First Hunt of 2008!

Well, we got out today despite the fact that we got snowed under last night and this morning. We woke up to about 12 inches of new snow this morning! At first I told Little Mike that we would have to postpone our first hunt of the new year. We were also going to take my oldest daughter, Mackenzie who is 10 years old, out for her first small game hunt. After a couple of hours of sitting around doing nothing, I looked outside and told myself that the wind had quit blowning and that the snow really didn't look that deep. So I called my new friend Chuck and told him we should give it a try. I loaded up the gear and told Mike and Mackenzie to get their gear on and lets go. We met Chuck at the parking area of Seven Lakes State Park here in the Mid-Michigan area. He piled in the truck with us and we headed back to one of the fields we thought might hold some rabbits. As we drove up we found out that we were not the only crazy people venturing out in the snow today. When we parked we ran into a couple of guys heading out to give ice fishing a try today. We made our way back to the first field and stomped around in every clump of high grass and bush we could find. NO Rabbits! We then made our way to a much bigger field and tromped it down also. NO Rabbits! I'm sensing a trend here. We did see a few bunny tracks in the deep snow though, although they were somewhat filled with snow. But atleast we saw something. While we were in the middle of the field, I kept hearing something far off that sounded like ducks or geese. I asked Chuck if he heard it, he said yeah it's those geese flying over head! There was a nice flight of geese flying over us, of course late goose season opens next weekend! They were too high up to shoot at anyway. Besides I didn't have my gun with me, I was carrying my video camera, hoping to get a rabbit being taken on video for the podcast. After a few stops to rest from the tromping around we finally headed back to the truck. We decided that it was getting late and we needed to get back home. I dropped Chuck off at his car and made sure he could get out. The snow was deep where he pulled in so he needed a little push to get him going. On the way home we did see some wild game. About 3 miles from the park entrance we saw about 15 deer in a field running around, then about a mile later we saw something in the road that at first appeared to be a pheasant from a distance. When we got closer we could see it was a wild turkey, as we got closer it flew up on a fence rail and set there as we watched it from the truck, in the field behind it was another turkey. About 5 miles further, we saw 3 more deer running through a field. Although we didn't see a single rabbit, we did get outdoors for our first hunt of the new year, and we will always have that memory to keep with us forever! It's not always about taking game, it is about spending time with friends and family in the great outdoors!! Happy New Years everyone!!