I'm Going Hunting

Heck with it. I can't resist saying goodbye to the bears on the last day of the season. To the wilderness . . . 

Did Not Go Hunting

And now I have that sick feeling in my stomach when I miss a prime hunting opportunity . . . The life of a hunter. Bear season over.

To Bear Hunt Or Not To Bear Hunt

It's 1:30 in the morning. Today is the last day of the bear season. I'm up late working on some writing that desperately needs worked on and probably should be worked on for the entirety of the day. I should be responsible and stay home and write, and I'm tired of entering the woods, well, tired. This is a no win. I will rue the day regardless.

Hunt Report - 9-14-2014

Scout. Hunt. Scout. Hunt. Scout. Scout. Scout. Scout. Scout. Season over. 

Well, at least that's how it feels. My hunting trips are really just glorified scouting trips, only I carry a shotgun, game bags,  and an ever-diminishing sliver of hope. I suppose the scouting is necessary due to my limited knowledge of the area, but the endless walking and the noise that comes with it obliterates any reasonable chance of taking a bear.  

This is one of my great weaknesses when it comes to hunting: I love to explore (cough: scout), and I justify this obsession by convincing myself that the area just over the next ridge could be bear mecca. Of course, that's hardly ever the case. More likely, as I am quickly discovering, it's just a bramble of maples and birches with little to no bear sign. 

Sunday was no different. My plan was to hike four miles in to a prominent saddle, spend the morning overlooking the saddle, and then slowly work my way back to the truck doing calling sets every half mile or so. I had never been to the saddle before but was convinced that it must surely funnel wildlife between the two drainages. Arriving a bit late to the trailhead, daylight found me an hour into the hike, with still another hour and a half left to hike before reaching the saddle. When I did finally arrive, I was sorely disappointed: there was nothing of great significance. I probably should have been more vigilant in trying to locate sign, but the area simply did not have that magical feel and I figured my time would be better spent elsewhere.

After a brief snack, I headed back down to the (Beaverkill) River. That took about another hour or so, during which I second-guessed my decision to hike to the saddle in the first place instead of simply hunting one of the areas where I had previously found some sign of bear. It was roughly 11 o'clock when I arrived at the river. Feeling slightly defeated and overly exhausted, I decided to take a nap, which I managed to successfully do for the better part of an hour. This would remain one of the few successes of the day. 

Once I woke, I decided to follow the river until it concluded just at the edge of some private property. However, I got confused when I crossed a stream that I thought was indicated on the map, making me believe I had hiked much further than I had actually done. So I turned back and by the time I had discovered my mistake I had gone too far to backtrack. That area is still on my scouting list.

At that point, I decided to call it a day and go spend some time with the family rather than aimlessly wandering around the woods. In other words, I was defeated. I still had yet pull the trail camera though, and so I made my way in that direction. I arrived at the camera about 2:30 and sat down to have lunch before heading to the truck. While eating I realized I could view the trail camera pics by placing the memory card in my regular camera. Much to my surprise, there I found one photo of a mother bear and her cub, apparently grazing the berries that lay in front of the camera. 

The sight of bears at the very location I was standing gave me a great boost in confidence and made me think I should do a calling set close by in hopes of pulling in a bear, though not the ones in the photo since it is illegal to take any bear that is with another bear. 

After getting setup, I called for about 30 minutes. Nothing showed. This was of no surprise. My calling is quite terrible, and at one point I actually felt guilty for subjecting every animal in a half-mile radius to my pitiful and obviously manufactured rabbit distress call. After waiting another 30 minutes for nothing to appear, I headed for the truck and arrived there at 6:30. That was my day. Lots of walking, and very little hunting. I suppose I can't expect much when that is the case. This is doubly true due to missing the morning and evening hunting periods, easily the best time to be situated in a stand and actively hunting. 

