Got chased out of the woods this morning. !!

[jb]

Forecast said rain'/snow mix followed by a high wind warning. We're about 2 miles in from Lake Michigan.
Got into our blinds just at daybreak, raining as we walked in, then on and off rain till about 11AM. We are deep in the woods made up of old Beech and Maple, some 50' tall. We overlook some draws and valleys so the wind doesn't reach the ground, but around 10:30 it sounded like a jet plane was passing over and I could see the top of the trees really being wiped around.
Not long after I heard a large tree come crashing down just behind where my son was sitting, then a few minutes later heard another.
Texted my son and asked how close, he said about 50 yards behind him. Told him to head for the truck. On the way out another one came crashing down.
Should have known it was going to be a rough day because on the way in we had to stop and clear a large maple that had fallen across our two track. Lucky we brought along a chain saw. Cut the tree in half, but had to drag the base and root ball off the road with the truck and tow strap.
Saw a few does and a little spike, but will head out again in a few days when the weather is a little nicer.

[DeputyDog]

We had the same conditions here today. Had a steady 20 MPH wind all day with rain on and off. Not sure I would have went out even if I could have.

Out opening day was yesterday and I heard a lot of people say that they didn’t hear much shooting during the day.


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[Thumper]

It's 10:00 PM here and a perfect 73-degrees right now. I don't do cold!

[Chicken Dinner]

JB, I had 75’ oak go down within sight of me about a week ago and it sounded like a fun shot going off when she gave way. It’ll definitely get your attention.


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[Thumper]

Years ago, I started using an old tree stand that my buddy had built many years prior. His son used to sit in it. It was very high up in the tree because it was just below the crest of a small hill and when you got way up high, you could see all the way around the knob. I used that stand for about 3-4 years. One day, I spent all day in that stand, called it a day, returned to camp and went back out before dawn the next morning. I got an eerie feeling as I climbed the hill toward my stand because I could not spot the silhouette against the sky as I approached. When I finally got there, I found the tree had fallen during the night! We hadn't had any appreciable wind the night before, it simply decided it was time to give up and tumbled over!

Funny, we hunted that area together for many years and when we'd plan on where we were going to hunt, that area was always referred to as "The Old Knob Stand". The tree and stand were no longer there, but we knew what area it was. We had many areas like that. "The Old Oil Pump" was a small hill that used to have an old oil well pump at the base, but after a bazillion years, the oil company removed the pump. Although there was no well there, we'd many times say something like, "I'll meet you at The Old Oil Pump at noon". We had one area called "The Old Cars". Many years ago, some farmer had built a berm at the end of a field by burying a couple of old cars. One was a '57 Chevy coupe! It looked like it had a bazillion bullet holes in it and had been practically flattened by a bulldozer, but I always wondered what it had looked like when he first put it there. Eventually, somebody removed that berm and put a farm equipment access road through there. We'd still tell each other something along the lines of, "Stand up by 'The Old Cars' and I'll circle the bottom of the hill to see if I can run something by you"! We had a ton of sites like that as we hunted the same area together for close to 30 years. The problem is, when we'd take somebody new along with us, we had no idea how to explain to him where to go.

Ummmm, yeah sure, "Ok dude, walk up this little lane and stand around where The Old Knob Stand USED to be!" Or, "We'll meet up at The Old Oil Pump (although there's no oil pump there)". Ok, "Go up to The Old Cars and wait until we get there. Needless to say, it was tough hunting that area with a new hunter!

Of course we also had all the sites in our minds like that would go something like this:

"Why don't you head out the the spot where you missed that big 10-point a few years ago." Or, "I'll meet you up on that ridge where you got that nice 8-point." Or, let's circle around and meet up at that clay path where you slipped and busted your ass last year". Or where you smacked into that big ol' oak tree with your 4-wheeler. They're endless and you just can't communicate that to a new hunter.