Snowy Hike

We took our annual fall hike Sunday in some very unexpected ground cover...SNOW. While we occasionally have some snow in October we usually don't have 4 to 6". And it was the first time in over 25 years we had snow to hike through. Most of the top of the mountain had 8 to 10" of snow but it began to melt pretty quickly once the sun came up. Of course that also caused the snow hanging on the trees to fall on us during most of the trip.

The crew wondering what the hell are we doing out here.

The sun just coming up in the east. 

Looking out to the west across the valley. I was a little

disappointed in how hazy it was. 

U.S. survey marker on top of Grubbs Knob.

Log Walkers

The bears seemed to enjoy walking the log at the mountain pond set last week. First a cub tried out it's tight rope walking skills and then two bigger bears decided it would be fun the walk the log. Please excuse the slight blur on the pics. Another bear just had to stick it's muddy nose on the camera lens before these pics were taken.

Ten Pointer

This set of pics really got my blood pumping. I'd heard rumors that there was a big ten pointer in the neighborhood but this is the first good visual that I got of him. I think I may have seen him last month at day break with a group of does on the power line. I was riding the four-wheeler going to check the cameras when I saw a real white antlered buck. He was too far off to get a good look but I'm pretty sure it was this buck or better yet another similar to this one. The cameras switched to infrared in the last couple I got of him. Got some other good sets last week that I'll post up later this week.

Look At Me

I had to laugh when I saw this series. If I didn't know better I'd swear the squirrel knew it was getting it's picture taken.

Doe and Fawns

After a week of miserable weather we finally had a beautiful day today. I took advantage of it and zeroed in a new scope I put on my muzzleloader and rechecked the zero on my rifle. After that chore it was off to check my cameras. It's hard for me to find anything much more relaxing than walking through the woods on a day like today. Unfortunately I'm still having a dry spell on the cameras. Didn't get much to get me excited again last week. Seems the big bucks have gotten camera shy. Probably going to move a couple of cameras next weekend and see if that will change my luck.

I did like this set of pics of a doe and her twin fawn. The spots are all gone and the fawn will be on their own in another month or so.

Small Buck

Another slow week for the camera traps. The big bucks are still AWOL from the cameras. I know they're still around from having seen two last week as we were finishing the corn chopping. It's funny to watch the deer come out into a field that has just been chopped and stand looking around. They're probably thinking where the heck did all of our corn go.  I did get this small buck last week. One thing I really like about the Covert camera is it takes great night time pics.

Triplets

The triplets are getting just as big as the twins. They're still feasting on corn due to us not being able to finish chopping because of the rains we've had. Last year (here) we were done by the last week of September. Note the last pic. The bears ALWAYS have to get up close and personal with the cameras.

Red Fox

       Pretty slow week as far as trail cam pics went. Had one camera malfuntion. It went from 60% battery life last Sunday to "Low Battery" this week. Of course I don't have any spare batteries with me to see if that was the problem and it was too late in the day to go get some. The big bucks seemed to have disappeared. Did get a nice set of the triple cubs. I'll post them later this week because I got a nice Red Fox I want to post first. Looks like it is marking it's territory or it was showing me what it thought of my camera trap ;). The way my luck has been going lately it's probably the latter.