As fall approaches and the leaves begin to float to the ground, it can become quite challenging to approach your stand quietly. For years I struggled with the crunching beneath my feet, even taking a walking stick to drag the ground in intervals, stopping often to simulate the walking of a four-legged creature instead of a two-legged one. My stand was situated on the north side of a narrow finger of woods that almost splits our property in half from east to west. Apple trees in the field, and on the edge of the field near my stand are the reason for my stand placement. My husband, Patrick took his tractor and the brush-hog and cut a trail along the south side of the finger of woods, which is connected to a wide strip of cedar swamp that borders the southwest portion of our long and narrow 40-acre property. We always see deer following this trail, skirting the cedars and heading toward the finger of woods where my stand is.
I was basically getting lazy, trying to find a shorter way to my stand, without having to follow the road that circled to the east of the finger. From the house, it was actually twice the distance to the stand following the road. In preparation for the upcoming bow season about five years ago, I finally convinced Patrick to clear a path of debris through the woods, so I could reach my stand quicker and easier. However, it was still very noisy to get there once the leaves fell. Fed up with the noise, I took a leaf rake and began clearing the path of leaves. My husband thought I had finally lost my mind. “You’ll never keep those paths clean,” Patrick told me. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I was tired of crunching my way to the stand and I was certain the crunching was alerting the deer to my presence. After two days of sweat and blisters on my hands, the trail was cleared to the ground. Patrick just shook his head and knew by that time I’d finally lost it!
I wasn’t sure at first what to expect, but to my amazement, when I checked the trail the following day, there were deer tracks everywhere! Some of the tracks followed the trail, probably curious as to where the trail led, others crossed the trail (in spots I never saw because of the leaves) heading toward the apple trees on the edge of the field to the north. Patrick was right when he told me it would be difficult to keep the path cleared, however, after I showed him all the tracks, he also saw the benefit. I finally bought a gas-powered leaf blower, to clear the paths.
I tried the same thing on our property in Kentucky, which was totally wooded, and a much larger job, but I can tell you the rewards were the same! Deer, especially big bucks, don’t like walking on noisy leaves either, and the benefit to keeping your trails clean is the deer and other critters will also use them, increasing your chances of the deer walking right by your stand!
It’s best start on your paths before the leaves pile too thick. It’s more work because you will have to blow the trail more often, but it will cut down on the time it will take to clear the trail. When clearing your path, remember not to clear the path directly to your stand. Rather, clear a trail about 5-6 feet wide, preferably a winding trail if possible (deer usually mosey around looking for food) and bring the trail within shooting distance to your stand, keeping the prevailing wind direction in mind at all times. The wide trail will help keep the leaves from covering the trail sooner, keeping your workload down to a minimum. Also, when blowing the leaves, blow all the leaves to one side, in the same direction as the prevailing winds if possible. That will minimize the pileup of leaves that could blow back over the path.
Within the first few weeks of clearing the trail, it brought more deer to my stand, plus it’s been easier to monitor the activity and trails that cross the cleared path.
Also, one morning, I was in my stand 20 minutes, and I had a bobcat follow me down the same trail to within 10 yards of my stand. That alone was worth all the effort!