The camera was in place for eight day. This is the only picture that captured wildlife. This is a mild success. Four weeks ago I had yet to step foot in any of the Catskill Parks. That I can locate bear, an animal I have never hunted before, in a somewhat vast park is definitely an accomplishment. However,the cynical side of me won't let myself celebrate for too long. Had I hunted everyday that week in this exact location I would have only seen two bears, neither of which I could have killed. That's not the best of odds so to speak. 

And now on to more photos.

The open marsh just left of where the bears were photographed. 

Tough to see in the photo, but the vegetation is beaten down.

I'm trying to be more observant with sign. Here I think the ends of some berry bushes have been broken off. 

Not the best print for identification purposes. When I first found it, I was 50/50 on whether it was a bear, though not sure what else would have an imprint like that. Then I pulled the trail camera that was forty yards away and found the photo with the bears. 

Gear Improvements

Added a scope to the shotgun. It's a cheap little scope that I got used for 45 bucks, but it's is an improvement from the very, very basic open sights I was using. The scope, rings, and labor came to a total of $85. It was either have the shotgun scoped or buy a rifle, and I just don't have $1,000 to burn right now, so it's another year of lugging the shotgun around. At least now I have a little more confidence in the gun and its improved accuracy.  As a side note, the gunsmith bore-sighted it for me when he installed the scope. First shot was dead on. Slugs run about $17 for a box of five, and without the bore sight it probably would have taken me at least seven shots. In other words, he saved me about $25.

I also made some adjustments to my pack. The pins on it were a bit noisy so I secured them with flagging tape. I also removed the two straps of webbing that helped cushion the pack against my back, which they never really did considering they were just a thin piece of nylon. 

Up in four hours. We'll see what the day holds . . .

Plant ID - Hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium)

 I'm trying to improve my plant identification. In general, I find that most hunters don't pay nearly enough attention to plant id. So here's trying to change that starting yours truly. 

When I first saw this plant while scouting around Tunis Pond two weeks ago, I got pretty excited. At that time, the berries had yet to open and all that was visible was the large seedpods, which I surmised held bundles of wild hazelnuts (Corylus cornuta). Since wild hazelnuts are a staple food for bear, I reasoned that the area would soon be swarming with bears once the hazelnuts appeared. Two weeks later, I return and found that some of these hazelnut trees were actually bearing (not intended) fruit, not nuts as expected. Still not wanting to except the reality of the situation, I further reasoned that the plants that held berries likely did so because the plant was a specific gender, say, female and that the males must be the ones that produce the bear-inducing nuts. 

My confidence in that analysis finally eroded today (for no particular reason beyond time and the general reasoning capabilities that comes with it) and so I went to google and searched "native plants Catskills." Lo & behold there is actually an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the public's knowledge of native plants in the Catskills. It's called the Catskill Native Plant Society and they have a facebook page. It is there that I found a picture of my wild hazelnut tree. As expected, it's not a wild hazelnut; it's a hobblebush, Viburnum alnifolium (or lantanoides). Some more info can be found here. Some reports mention that bears will eat the fruit, but I doubt it's a bear magnet  like wild hazelnuts. We will see. 

Here is what the wild hazelnut looks like:

http://hudsonvalleygeologist.blogspot.com/2010/07/witch-hazel.html

The main difference between the wild hazelnut and the hobblebush appears to be the leaf margin and a slight variation in the overall shape of the leaf. There's probably some differences in the overall plant in regards to size, form, and branching structure as well, but I don't have comparative photos and it's really not necessary. The plants covering the area around Tunis Pond are not hazelnuts; they are hobblebushes. Although I'm disappointed to not be hunting over wild hazelnuts, at least I learned a couple new plants. It will be interesting to see if the bears hit the hobblebush in the upcoming weeks. Or, with an improved eye, I can actually find a wild hazelnut tree. They do prefer the same habitat:  moist, shady woodlands along streams. 

Here's more pics of the hobblebush: 

I should mention that their fruits will actually turn black when they are fully ripe. I tried a couple of the berries. They are a little sweet but mostly bland and unmemorable. 

