North Carolina 4/21/24 - 4/23/24
I left for the mountains of North Carolina on Sunday and arrived just prior to the sun setting. My camping spot was 45 minutes off the black top on top of a mountain. Had a pretty awesome view.
Monday morning, I started to my listening spot and I thought I was going to die in the first 150yds, my covid lungs periodically knock me back and this morning was no exception. The crisp 30deg air and the incline hit me hard. I took about 5 min to catch my breath and got a reset and from then on all was good.
I heard a bird down a peninsula and was able to get set up on him. After about an hour of him gobbling he went quiet when a heard of 8 deer came up from where he was gobbling from. The rest of the day was spent prospecting with no luck, I did run across an egg that had been eaten and then on the way out there was another egg 5' from the first egg. I looked for the thief but couldn't find it. After 11 miles in those mountains my tail was whipped. I didn't hear anything that afternoon.
Tuesday morning, I got to the peninsula I had heard the bird on earlier and set up on top of the flat, I made a good hide and waited for first light. Well fist light came, all was quiet on the mountain side. Finally, about 30 minutes after the sun peaked over the mountainside, I hear a distant gobble on the adjacent peninsula. I thought to myself great he we go. I made the loop to get above where I had marked the single gobble. I sat waiting to hear another before I made the dive off the side of the mountain. Finally, he starts gobbling off in the distance and I make my way towards him. On the map it shows a big flat. But it lied, once I got there the bird was below me some 200' and the flat that it showed to be 100yds long was a shear cliff. The bird then works his way across the valley up to the peninsula I originally started out on, great. One thing I could tell was that he liked to work a certain elevation so I figured if I could get to that elevation and get in front of him, I had a chance. There is no way to follow him, so I turn and climb back up to the top of that mountain and make the loop back to where I started the morning.
When I get close to the base of the peninsula, I start scratching the leaves as I make my climb. My thought was to get to my original set and wait for him to gobble and that would let me know which direction I needed to fall of the mountain to get in front of him. The woods are thick around the top but open up to a beautiful flat on top. I scratch every couple steps and ease my way to the top, I break out of the thick stuff and now I'm looking down the flat and off the sides as far as I can see. I make sure there is nothing around before I make my move to my original tree. When I look at my spot the sun is shinning down on it pretty bad so I opted to not sit there and found a tree just behind it that would work perfect. It was a large dark barked tree in the shade with a small sapling growing next to it with the limbs and leaves for cover. Perfect I ease over to the tree and cut a couple limbs to make a clear spot to sit, I then take my foot a in a scratching sequence scrape the leaves and sticks away from the bottom of the tree. This is when things get interesting real quick. As I turn to sit down, I hear leaves crunching and it's at that moment that our eyes meet. He's running full on at 15yds straight to me right by my original set and when our eyes met it was like both of us said OH S#!^ at he same time. He turns and kicks rocks up in my face as he's leaving and does what a turkey does best, gets a tree in-between me and him. I shoulder my gun and ease to the left and I can see him. I take the shot only to see him cut back behind the tree, but I could tell I got into him but didn't break him down. He pitches off the mountain and I'm not happy at all. I couldn't believe what just happened. It all happened so fast and ill second guess my self for a while. I walked the edge of the mountain hoping to see my bird in a tree or hear him flopping on the side of the ledge. I stand there a few seconds when I hear it. I hear a couple limbs break followed by wing beats flowed by a splash in the river below. Total heart break set in, the bird I worked so hard for shoulda been laying 25yds away from me but he's not he's 650ft below me in the dang river. It's so steep that if I had went to the water I don't think I could get back up on top of the water was low so not sure if I could have even gotten back out of the water.. Was a heck of a hunt with a messed up ending but one I'll remember for a long time.
