October 10, 2000 ~ I spent the most of the evening getting packed and ready to go. Randy and our huntin' buddy, Matt, were helping me out. My nerves were shot and they were a big asset.

October 11, 2000 ~ The alarm went off at 4:30am. We got everything packed into the Explorer and were headed to the airport by 5am. Tears were shed as I told Jerod and Randy goodbye. --I had never been away from home for this long of time since we've been together. It was hard.-- My flights were all on time. Therin met me at the gate and then we waited for Katina and Gene to arrive. Meanwhile my bags and bow got locked up in baggage claim, because I didn't run down to get them... Oh well. We all exchanged hugs and got the Jimmy loaded for the 3 hour drive to camp in PA. And there was a record set for the most bungee cords used on a luggage rack. :-)

When we finally arrived at camp, Dave had been there for almost 4 hours already. It took him less time to drive than originally thought and we didn't realize the drive from Buffalo was going to be so long. Once again, hugs and introductions took place and we all started to get acquainted. Kevin did some filming w/ Katina, as he did the duration of the hunt. He and Therin handed out goodies and gave us a brief seminar on how to use the scents and lures. It was great!

October 12, 2000 ~ The morning of our first hunt. We all got up and around about 5am and met in the house to have breakfast and talk about where we were going to be hunting. My guide, Bill, took me to a stand not more than 200yds from camp. It was my first hunt from a stand. After a half hour, I realized that PA had something that Iowa didn't... CHIPMUNKS... lots and lots of them. Man, can they make a racket. I didn't see anything and because I had not gotten a radio, I headed back to camp myself. This was around 9:30am. Nobody else had returned yet.

That afternoon, "my" stand was moved to another location farther into the woods. Mike was my guide this time and we headed out around 4pm or so. It was quite a hike up there, but well worth it. The view was just amazing. Not minutes after Mike dropped me off, I looked about 100+ yards in front of me and saw movement. I looked away and looked again. I saw a white butt while the tail swished. The deer was feeding back and forth in front of me and didn't have a clue I was there. It finally came up the ridge a little farther and I could see that it was a young doe and she was alone. But darnit, she never came any closer than about 75yds. As the sun set, she headed up the ridge and I never saw her again. I also saw my first porcupine. He milled around not far from my tree until I shined the flashlight on him to get a better look. We don't have those here either.

October 13, 2000 ~ The morning of our second hunt. I hunted the same stand that I did yesterday evening in hopes that this area would produce, as it has in the past. It was chilly and foggy up there on the ridge. I saw no deer, but did see a hawk fly down and try to grab a chipmunk right behind me. I heard lots of barking and then it was silent. That was nice. I didn't get picked up until almost 11am. And it was just then that the sun was able to get through and burn off some of that fog.

We also did a drive earlier in the day that produced a little 5pt buck. He ended up coming out farther down than where I was sitting, about 35-40yds. I let him pass, as I only have a pin set for 20yds and that's where my comfort zone stops. However, Katina was on full draw right behind me on him, too. Kevin got all of this on video. That little buck, who I had thought disappeared into the pines, ended up cutting back and standing not more than 5yds behind me. I had no idea he was there. Got this on tape, too!

That evening my guide was Jimmy. He drove me to another stand location. --This stand produced 5 does for Katina that morning.-- Up until this afternoon I had been doing pretty good as far as not forgetting any gear and really had a routine for this tree stand thing. After I hung my scent cannisters, climbed up into the stand, hung my gear, got myself attached to the tree, grabbed my bow, nocked an arrow.... it hit me.... I had forgotten my release!!! Well, I had to see if I could hit anything w/ fingers so I picked a target and shot one arrow w/ my glove on and one w/out. The one w/out proved best. I hung my bow back up, unattached myself from the tree, climbed back down and retrieved my arrows. I watched moles scurrying along the forest floor, listened to a coyote howling along w/ a dog barking and finally saw one of those house cat sized grey squirrels everyone was telling me about. I've never seen one other those either. I was ready, but no deer came.

That evening Robert, Jimmy, Dave and I went spotlighting. We saw a bunch of deer and several nice bucks. I think we counted about 20 in one field alone. Saw a smaller buck w/ a larger buck bedded down next to each other. That was neat to see. Several does w/ fawns. I believe the final tally in less than an hour and a 3 mile radius was 50-75 deer in all. They were there, just at night during a full moon.

October 14, 2000 ~ Our last day of hunting. We had all been getting up about 5am, but this morning I guess we decided to sleep in. Dave got everyone up at 6am. So we started the morning out w/ drives. The first one produced 3 does going about Mach 9 through the thick brush in front of me about 20yds. Couldn't get on them for a clean shot. The second drive produced nothing for me. After lunch we did a third drive in hopes of figuring out the deer from an earlier drive. That didn't pan out either.

That evening I went back to the spot where I hunted the first morning. As I was walking up the logging road, trying to be quiet and watching my step on the fallen leaves... I looked up, not more than 50-60yds from the cabin, and I saw a white flag cross in front of me about 40yds and go into the timber... I don't know if it was a buck or a doe, but it entered on the trail that I take. Dangit, I could have just sat there on the road! I went ahead and headed to the spot anyway. I had just knelt down when I heard deer running a ways in front of me... 4 deer bounded across some thick brush on a mission. That was the most deer I had seen during the day. If I had only gotten there a bit earlier, but who knows. I stayed until I couldn't see my pin and headed back for dinner.

The weather was warm and the moon was full. Robert, Jimmy, Mike and Bill were all great and did everything they could to put us on deer. They were there, but didn't want to cooperate.

Pat is an excellent cook and her and the girls took care of us at every meal time. Pat even ran into town and got Katina and I our Coke and Mt.Dew. - Thanks Pat and Katina :).

I had a super time and everyone that was there was great! I had hoped to go back to fill my tags and take Randy w/ me, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Their early archery season ends on Nov. 11 and Randy won't have any time off until much later. Maybe we can do a spring turkey hunt.