The 2020 calendar year has certainly been one to remember. For many, this has understandably been a year filled with tremendous negativity. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many challenges. However, for me it has provided one positive: a lot of time spent in the woods. Without the ability to do many normal activities, I spent more time at our camp than I can remember in a long time. When the quarantine began in late March, I used it as an opportunity to head to camp and try my hand at shed hunting. I had never shed hunted before, and I knew little about it. I figured that at the very…

The first main planned hunting weekend of the fall arrived this past weekend and I was once again in the truck heading North to camp. This time though, it was on Thursday after leaving work. Originally, myself, Uncle Rob, Robert and two of his buddies were supposed to go to camp for the last weekend of the early muzzleloader doe season, similar to the year before. However, with Robert’s football schedule changing and his buddies dropping out, it quickly became just myself and Rob heading to camp to hunt, with Jeanne and Grandma coming to camp Friday. While I have been able to hunt quite a bit already this fall,…

Well, we are mid way through October, and I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time in the woods already. Despite high temperatures last weekend, I was up at camp and in a tree for the morning hunt. I was in the “Graveyard” tree stand (dubbed that as we found a dead carcass near the parking spot last year) I had hung a week prior, in an area I had pictures of a nice buck. A little before 10 AM, I saw a doe a long way off, but quickly lost sight of her through the thick brush. I headed in for the afternoon to hang out…

On a cool fall afternoon in 2012, my Dad and I sat in a buddy stand behind my aunt’s house just across the PA border into Ohio. This was during the early inline muzzleloader season, and I was looking for my first muzzleloader deer. Soon after arriving, we heard ATVs riding on the power line behind us. Now, this isn’t the first story I have told with the same tagline. If you follow the blog and have read the stories, you’ll recount that this has happened to me in the same location on one other occasion. Luckily, they both had similar results. We debated leaving but reluctantly decided to wait…

Despite my love for hunting the Alleghenies and my draw to the big woods near camp, my first buck came about 6 hours from there in Southern Ohio. In November 2011, Dad and I headed down to Dan’s house in Southern Ohio for a weekend archery hunt. While he and Rob had been down to Dan’s many times over the years, this would be my first hunting trip there. Additionally, this was my first out of state (non-PA) hunt ever. To add to my excitement, I was going to be using our new 10-Point Wicked Ridge crossbow, and I was hoping to be the first hunter to take a deer…

On a warm late October afternoon in 2014 I headed over to my hunt my grandma’s property just across the border in Ohio. Despite higher than ideal temperatures, I was anxious to get into the swing of archery season. Immediately upon arrival, I that anxiousness turned into frustration. Just 30 minutes into the hunt on the soybean field, there were ATVs riding on the power line near me. I had hunted grandma’s property more and more in the previous couple years, and this wasn’t the first time this had happened. I went back and forth in my mind of whether I should stay or go. On one hand, I was…

A different perspective of Freakin Snow! The last Saturday of the 2014 rifle season was definitely one for the books. Having already gotten a buck in Ohio in archery season, I had been looking to have my first season of harvesting multiple deer. I didn’t have any luck during the PA archery season or on the opener, so the last Saturday would be my best and final chance to get a deer before flintlock season. The weekend looked very promising, as there were several inches of snow in the forecast up at camp. Additionally, we would have four guys – Myself, Ken, Rob and Dan – heading into the woods…

My first Pennsylvania buck came on a morning when seemingly everything went wrong. I had the day off of school and headed over to my friend Brandon’s house. I had hunted behind his house before, but he was sending me to a new spot he had scouted out. As we walked back in the dark, I was contemplating my decision. See, this was “Guy’s Weekend” up at camp, and I had been invited for the first time. I decided to stay home instead, and wondered whether I had made the right choice. Brandon walked me back to the tree I would be climbing and then walked off to his. We…

The first day of deer season 2018 was definitely one for the books. Myself, Rob, Robert, Vince, Craig, Dan, Teagan and Aiden headed into the big woods at 5:30 AM. I had decided to set up on the “Jeep Trail Valley” side of the “First Finger” (as we have named them) just below a dip in the ridge or “saddle” of the finger. My decision to go here was only after considerable deliberation between myself, Rob and Ken on Sunday. I made it to the top of the saddle and began to break right down the ridge a hundred yards or so.I planned on going to the spot I had…