Cutting Weight from the Hunting Pack

So the pack nearly killed me the other day. I'm not sure what it weighed, but it was probably somewhere close the 30 pound mark. By the end of the day, it felt like 100lbs. Maybe I didn't get enough sleep and was just sore. Or maybe I should have dropped most of the weight at a base camp and then went about hunting from there. Or maybe I'm just getting old. Whatever the reason, it convinced me that I need to cut some weight off the pack. Otherwise, it will eventually cut down on my mobility, and in terms of bear hunting that's about the only thing I have going for me.

Here's the revised list, with commentary: 

GEAR

• Matches 
• 3-4 small pieces of pitchwood (I'll demonstrate later)
• Esbid Stove  It doesn't weigh much, but I'm desperate.
• 3-4 esbid fire pellets
• 2 cup cooking pot  Will have to take along if I'm staying overnight.
• Water pills (in case it comes to that)
• 50' of small diameter parachute cord  25' should suffice.
• Map  It's a regional map of the entire Catskills, and it's laminated. So as far as maps go, it's heavy. But is it worth cutting up your map to save a few ounces.
• Compass
• GPS
• Aspirin/Pain Killers
• Felco Saw (to procure wood. Trust me, can't beat it)  Due to the limited understory and therefore lack of firewood, it was necessary to carry this where I hunted in Washington so that I could cut larger pieces of wood. This is not the case in the Catskills. I can find enough 1" thick sticks where I hunt to make a 100 campfires.
• Headlamp
• Flagging tape (to mark blood trail and my own trail if I get lost) I'll find another weigh to mark the trail.

HUNTING EQUIPMENT

• 12 gauge (easily the heaviest item in the pack) This thing is an anvil, but nothing I can do about it.
• 6 sabot slugs
• Pocket Knife
• Fillet Knife (The most useful and multi-purpose knife I have ever owned)
• Trail Camera
• 5 Game Bags
• Bag of Pepper (to keep the flies off the meat while quartering it) Only weighs a couple ounces, but the smell is impossible to contain. I have it wrapped in two heavy freezer bags and the smell still permeates. 
• Predator calls
• Hunting License

FOOD:

• Sweet & sour pork freeze dried meal Only if staying overnight.
• Omelet freeze dried meal Ditto
• 4 packages of instant oatmeal Ditto
• Chunk of trail sausage
• 2 peaches Dried fruit.
• 1 powerbar
• About a pound of trail mix 
• Lots of water 1 large nalgene, and one small nalgene.
• Powerbar

CLOTHING

• Cotton camo pants The cotton ones are heavy, might go with my synthetics.
• 2 pairs of wool socks Only if staying overnight.
• 2 pairs of silk liner socks Ditto
• Camo rain/all-purpose jacket
• Blaze orange vest Will be wearing my lighter one.
• Fleece
• Wool flannel (I take it everywhere, no matter what the temperature) Love it but don't need it in this weather.
• Hiking boots
• Camo facemask
• 1 stocking cap Ditto
• 1 baseball cap
• 1 boonie hat
• 2 wool/silk liner shirts Never wore a one of them
• 1 tee shirt

Well, after revising the list, I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't cross off more items. I suppose I'm already a bit thin on the gear and all. It would be interesting to weigh my pack, as well as the items I deleted to see just how much weight I cut. I'm guessing it's the weight of that shotgun that ultimately got the best of me. That thing is not built for backcountry hunting. 

Hunt Report - Bear Opener

To the wilderness . . . 

