Saturday Morning

It was a beautiful opening morning!  We awoke at 4:15 because we needed to get out early to set up.  Crisp, cool air greeted us as we walked outside to the truck.  After we arrived, we unloaded a couple of climbing stands and loaded them on the four wheeler.  We then made our way back to the hunting locations that Glenn and Clay had scouted for us a couple of weeks earlier.  Glenn pointed me in the general direction of the area I was to hunt, and then went back to set up his climber.  I crossed the dry creek, and looked for the tree that he had indicated would be on the other side.  It was still well before daylight, and the absence of a moon made the morning pitch black.  I searced for the tree, which Glenn "thought" was marked with orange flagging tape.  After not finding it, I found the straightest tree I could and attached the Ol' Man climber that Casey had let me borrow for this hunt.  Having never even been on this property until this morning, it was a literal "shot in the dark" as to whether I would have any shooting trails! 

The fact that I had never used Casey's climber, or any climber for that matter, made my task more difficult.  I was awkward and unsure trying to climb a tree for the first time.  I also did not remember to bring a safety belt (hunting predominently in South Texas, I rarely have need for one!), and I encountered a knot in the tree, so I decided that I was plenty high for the morning hunt.  I readied my bow and worked on getting my camera mounted to the tree for filming.  As the darkness gave way to light, I spotted the flagging tape on a tree about 25 yards from my current location.  The tree in which I was situated overlooked the creek, and there seemed to be a trail beneath, so I chose to remain where I was. 

Unfortunately, I didn't see anything until I saw Glenn approaching at about 9:30.  It was great to be in the woods, though, knowing that the season was finally here!  The squirrels and birds were enough to keep this hunter entertained for the morning.

We took time after the hunt to set up a couple of fixed-position stands.  Glenn set up a Strong Built chain-on stand that he had purchased over the summer, and I set up my 12 foot ladder stand overlooking a couple of merging trails. 

Check back this afternoon, as we anticipate better results than the morning hunt!