One Step

[silvestris]

too many and your season can come to a screeching halt.

I heard three and went to the best sounding one.  He gobbled one more time as I was setting up and then he proceeded to refuse to honor my calling.  After waiting for a couple of hours I decided to peruse and try to locate one of the others.  Noon found me in the bottom of a hollow sharing texts with gonhuntin when I began to hear one gobble.  It is hard to course one from the bottom of a deep hollow but I think I remember texting Jeff that I thought I knew where he was.  I was right; he was straight down the branch, but I couldn't discern which side of the branch he was on.

I took off directly to him and came to the branch and it seemed that I should cross.  The bottom at this point had been logged heavily some years past and had been transformed into a veritable briar patch.  I found what appeared to be a good crossing and started my descent into the branch.  Then it happened.

Quicksand.

My left leg sunk to just above the knee.  The suction was so strong that it took this old fart fifteen minutes to free himself.  All this time the gobbler was two hundred yards west of me tearing down the timber.  Completely exhausted, I managed to climb to the top of a finger ridge and could go no farther.  The gobbler had quit gobbling and gobbled no more.

I struggled to get my boots off to drain them and wring out my socks all the while waiting for him to gobble again as if it would do me any good had he gobbled again with me in my present physical condition and my state of attire.  It didn't matter; he gobbled no more.  Some three hours later I put my socks and boots on and struggled to get back to the truck some three quarters of a mile away.

I got up the next morning and set out to relocate him.  He didn't gobble, but I heard one way off to the southeast and decided to go to him.  It was then that I first accepted that I had severely pulled my right thigh muscle trying to get out of the quicksand and though I might make it down the ridge to the gobbler, I would never make it back out with an extra eighteen to twenty pounds.  I struggled back to the top of the ridge and spent most of the rest of the day sitting on a big pine log hearing nothing but a multitude of songbirds.   I could not stand straight up, rather I had to roll over and push myself up from the log to stand.  The walk back to the truck was much more excruciating than the day before.

After my shower I discovered that I had developed a large blister on the top of my left diabetic foot, presumably caused by the sand in my boot the day before.  I covered it with Neosporin, set the alarm and went to bed.  I awoke the next morning, looked at the blister and determined that there could be other turkey seasons if I could keep from losing a foot to a diabetic ulcer.

Is this sport more fun than a barrel of monkeys, or what?

[BowBendr]

Goodness gracious ! Who would ever think of quicksand ? Hope you get on the mend asap !!


2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions

[SteelerFan]

Dang! Here's hoping to a speedy recovery!! Best wishes

[Greg Massey]

I got in quicksand one time and if it hadn't been for some tree roots i think i would of been gone forever. I had just enough energy to try one last time pulling myself out and just made it,, i never mess with that creek again...that was a turkey hunt to remember..

[Happy]

I am glad your ok and have maintained a sense of humor about it. Best wishes and hope you are back to chasing them soon.

[howl]

Never seen quicksand, but there's places I won't hunt because of spongy ground. Get well soon!

[tomstopper]

Hope you get well enough soon to chase back after them. As a diabetic myself, I know you made the right decision to not take your wound lightly. Good luck when you get back out there

[owlhoot]

That quicksand sounds like some scary stuff, glad you are going to be alright.

[silvestris]

Things got better this morning; called my son's first, a two year old.

[Happy]

Congradulations on a successful hunt. Glad for both of you guys.

[tha bugman]

Chin up Sil!  Your better than most of us when it comes to determination!  Get well soon brother!


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[101st501]

Those dang birds can make us do some things that at the time seem like great ideas.  Get well soon, and keep at 'em.