Freakin Snow!

Although I usually plan to return to camp each year for the last weekend of rifle season, I was really looking forward to this particular year as there was a big snowstorm forecast to hit camp Thursday before that final weekend. The plan was to leave work in Cincinnati, Ohio around noon on Friday and arrive at camp in the early evening. The forecast proved correct and from what I could gather, there would be about 4” of snow when we arrived Friday evening.  

Driving through “the mountains” and noticing the snow banks along the side of the roads and the great visibility in the woods, I couldn’t help but be really optimistic about Saturday’s hunt. That was right up until I pulled into camp. I slowed the truck as I approached the undisturbed snow in the driveway and pulled in to the sound of a loud “crunch”. At first I thought perhaps the plastic spoiler in the front end just happened to catch on the snow bank from the snow plow, but the noise continued as I continued into the driveway and stopped in front of the camp. At this point I had a feeling I knew what the noise was but I confirmed it as I stepped out of the truck into the snow. “CRUNCH”. Oh no.  The temperature had risen enough during the day on Friday and then subsequently froze to form a solid 1/4” crust on the surface. Each step resulted in a loud crunch as my boot broke through the surface. This was going to make for a challenging hunt.

My nephew Andrew, brother in law Ken, and cousin Dan would all be arriving at camp and joining the hunt for Saturday. I figured at least we would have good visibility and surely we’d be able to push deer to each other, even if sneaking was out of the question.  

Saturday morning dawned overcast and cold and we made our hike into the woods single file so as to make as little noise as possible, but it was obvious the loud snow was going to be an issue. Once we crossed the creek about a half mile in, we split up with the hopes that we could bump deer to one another.  

Around 8:30 am or so I heard a shot from Andrew’s direction and learned via 2 way radio that he had downed a nice doe. Hey, I thought, at least someone got some action and we’d have a deer to drag out. I continued my way deeper into the forest, making more noise than I ever really thought I could.  Nothing seemed to work-shuffling my feet to gently break the crust, putting toe in first, etc. Unless I suddenly learned to fly or I found a deaf deer, there was just no way I was going to sneak up on any deer. I remember thinking “I should just head back to the car and drive back to Cincinnati-this is a complete waste of time”, but I figured at least at the end of the day we’d have a few beers and a nice dinner back at camp, so I crunched deeper into the woods. There was no color to this day-just a cold gray sky, black trees, and white ground. Around noon I came across some fresh deer tracks-obviously long gone before I got there. And a little while later I came across some bear tracks-that was cool.  But I was still very frustrated with the conditions. Around 1:00 I started to make a loop back towards where the other guys were supposed to be and had to come down off the top of the ridge. As I started my descent, it actually got worse! Not only were my footsteps loud, but now every little piece of ice rolled, clanked, and “tinked” it’s way down the hill in front of me. At one point I just sat down in the snow-more frustrated than I could recall being in some time. I figured the heck with it, I might as well just bust down over the hill and get it over with, so I did. Once I reached the base of the ridge I stopped for a second to take a break and regroup.  

Then I heard it-something out in front of me. Definitely something moving through the woods but it sounds like it’s beyond where I can see. The noise paused. Then started up again. It was getting closer. It had to be deer but I should have been able to see it as I could see probably 150 yards in that direction. The noise kept up and it was definitely getting closer. Surely I have to be able to see this.  Then I leaned over to my right to see around the tree that was basically right in front of me. DEER!   There was a doe coming right at me, about 40 yards away. I noticed another deer about 10 yards behind the doe. BUCK! The deer had it’s head down at first but as it raised up I saw the white rack.  About this time the doe snapped her head and was looking right at me. After a brief staredown she bolted off to my right and I made the move for my rifle, bringing it up and steadying it against the tree.  As the rifle came to my shoulder and the scope found the deer, I noticed the “3 up” as the deer turned broadside-ready to chase after the doe. The crosshairs found his shoulder and BANG.  The buck bolted to my right but I could tell he was going down. He piled up after only 30 yards and laid still in the snow.  

I couldn’t believe what had just happened. With all that noise, how the heck did I get this great buck?  As I looked around, I realized how this came about. One of the other guys probably moved the deer toward me. I could hear them forever but couldn’t see them because they were coming directly at me, single file, directly in line with that tree that was in front of me. I laughed at myself for the frustration I had felt just a short while earlier. I made my way over to the buck, said a prayer of thanksgiving, took in the silence of the woods for a minute, then took a few pictures. As I was filling out my tag it hit me.  Holy crap I have a problem. It’s after 2:00 pm, I’m a mile and a half deep in the forest, and I have a buck to drag out of here-starting with a considerable long uphill trek.  

I then called out on the radio to the other guys. No answer. I tried again. No answer. I have to admit I freaked out a bit. Then I yelled and soon got an answer on the radio. I said “Guys, we have a problem”.  To which, I got the response “We don’t have a problem-you have a problem”. Of course this was in good humor but nonetheless, we had a significant problem. This was going to be a long afternoon of dragging. 

It was decided that Andrew would head back to pick up his deer while Dan and Ken would make their way to me to help drag. We would meet at the creek then head up to the truck from there. By the time we got to the top of that first hill it was starting to get dark. By the time we met Andrew at the creek it was pretty dark and we were all tired.

By the time we got the deer to the truck it was way past dark and we were exhausted. Andrew, upon arriving at the truck after pretty much dragging his deer alone and helping us with my buck, just collapsed into the snow on his back (snow angel style) and laid there for a minute. There is a picture of him laying there in the snow somewhere but I can see it plain as day in my mind’s eye.