the predawn light. Ultimately I saw nobody and did see a deer around 1ish...It was Merrick's last year to shoot a doe under the youth hunt rules, but it would have been illegal for me to shoot a doe on his tag and I couldn't be sure the deer I watched for 15-20 mins was a small...small buck or a doe. So, it wandered off with a limp from a previous injury. Standard Saturday night conversations, jokes, songs, and poetry. Filled with Hitman's carnitas' made us all ready for bed fairly early. Double Tap and FlatCar wandered off for a nightcap but the rest of us were lights out before 9. Sunday was a quite morning although Merrick did hear a guy holler "WooHoo!!" after he shot and the others talked about being boxed in. Even though we didn't see any other hunters they were clearly around and maybe keeping the deer away. I meet Merrick at his stand on Sunday morning and we walked out and down the road talking about changes for next season. It was a great way to end 2023 deer season.
