Saturday, October 22, 2005

Be Vewwy, Vewwy Quiet

Okay, so it’s been a little over a week since I posted anything and you might be wondering why. The facts are: 1- I got tired of all the rain in New Jersey and decided to head north to the Adirondacks 2- the muzzleloader hunting season started in the Adirondacks on the 15th and I wanted to see if I could fill my tag(s)

I wasn’t very successful in either case. First, the rain followed me north. It rained everyday from Friday the 14th through Thursday the 20th. It didn’t rain all the time, but enough of the time that my buddy Mark from across the road and I got wet while we were out hunting almost every day. I did manage to see some deer Saturday, but they were too quick for me to get a shot. Mark had better luck and succeeded in killing a three-point buck on Wednesday morning. I never saw another deer during the week.

Friday, the last day of the muzzleloader season, was our nicest day with the sun shining most of the time. Yet, despite the signs of deer in the area and even pictures taken in my field using Mark’s infrared digital camera, we didn’t see anything at which to shoot.

Most of the week the wind has been coming out of the northwest, as has the rain. The forecasters out of Syracuse have called it “lake effect” rain. It could be worse—it could be “lake effect” snow! It would have been several feet instead of just a couple of inches of wet. (Even with the recent rains, the area is still 8-9 inches below the norm for the year.) My cabin is in the southwest corner of the Adirondack Park and is situated on the southern edge of the snow band that comes off Lake Ontario from November through March. It is not unusual for there to be several feet of snow in the yard from January to March. I’ve had snow –and heavy snow at that—in November.

Today, Saturday the 22nd, was the opening of the rifle season here in the northland. After a reasonable morning, the rains returned. This time they came from the southwest and promise to continue through Sunday. As much as I would like to put some more meat in the freezer, I know the deer aren’t going to wander much in the foul weather and there won’t be too many other hunters out there to move them. I also know that there are many more days to the season here and also in New Jersey and I would rather not get pneumonia. So I’ll go down to town and do my laundry and then out another log on the fire and sit back to watch some football and the World Series until the rains let up.

Since I only have access to dial-up service here, any posting will be few and far between.

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