Scouting

Well, at least I don't have Lyme Disease. I came down with a cold two days ago and I was convinced it was due to my latest scouting trip. Thankfully the Internet relieved my fears, since my symptoms don't match.

Last weekend, Dad, Joe, the oldest nephew aka Ben, and myself traveled into the wilds of Kentucky to do a little scouting and hang some stands before the start of bow season. Dad and I stayed at Joe's Friday night and awoke around 3AM (waaaaay too early) to start our 5 hour journey to camp. Unfortunately only 45 minutes into our drive, we ran into a snarled traffic jam just on the other side of Chattanooga. We sat parked on the interstate for over two hours until traffic started moving again. Ben and I napped in the back seat.

We finally reached camp around 10:30 or so and we quickly unloaded Dad's Ranger off the trailer and started scouting the property. We've leased close to 1000 acres so having the 4 wheel drive Ranger really came in handy. I absolutely love our hunting land. It's made up of vast sprawling pastures and hay fields that mingle with thick hardwood forests. Perfect whitetail habitat.

We spent a good part of the morning scouting the west side of the property. Around 2PM we went back to the dilapidated old farmhouse that serves as our hunting cabin and base camp, and ate a perfect deer woods lunch consisting of potted meat, sardines spread on saltine crackers, and Little Debbie's for desert. All washed down with a cold Dr. Pepper. Bon apetit!

We spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring the rest of the land. It was perfect weather except for the stifling heat and the property's apparent tick infestation. I've never in my life seen anything like it. We were covered up in deer ticks. And the size of these things blew my mind. Some of them were the size of a pinhead. At one point, Dad had hundreds of them crawling up his pants. It looked like pictures I've seen of the annual red crab invasion of Christmas Island. Of course I was a little freaked by this, since deer ticks spread the dreaded Lyme Disease.

Late in the afternoon we headed over to a spot on the southern end of the property so I could hang a archery stand. We hung it near a spot where I killed a nice buck two years earlier, so I figured the spot was good luck. While we were busy with the stand Ben spent his time picking up turkey feathers and playing with turtles. I think at last count he had found seven turtles within a 50 yard radius. We decided to name the place Turtle Hill, but come bow season, I'm hoping to rename the place, Buck Hill, Gut Pile Ridge, or Ten Point Hollow. I'm setting high expectations.

Around 5Pm we finally loaded the Ranger back on to the trailer and the four of us hauled our sweat, tick and chigger covered bodies back into the truck and headed for a hotel to stay the night. We promised Ben a hotel with a pool and it took us over an hour to find one.

We checked in and the first thing we did was strip down to remove ticks. We pulled over 20 off Ben alone. Joe, Ben and myself, swam in the hotel pool in our underwear since we had neglected to pack any swimming trunks, but we didn't give a flip. (We're rednecks and proud of it!) We were covered in potentially disease infected parasites and we were convinced the high chlorine levels of the pool and hot tub would kill the little buggers.

That night we dined on fried grease and sweet tea at a local Choke-n-Puke and fell asleep watching USC trounce Ohio State. We were up 5 short hours later at 3 AM, (again waaaaay too early) and headed for home.

I can't wait to get back up there in month when the season opens. I just hope it comes an early frost and kills off the damn deer ticks.