THE FLIP SIDE: Truth Of Habit Revealed
SLEEPING RESTFUL OPTION DURING HUNTING SEASON
Thursday, November 5, 2009
FAYETTEVILLE — The First Commandment of hunting? Thou shalt be in the woods at first light.
First light is when deer are on the move. First light is when squirrels dance from tree to tree. First light is when you should hit the snooze button and saw some Zs.
Why do hunters feel compelled to be wide-eyed and ready at first light?
Truth is, game rarely appears before third or even fourth light. A morning bowhunt last November proved the point.
Bucks were love struck and roaming the week before gun deer season. I set the alarm before bed and was glad to do it. Morning couldn’t come soon enough.
At dark-30, the alarm beeped its bleeping noise. I opened one eyelid a sliver to gather light from the digital clock.
Good golly. Four thirty.
And we’re not talking afternoon.
Yet is was necessary to rise at this painful hour to be in my tree stand at first light. This is why God created caffeine.
Shuffling through thewoods in the dark I should have been wearing a night shirt instead of camouflage and carrying a candle instead of a bow.
In the tree stand I checked my safety harness and clutched my trusty wooden recurve bow. It was first light and a big buck or doe would soon materialize in the misty gray, guaranteed.
That’s how it is at first light.
Between yawns I made sure my cedar-shaft arrow was securely nocked to the string. The first shafts of sunlight fell on the quiet and beautiful hardwood flat where I’d put my ladderstyle tree stand.
The day felt half over at 9 a.m. because not one deer had visited my stand.
I’d enjoyed the sunrise and watching the critters when they think no one is near.
A pair of does appeared at 9 a.m. - out of range, naturally, and the only deer I saw that morning.
I climbed out of my tree thinking I could have slept instead of getting up before Dracula calls it a night.
Walking to the truck was another empty-handed stroll. That’s the way it is when you hunt at first light.
Outdoor, Pages 10 on 11/05/2009
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