Saturday was our muzzleloader opener here in AR. I had all of my gear together, had baited my bear barrel the weekend before and set up my trail camera. I got up and made coffee and headed to the truck just before 5:00AM. I had about a 50 minute drive and started out. I knew there would be a couple of other guys coming to hunt the property (property owner has around 100 acres but is surrounded by thousands of acres of national forest) so I decided to stop before I got there to... "take care of business". After exiting the interestate, I pulled off the road on a section of isolated state highway, put on my flashers and heeded the call of nature. I walked back to the truck, pulled on the door handle... uh, oh. Those keys hanging in the ignition were laughing at me... Yep... 5:30 AM, truck locked and running on the side of the highway... There I stood with no tools or even a flashlight outside the truck. I opened my truck box and found only a multi-tool for my Stihl weadeater and a chainsaw file. Hmmm, I decided to try my best. I inserted the multi tool between the glass and weather rubber on the window and tried to feel for the "trigger" of the lock with the chainsaw file. SNAP! The file broke off. Ya think I was a bit frustrated? I tried to see if I could get a bit more space between the window and rubber weather stripping... psshhhhh... my passenger door window was in thousands of tiny pieces all over the inside of my truck and my hunting gear in the seat and floorboard. I decided to make the best of it and go hunt anyway. I got to my buddy's place and got my stuff together to drop down the bluff to my setup. I had decided to setup opposite of my bait barrel from my ladder stand. I was going to hunt from the top of a 15' boulder where I could see the bears coming in... I knew I had to drop straight down from the bluff, but skirted it a bit to come in from the back side ... I wandered around for 10 minutes in the dark and was almost convinced someone had run off with my 15' boulder... Finally, I decided to head back toward the bait barrel and realized I had gotten about 30 yards off in the dark. I got settled in on top of the boulder and relaxed to wait for the sun to come up. In the faint moonlight, I noticed what appeared to be a light colored "something" moving around by the bait barrel. I watched closely, as the barrel was about 20 yards away. The silence was broken by a deep, throaty bur-rur-rur-ruh... YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! The neighbor's mangy dog (lives about 300 yards down the road from my buddy, and the only neighbor around) was standing at the edge of the bench where my bait barrel was, barking into the hollow where the bears come up. Figuring it couldn't do any more harm, I groped around on the boulder for something to throw. After 4 rocks and a couple of "get outta hears" the mongrel finally figured he wasn't welcome and trotted back up through the woods. I hung out there for about 5 hours and saw nothing but a squirrel. I decided to shift gears and move to another area and watch for deer. I climbed the bluff and got the 4-wheeler and headed down the mountain a ways. I sat in a couple of different spots that looked great, but saw no deer. There were walking sticks (bugs) about every 10 feet in the woods. They provided some entertainment for the long sits. I also watched a garter snake or ribbon snake slither through the leaves... never had seen one out of the grass. I thought I would reset my ladder stand in another position for a later date, so I broke it down and emptied the remaining goodies from my bait barrel. I had found a "perfect" spot for the stand along a scrape line on a logging trail. I drug the stand in on the 4 wheeler and started to set up. The ground and the double tree just weren't going to cooperate. I tried one trunk, then the other. I climbed up and strapped the stand to the tree on each, but never had a good fit... leaning one way or the other or sloping away from the tree. It just didn't feel safe. It was the perfect setup, but not for the ladder stand. After wrestling the stand for nearly 2 hours, I decided on a lesser setup, back towards the main trail (but still over 100 yards in) and still on the scrape trail. When I got home around 5:30, I was ready for a shower and the couch. I'm pleased to say I didn't burn my mouth on the chicken from the wal-mart deli, nor did I spill my tea as I relaxed from the day of "leisure".
Next Saturday, it's up at 4:30 AM again...
