Don’t Let the Weather Wreck Your Hunting Trip! – Part 2
We got to hunting camp at around 4:00 on Friday. The sun was just beginning to set to our west. The sky started to get very dark and the northwest wind began howling through the trees. We had to set up camp fast because it was going to get dark soon and a possible winter storm was heading our way. My job was to pitch the camping tent while the others searched for the firewood.
After about 20 minutes the tent was up and my friends were walking up the trail carrying enough firewood for the whole weekend. My friend John said that they spooked three big bucks in the valley as they walked down the hill. He said they ran straight for the north side of the forest crossing an old creek bed. Now we knew where we were going to start our hunt early the next morning.
Before we could think about hunting, we had to get a fire started because the storm was on its way. We built a simple fire ring out of large rocks then started the fire and got the rest of our stuff unpacked and setup. As soon as we got the fire going to a roaring blaze it started to snow like crazy. It was very cold out so we decided to leave the sandwiches in our picnic backpack and cook up some thick strip steaks. Since John had just gotten new bbq tools, he got to do the cooking. Besides, nobody in our hunting group will ever complain about John’s cooking. He really is the king of the grill.
The snow started to build up very quickly. In a little over an hour we had a couple inches on the ground. My new four season camping tent was holding up to the snow and wind very well. Soon the steaks were cooked and we could get into our tent and enjoy our dinner. We grabbed the cooler out of the back of the SUV and climbed into the tent for an evening of storytelling, food and beer.
As we ate, the snow and wind got even worse. The tent was shaking hard but stood up to the winter storm. I was very glad I had gotten the four season tent instead of the three season one I had been considering. If I had purchased the three season tent, we would have either cancelled the trip or we’d have been sleeping in the truck. Soon the dinner and beer were just pleasant memories and it was time to climb into our sleeping bags and get some sleep. The alarm clock was going to go off early because the hunt was at hand!
Please come back soon for the next part of this story about my winter hunting trip. In part 3 I’ll tell you the story of the hunt and the huge buck I shot that day.
