Man VS Nature

Maybe I have flair for the melodramatic but then again isn’t that a trait shared by all writers? Enjoy!

In an epic early morning battle pitting man against nature, I was sorely defeated. Seemly well equipped with my grandfather‘s (Pup) razor sharp ice chipping spud my expectations were running high as I trudged into the woodlands and braved the wide gaping maw of Mother Nature with her claws made of icicles and teeth of rime ice.

Unfortunately the brutally cold early morning temps dipping into the negative digits made the chipping akin to attempting to hammer through concrete with a butter knife. While my torso was quickly a wash of sweat from my rhythmic thrashing and hammering my extremities were soon suffering. After about one and a half hours I had frozen fingers and toes and a Labrador that could easily be categorized as a pupsicle.

I knew I was finally done when a misplaced chip from the spud sliced through one of the brow tines causing minor damage but enough to encourage me to come back and challenge the ice another day.

Eight to twelve inches of snow are expected tomorrow so I marked the site as best I could considering the stark barren featureless nothingness that is a snow swept lake and have vowed to return!

10 pointer harvested this weekend!

Eat you heart out MOM! You may have shot a 10 pointer this season but I revel in the fact that you aren't the only one in this family dripping with trophy hunting prowess!

After reading an article on "Finding Sheds" early Sunday morning in this months edition of Field and Stream I got a little bit excited that this might make for a fun and interesting late afternoon snowshoe hike with the dog. The article stressed the importance of training your eye to look for and identify sheds. I had also heard that coyotes tend to find sheds and urinate on them therefore marking their location.

To make things interesting I followed several coyotes hunting in unison out in a remote section of woods. I followed the tracks for about 3 miles in the deep snow and was amazed at the number of partridge (4) and bunny (2) carcasses I uncovered.

As I neared the end of the hike I had to cross the expanse of a small pond. Out of the corner of my eye I noted what looked like a leg bone that a coyote had attempted to dig out of the ice. Upon closer inspection, it was a leg bone and while inspecting I saw something "out of place" off to my left highlighted in the days dying light. Horns (See the photo above for my first glimpse)? As I dug deeper and deeper into the snow I realized that it was the rack of what appeared to be a 10 pointer. Unfortunately, it wasn't a shed it was in fact a deer that through natural or unnatural causes had died . . . thereby escaping the trophy wall.

Through good fortune I had a small pack saw with me and with a little bit of effort I freed the one horn from the icy surface. The other horn is down there in the frozen depths and will be released shortly! Tune in for the literal other half of this story!