Unsurprisingly, I woke up a bit late Saturday morning and didn't make it to the trailhead until an hour after first light. Nothing is more defeating to me than arriving late to a hunt, particularly a morning hunt for bear when the best time to be in the woods in the first two hours or so. The hike from the trailhead to Tunis pond takes me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete and I figured it would take another 30 minutes to setup once I got there. So in all, I was 2 hours and 45 minutes late. Not the best start to the bear season. To make matters worse, I was feeling the aches and pains that come with only getting four hours sleep. Feeling a bit defeated, I decided to make it a day hunt and quickly went through my pack  for things to leave at the truck. At the mile mark, I could tell my pack was way too heavy, particularly for a day hunt. The smart thing to do would have been to stash some of my items along the trail, but somehow that thought never entered my mind. 

By the time I got to Tunis Pond, I was ready to shed the pack. Having barely scouted Tunis on the last trip, I took the blown hunting opportunity to thoroughly scout the area. Shedding the pack, I began to scout around. I was hoping to find that smoking gun of fresh sign--steaming piles of scat, a well worn trail, a rubbing tree, etc--that would tell me inconclusively where to place my stand and give me great confidence going forward. There would be none of that. Aside from a few piles of old scat, I found next to nothing. There are some trails, but I'm unsure if they are being used by bear. I did set a trail camera on one of these trails, but it was mostly because I was tired of hauling the weight around and I don't expect to see much come next week when I pull the camera. 

With little if any sign, I decided to head further down the trail and follow the Beaverkill river once it splits from the trail. The hike from Tunis to the Big Indian Wilderness boundary (where the trail and river split) is spectacularly beautiful. I didn't find much sign along the Beaverkill, but I didn't go very far either. The habitat is intriguing. It feels bearish. As a last resort, I did one calling set, mimicking the sound of a distressed rabbit for the better part of forty minutes. I haven't practiced this type of calling before, and my inexperience was very noticeable, at least to the human ear. At one point, two bluejays joined in the chorus, which left me wondering why two bluejays were so interested in my call, and then I realized that the cadence of my calling sequence and the pitch of the call sound disturbingly close to the sound of an alarmed blue jay. Needless to say, I wasn't swarmed by bears. 


A few faint tracks in the sand did catch my attention.  At the time, I thought they were bobcat tracks, but after reviewing it further I believe it is indeed a bear track. If so, there are bear in the general area (this is the second set of track in the area), just not a lot of them and for any length of time. If I was hunting every day, I might be tempted to sit over a trail in hopes of catching one of these bears as the travel through the area, but I'm only hunting one or two days a week and I'm guessing the bears make a pass through the area about once a week. It's obvious to me then that the chances of me and the bear being at the exact same spot at the same time are quite slim. So I have hatched a new strategy, which is basically cover a much ground as possible, doing calling sets every half mile or so. So I have a week to improve my calling. We'll see. 

 The track that I think is a bear along the Beaverkill River.

Another view of the track that I think is a bear track.

Marshy area along the Beaverkill River where I made my calling set.

Just inside the marshy area where I made my calling set.

What's a blog post without pics of scat? I read that when you come across scat from a big bear that it is unmistakable. I think this qualifies.

Camping Supplies List

So the bear opener is in about 6 hours away, and I've just finished packing. For the record, I started packing yesterday, but we recently moved and everything now seems to be in hiding from me. Here's my list, which can be seen above as well:


GEAR

• Matches
• 3-4 small pieces of pitchwood (I'll demonstrate later)
• Esbid Stove
• 3-4 esbid fire pellets
• 2 cup cooking pot
• Water pills (in case it comes to that)
• 50' of small diameter parachute cord
• Map
• Compass
• GPS
• Aspirin/Pain Killers
• Felco Saw (to procure wood. Trust me, can't beat it)
• Headlamp
• Flagging tape (to mark the blood trail and my own trail if I get lost)

HUNTING EQUIPMENT

• 12 gauge (easily the heaviest item in the pack)
• 6 sabot slugs
• Pocket Knife
• Fillet Knife (The most useful and multi-purpose knife I have ever owned)
• Trail Camera
• 5 Game Bags
• Bag of Pepper (to keep the flies off the meat while quartering it)
• Predator calls
• Hunting License

FOOD:

