"Deer tend to head towards water when injured or fatally wounded." How many times have you heard or read that idea? Well, I am now a believer in that – read on to hear my supporting "evidence"!

The full moon is no longer ~ the night is darker for one more hour because of Daylight Savings Time. Leaves are falling noisily from the branches of trees, trees that are getting ready to hibernate. The wind is strong but warm ~ unseasonably so, here in the Northeast ~ 68° at midday. However, as the sun goes down, so do the temperatures (20° drop in less than an hour. I dressed warm for the woods, I am always cold. I leave my outer Scent Blocker coat off for the hike into the woods. We are at woods’ edge by 2:00 p.m.

We take a different path in to our side-by-side Maple trees. (They have grown about 3 ½ feet apart, so we can put our stands facing in opposite directions and have a 360° of the woods without having to crane our necks or make a lot of commotion in the stands.) I try to cross a stonewall and two criss-crossed logs on the other side. Of course, I have my climbing tree stand and backpack on, with my bow in my hand. I am almost across, but my foot gets caught on a remnant of rusty barbed wire from days gone by, and I fall, sort of sideways, but forward, with my foot behind – with my climber, still attached, on top of me! I am not hurt, but I can’t get up! Ugh. So much for being the "all-round, strong, outdoors woman! " In hindsight, I probably could have freed my leg and flopped on my stomach and wriggled my arms out of the climber straps to right myself, but I doubt there is any possible way to have done that gracefully, and I didn’t need to embarrass myself any further at that point! So, to my fellow hunters, the old saying, "Don’t swim without a buddy" also applies to hunting! You never know when you may need help from a friend! Okay, so I am back to an upright position, following my hunting buddy through some brush, only just as I look up to see if we are at the trees, THWACK! I get stung right in the face with a branch! By now, I have realized that this may not be my day, but I keep going, quietly hoping that things will improve if I just stick with it! I get my climber attached to the tree without the struggle I usually have. But, as I go to flip over the footrest, I slam my thumb between the two metal parts. Ugh! I see stars for a few minutes while I hold my breath and try not to scream obscenities in the quiet woods. I keep going in my attempts to get into the tree, wondering why I am doing this at all given the current circumstances!

Once seated, I take a deep breath and let it out slowly to clear my head. I can’t help but wonder if I am going to continue to hurt myself today or if I will actually get some quiet time to relax and enjoy the woods. I don’t have to wonder long ~ I attach my release and reach into my pocket for my arm guard. It’s not there. Great. What else can go wrong? I grit my teeth and try not to scream in frustration. Wait! I hear something! Two deer are coming in straight ahead! Two does. They head our way and I stand, preparing – both mentally and physically for a shot. Thirty-five yards, 30…25….20… 19… As I draw back, I am careful not to hit my elbow on the tree behind me. It’s a bit awkward with them being straight on to the stand, but I manage to pull into a full draw. I make sure I take my time and go through all of my steps: kisser, nose placement, site rings aligned, 20 yard pin on the vitals, finger on the trigger, and squeeze. SMACK! The doe leaps upward and runs off. I missed! My bulky sleeve got in the way. The string hit it and caused my arrow to go astray. I never realized how important each piece of equipment is. Just one of those things that you don’t miss until you don’t have it!

The silly does are unfazed. Not five minutes later, they’re back out. My "buddy" shoots at the same doe. It must be her lucky day because his arrow hits a small branch and is deflected also. It’s another miss! Both deer trot off and stay within sight, but out of range, flicking their tails in annoyance.

More deer coming! One, two, three… they go right past us, but sixty or so yards out.

A beautiful red-headed woodpecker distracts me for awhile. A squirrel furiously clucks and chatters at something that he is very angry about. Another smaller black-and-white woodpecker joins the red one….Oh! More deer! I make a slight motion towards them with two fingers. "It is probably the same two again," I think as they go to the far right of me. I can’t take a shot, but the other stand is perfectly positioned. I watch….and wait…maybe one of us will get a deer today. Whoosh! Goes the arrow- the deer leaps and then is down in the field beyond. The other deer with it takes off, too. We wait, excited that something has finally gone right today.

As we quietly whisper that we’ll pack up and call it a day, I try to pack up my things with my release still on and my arrow still nocked. We’re whispering back and forth when I hear more deer! I quickly twist my left sleeve tightly around my forearm. If I even get a shot, I don’t want to blow it again. My seat is already folded up, so I am standing, ready. One, two, three, four…. It is like a deer parade! Five…. The fifth one pauses, halfway behind a tree at 19 yards. I draw. Focus! Think! I go through my steps…and squeeze! Yes! It hits perfectly! I hear her running a few last steps through the brush, then, SPLASH! SPLASH! And then silence. What the heck? I look over at my buddy and he is laughing. The doe had fallen into the pond, about 20 yards off!

What a day this has been! We climb down and go to track our deer. The first is about 35 yards off in the field, but mine is floating, like a brown island in the pond! And the thought "deer tend to go towards water when wounded…." runs through my head. It is true! And, like I said earlier, don’t hunt alone ~ you never know when you might need help! How on earth could I have fished a water-logged deer out of a pond by myself? I couldn’t. (A quad would have come in handy at this point, but we do not have permission to use one there.) She is a large doe, and hard as I try, I cannot drag her with the drag line. I can pull the smaller one, and I do, laughing as I struggle – because if it weren’t something I wanted to be doing: wrestling her through the mud, over fallen logs and a stonewall, I probably would have cried at this point!

Thank God I wasn’t hunting alone or my deer would still be floating in that pond! The moral of this day was two-fold: don’t hunt alone, and don’t ever, ever give up, even when it’s not going well at all!!

© January 2005