PA Hunting: Day 1

Not much to report. The day was unseasonably warm with the temperature reaching 58 degrees in the early afternoon. A steady breeze and overcast skies made it feel cooler but not too much.

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The walk up to the tree stand in the dark and then the climb into the stand didn't feel so bad on the knees. The standing/sitting on that little platform for several hours was another story. If driving for two or three hours in a comfortable Jeep or Tundra can cause pain, imagine sitting in a tree for hours. I would stand up for 10-15 minutes every hour or so to get the kinks out, but it didn't help. By 1 PM I had enough and got out of the stand to sit on a small seat I put between two trees last year. Even that wasn't very comfortable on the knees. I'll set the alarm for early AM again, hopefully the knees will feel better when I get out of bed and go downstairs. Then I'll have to decide if I want to climb into that tree again.

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Things might have been better if I had succeeded in nailing a buck, but I never even saw one. I did see deer, however. One group of six or seven does trotted by just 20 yards away at 10:20 AM. The wind was right and they never knew I was watching them. Unfortunately, it's bucks only until Saturday.

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There were shots fired on some of the surrounding properties--including immediately after the does all went by and from the direction they took. Some of those may have taken down bucks that could have come my way, but I'll never know for sure.

There's always tomorrow.