So What's the Best Way to....

...hunt during a blizzard?




Hmmm, with a temperature of 7 now...it's gonna be chilly! And I WANT to hunt?

Priest lake resulted in nada, so now it's back to hunting my late-season areas here near town. I didn't mention it before, but I've been fighting a sinus infection since around the beginning of elk season. I finally went to the doctor on Veteran's day and got an antibiotic called "sulfa-somethinoranother." After a week of taking that and generally feeling like poo, I woke up and discovered my body was covered in a light rash! Ahh, another antibiotic that I'm allergic to; awesome.

So I went back in and he gave me Claritin, a Rx for a serious steroid (used for severe allergic reactions) and a Rx for Zpack. I didn't have to use the steroids or Zpack, so that's good. I finally feel better and am much less dizzy, so I'm itching to hunt! (No pun intended...the rash is gone.)

We've had a pretty good snow storm moving through the past couple of days...I think we have about six inches or so in town. Yesterday the wind stopped around 1000 and I kept staring out the window thinking I should go hunting. I finally couldn't take it and left at 1300, changed, grabbed my gear, and was hunting by 1400. With only about two hours of shooting light, I needed to get moving. I kept crossing tracks of deer that must have been out just hours prior to me getting there, but I didn't see anything.

Well, it was 1600 and getting dark, but I set up in a clearcut and was watching the timberline...trying to will something out into the open. Nada. So at about 1630, heading back down to the truck, I saw a little buck run off the road I was heading for. It was so dark that I could FEEL the snowflakes but couldn't see them...so I figured that was a little too late for a shot.

This morning is the end of a blizzard warning (I think it goes through 1000.) I'm already thinking about when I should get out again...hmm, probably right when the wind dies like yesterday right? Yah. My goal is to just have more time to hang out in the woods as there were deer tracks everywhere one might think there should be deer. Set up in a likely spot and wait I guess. Luckily, I figured out a system of clothes that kept me toasty warm, even when sitting...but do that for six hours vs two? Not sure how tough I am, but it's better than being at work with very little to do. (Can you tell?)

All I'm doing is making reference calls for a hiring panel I'm on, and not many people are around to take my call, but I still managed to get four of seven done yesterday!

With that, send me all the luck you can muster. I'm to that point now. Ooh, but I do have a week in December where I can use the bow to try and shoot either a whitetail doe or buck...so I may still try that. Bowhunting on snowshoes? Hell yeah!