• Sweet & sour pork freeze dried meal
• Omelet freeze dried meal
• 4 packages of instant oatmeal
• Chunk of trail sausage
• 2 peaches
• 1 powerbar
• About a pound of trail mix 
• Lots of water

CLOTHING

• Cotton camo pants
• 2 pairs of wool socks
• 2 pairs of silk liner socks
• Camo rain/all-purpose jacket
• Blaze orange vest
• Fleece
• Wool flannel (I take it everywhere, no matter what the temperature)
• Hiking boots
• Camo facemask
• 1 stocking cap
• 1 baseball cap
• 1 boonie hat
• 2 wool/silk liner shirts
• 1 tee shirt

MISSING ITEMS

• Tent (not a big fan of them unless it's cold)
• Sleeping bag (too warm for a bag)
• Scalpel & blades (welp)
• Spandex knee crops (welp. I wear them almost everywhere)
• Dried fruit (tough find)
• Bagels (easy find. I just forgot)
• Belt (welp. must find)
• First aid kit (must get one)

I'm only staying over one night, but I'm still a bit amazed how much weight is on the pack. No big deal for hiking, but I don't want to hunt with it all day. That means I must either make a base camp and leave all my stuff there or leave it all at the truck and just hike back at dark, perhaps even head home. At this point, I leaning towards the latter. 

The pack fully loaded. I bought that pack for 5 bucks at the thrift store. Best backpack I have ever owned. And I have owned some rather expensive packs.

My freezer. I made a bunch of ice to leave in some coolers in the back of my truck. You know, in case I'm a lucky guy. Also, note the freezer is empty otherwise. I hate an empty freezer. 

Scouting Report - Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest

As promised, here goes nothing . . . . 

Headed up to the Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest the other day to scout for bear.

This was my third trip to the area. My  first trip, which I partly document here, was less than productive, though we did find some bear sign . For this trip, I relocated about three miles northeast to Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest trailhead at the end of Beaverkill Road (google maps shows it turning into Turnwood Road). I had found a couple small lakes on the map about two miles from the trailhead just off the Finger Lakes Trail. These turned out to be Vly Pond and Tunis Pond. I'm just a rookie when it comes to bear hunting, but my understanding is that bears love water and the often rich food sources its fringes hold. In this case, the open area in the forest canopy has to be good for forage. At the very least, I figured it was worth a shot. That's really all a person can do:  identify areas from a map that look intriguing and then groundtruth those suspicions by putting boot to trail.

As I mentioned before, two miles probably eliminates just about 95% of hunters. So if Tunis held bear, I figured it was the perfect scenario:  some type of habitat attraction or wildlife corridor that is just outside most hunters' range but well within my own. That it is easily accessed via hiking trails is a bonus. I didn't time my hike but I would guess it took me less than an hour to hike from Tunis to the trailhead (i was scouting on the way in). It's not the most physically exerting trail, but it does have its elevation gains that do get the heart rate moving at a decent clip (this is doesn't require much; I'm not in great shape these days). The forest is typical for the area:  maples, birches, and hemlocks with a few beech trees in the mix as well. 

Just before Vly Pond the trail crosses a dirt road. This was a surprise to me and my first reaction was utter despair. There were recent tire tracks on the road, and I figured someone had grandfathered rights to the road. Worst case scenario being that that someone is a hunting club. I still don't know, but my fingers are crossed. About a 1/2 mile after Vly Pond the trail intersects another road that the trail terminates into. The signs at the intersection give distances to the nearest locations, but do not provide directional arrows. I was unsure if I needed to turn left or right to stay on the trail. I had read that ownership rights along the Beaverkill River can be a bit confounding, and I didn't want to trespass on private property and have to deal with that headache. Luckily, I had preprogrammed coordinates into my GPS for Tunis Pond before heading out. A quick check of the GPS revealed that left led to Tunis. Still, the trail is essentially an old road, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was on private property and should have instead made a right. 

