Good friends, Good Times and No Deer

The arrival at the primitive campground at Yellowbank Wildlife Management Area was not originally planned for 9:30 p.m. on Thursday evening. Of course a homecoming parade and a missed turn contributed to the four of us setting up camp by lantern light.

Once tents were erected and wood was gathered, a campfire was blazing and a bull session with beverages was planned. Of course it was short lived thanks to rain and thunderstorms that moved through the area, sending us scrambling into tents. The rain continued throughout early Friday, cancelling the morning hunt.

A trip to the nearby town of Hardinsburg was hatched in order to gather our groceries for the rest of the weekend. The menu consisted of lot’s of bologna, hot dogs and canned beef stew. No gourmet meals for us hard-as-leather bowhunters.

We were finally able to get in the woods Friday evening and hunted till dark. Two of us saw deer (I was not one of them) and one of us got really lost (once again, not me). Our lost companion made it back to camp before any of us, after hitching a seven mile ride with a farm lady who spent the better part of her days around smelly livestock and obviously wasn’t offended by a one-eyed man in camouflage who hadn’t showered in a couple of days.

The wind swirled around 20 mph for the rest of the weekend and the moon was full, making less than idea hunting conditions. We did finally start figuring them out by Saturday afternoon and the other two of us finally saw deer.

The final tally from the weekend went something like this: four cans of beef stew, two 30 packs of Busch Light, four packs of hot dogs, three packs of bologna, a fifth of Jim Beam Red Stag and no deer.

We enjoyed it so much we will be doing this again at the end of the month.