Deer Hunting

Today is the last day of the western buck season in Oregon. Rocky and I went hunting yesterday and Wednesday to no avail. For those of you who know me know that hunting is not my passion, it is not something I dream about, ever. Rocky would eat, sleep and breath it if he could.

The following are my observations about hunting:

• There are way more roads in the forest than you would ever imagine, and they seem to criss cross and repeat themselves frequently. I can not count the number of times we passed signs that read "16 LP". I know there had to be more than one of those signs, because we passed them over and over again. We couldn't have been running in circles; could we?
• Always take spare knitting needles. I broke one just as we arrived at our hunting area the first day and I can tell you that passing those "16 LP" signs gets very boring after about two hours.
• The autumn leaves falling make more noise when you are hunting. We kept hearing what could have been the footsteps of deer, but when we would look in that direction all we would see were the leaves falling, and they made the same noise as the deer.
• It is impossible not to step on twigs when you are trying to look for deer. I was given the instruction to stay very quiet and keep an eye out for deer. Well, in order to step quietly in the woods one really must keep their eyes on the ground. The deer could have been right next to me, but I would have never known it unless they wanted me to know as I was being very careful not to break twigs or rattle dry leaves.
• Deer hunting is not good exercise, don't let your husbands tell you otherwise. I was instructed not to take more than one step per minute and it is important to stand perfectly still for at least 15 minutes at a time about every five minutes. I wasn't told so, but I think blinking and breathing are allowed. Oh, and I guess that passing gas isn't loud enough to scare deer, but try not to cough, sneeze, or hiccup.
• Three point turns are not good enough on forest roads. We were required to execute many seven and nine point turns. Actually Rocky did all the driving, and if I were being totally honest, I tell you that my eyes were closed during most of these turns. Many of the dead end roads we traveled ended on the tops of mountains. The tops of these mountains were only as wide as the road.
• Afternoon naps in a warm truck are essential to finding the deer.

What did I learn from this hunting experience? My purpose for going hunting with Rocky is to try to keep him safe, by having 911 programmed in my cell phone. I don't know if that does any good since cell service is scarce in the mountains, but I know that two people is better than one in case somebody needs help.