Tunis is another .25 mile or so after the turn (left). It's a beauty of a lake, and I found a fair amount of bear sign in the area, including a very fresh track. Most of the sign was on the backside of the lake along a well established trail, though I believe the trail is more the domain of deer than bear. The boggy area surrounding the lake holds some kind of small blackberries (blush, I don't know the name and I didn't take a picture). The hillside surrounding the lake is choked full of hazelnuts, with a few beech trees in the mix. In other words, it's got food aplenty. I got that tingly feeling I often get when I have found a prime location. At one point in my life, I would suppress that feeling and write it off as wishy-washy humdrum. Then I would unexpectedly spook an animal from the area and kick myself for not paying more attention to my gut feeling. I no longer ignore that gut feeling, and so, I will be hunting around Tunis Pond this Saturday for the opening day of bear season. I don't expect to get anything or, for that matter, even see anything. However, as the adage goes: you don't get anything sitting on the couch. 

Being a rookie and all, I don't put much confidence into my bear sign interpretation skills. Below are some pics of sign I found. They are organized by how confident I feel in them being bear sign. 

Sign I feel sure about:

Yep. Bear track.

Ditto

  At least a couple months old. Interestingly, I think those are acorn shells. Yet I didn't see any oak trees in the area. If those are acorns, then I'm guessing the scat is from the fall. It was solid.

Ditto

Less sure about:

Doesn't get any fresher, but is it bear scat? The picture is deceiving. The scat is actually much larger, it just sank into the bog upon impact. 

Fresh, small, and globbish. Deer or Bear? 

Fresh and biggish, but not huge. Still, I think it's bear scat. I've never seen deer scat like that. Why am I doubting myself?

Path of travel. Do you see swerving type gant of the animal. It's not as noticeable  in the picture, but it doesn't have straight and linear pattern of a deer.

Gots Me?

Pretty large throw area, but I suppose just about any critter can throw dirt. 

Bear scratching? Or rotting tree?

Deer scat, right?

Scratching post? Or just some worn bark? I should have looked for hair.

That's it. Thanks for reading!

Revealing the Locations of My Hunting Spots

I've decided to identify the areas I hunt. It just makes for a more interesting and informative read. Most of the areas I hunt are roadless and require a good amount of hiking to access, so even if this blog gains a million readers (as of this posting, it would need another 999,998 or so readers to reach that milestone), I doubt there will be an onslaught of hunters invading my spots. And to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing a few more hunters on the trails. Perhaps that will happen come archery season, but I have a feeling I'll be mostly alone. 

Wilderness hunting requires a special kind of knowledge, skill, and conditioning that most hunters don't possess or know how to attain. Revealing the areas I hunt allows me to show my process from start to finish.  Hopefully that will help others jump into wilderness hunting, particularly my East Coast Brethern who seem particularly fearful of hunting the deep backwoods. My process starts with identifying large wilderness areas to hunt and slowly honing in on specific locations within those areas. It's difficult to show that process without actually revealing the area I intend to hunt. I suppose if my spots get invaded, I'll just hop to the next wilderness.

As of yet, I'm unsure just how specific I'll get with spot revealing. You definitely won't be getting the GPS coordinates to that lone apple tree tucked two miles into backwoods that is attracting every critter in a three mile radius. But I might reveal the general area, trailheads and trail, drainages, etc. If you want to cut corners, I suppose you could just hunt the areas I detail in my reports, but I think you will be doing yourself a huge disservice. Half the fun is locating your own area and completing the process from start to finish. There are literally hundreds of wilderness options in the Catskills. Some may be better than others, but I'm guessing they are all about the same in regards to wildlife populations. In other words, you won't gain much of an advantage by shortcutting the process. At the end of the day, you are still hiking two miles into the backwoods to hunt sparsely populated wildlife.

So here it goes, I'm gonna do what no hunter in their right mind would do--I'm gonna reveal my hunting spots from here on out. See you on the trail!