The good news is that our temps picked up to the 20's this morning compared to 1 yesterday and -7 the day before. The bad news is we got blasted with more snow. That didn't stop me though. Being the ambitious young guy that I am I busted out the snow shoes and headed into the dark snowy morning for what I was hoping would be 3-5 good stands. I arrived at my first spot and the plows sealed off the parking area. Well the wind wasn't right for that location anyway. So I kept rolling to the next location. Same thing...the plows closed off the entrance to the parking area. Normally I would just park on the road and walk in, but both of these areas have pretty high traffic and I wasn't about to leave my vehicle to get plowed into by some idiot. On to location number 3...
Well...this location was plowed in as well, but the road wasn't quite as busy. I began to pull off as far as I could when a jeep came rolling my way from the north. I dimmed my headlights so I wouldn't blind him (I was on the his side of the road). As he got closer he stopped next to me. So much for being inconspicuous. We exchanged good mornings and he said he was just checking to see if I was all right. Now that doesn't happen in these parts too often and I was appreciative, so I just told him I was out predator hunting. He wished me luck and headed off. I finished parking my vehicle and jumped out to get prepped for the first hunt of the day. I put my snow camo jacket over my wool jacket and grabbed the snowshoes. It had been a while since I had worn them last, but I managed to get them on no problem. I grabbed my .22-250, made sure I had sufficient ammo and headed off into the snow.
My plans to walk the mile to the hollow below were quickly put rest when my snow shoes sunk 12" - 15" into the fresh powdery snow. Every step I took I brought back a shovel full of snow on my shoes. That crap gets heavy after 20 yards!! I opted to cut my distance in half and hunt the power line instead. I called intermittently for about 35 minutes and decided to head back to the truck. I don't think any critter in his right mind would have waded in that snow to come after anything but a sure bet. While I had the snow shoes off to sit on stand. I walked a bit without them and sank an additional 10" with every step.
I arrived back at the truck and decided I would try a property closer to home. I would have to call the landowner first like I always do and get his permission. More bad news!! He told me there was a good 3 feet of snow on his property and he had buried one of his ATV's in it. He also said his nephew and himself are going to try to get after the coyotes in February. He would call me if anything changed and he wanted me to come in and hunt. But no hunting today. Oh well...might as well head home.
I didn't get or even see any fur, but I did enjoy being on the one stand that I was able to make. I just wish the snow wasn't so deep, there are other areas that I could have hunted if I thought for a second the critters might move. I think if I found a good frozen stream I would probably find fox and coyote tracks all over it. I do know of a couple areas, but they are a considerable distance from my place. Maybe next weekend
Steve
