This is a little different take on a deer hunting story but some of you might it find entertaining, especially given the currently ongoing discussion surrounding game law enforcement. This occurred in the early 1980s, 1982 or 1983, the exact year is lost to me.
I had been hunting pretty consistently near my hometown on a small chunk of then public land bordering a railroad line. There was a depression with a deer trail that bordered the top of it and to get downwind of the trail I had to climb way up in a white pine that was growing at the bottom of the wet bowl so I could shoot across to the top edge where the trail crossed.
My girlfriend at the time was curious about why I was so obsessed with deer hunting so I decided to take her out and post her up in a tree with a camera so she could get “the experience” of seeing some deer up close. We drove in and I parked at the end of the road where it dead ended at the railroad tracks. We walked down to the tracks (blue line in the diagram attached) and I took her to a spot on the other side of the tracks not too far in where she could overlook some open marsh from a deadfall. I couldn’t bring to where I was hunting because I was just standing on branches of the white pine about 30’ up and she wouldn’t have cared for that experience. After getting her set up I cut straight over to the tree I was hunting from and climbed up.
I wasn’t on stand for a half an hour when I noticed movement in ravine to the south of me. A man apparently walking a large dog came down the ravine from my truck and walked to the edge of the wet marsh. After circling around a bit he turned and headed back up the ravine (red line to the south). I was curious and a little concerned what he was doing by my truck. He retraced that path two more times.
Now I’m starting to get PO’d. He’s obviously trying to harass me but he was still a couple hundred yards away and not in the direction I was expecting deer to come from so I stayed put. Twenty minutes later I hear a noise to my north and, lo and behold, the guy and his dog are walking a semi-circle around me to the north and then back again. “What the heck?” by now I’m sure he’s messing with me but I stay put again, he hasn’t completely cut off the trail I’m sitting on and I really don’t want to get into a confrontation with my girlfriend out there with me. Besides, he's got a really big dog with him.
It’s now quickly approaching last light and the guy and his dog come back down the ravine. This time at the bottom they turn and head right for me along the edge of the wet marsh. As the dog gets to the tree I realize its on a long tether, probably 20ft. I let it pass under me and as the guy is directly under me I also realize he’s wearing the uniform of a State cop. “Now it makes sense! This is a tracking dog and there must be a lost person out here.” I figure I’ve been here an hour and a half, maybe I could help. I say “Did you lose someone?” as he’s directly under me. It obviously startles hm and he draws his weapon and says “Yeah! You, get down here now!” As I’m climbing down he’s asking “Why did you run from the CO?” “What CO?” I replied “I haven’t seen a CO out here in five years.” “Is that your truck up there? Well he says a bowhunter matching your description, dressed in camo an with orange fletchings on his arrows, ran down that ravine from that truck when he tried to talk to him.” Then he said “On top of that my dog lead me right to you.”
While he checked my licenses and ran my ID I explained the circumstances for my walk in and that his dog had not tracked to me but had in fact crossed my track several times without noticing me including right under the tree. I also pointed out the fact that his description of me would fit 90% of the bowhunters in the woods at any given time. He seemed to accept my story and as we walked out we discussed the hunting and everything seemed pretty relaxed.
As we approached the truck I realized that in addition to the CO truck there were two state police cars and county sheriff vehicle parked up there all with their overheads on. It looked like a scene from a movie where a mass killing might have taken place. Being the smart mouthed 20 something I was at the time I quipped to the CO “Did you need to call in the whole county to search?” Big mistake . . . that started the discussion off on entirely the wrong foot. He’s peppering me with questions and I’m relating the same circumstances I had just told the state cop. When I told him my girlfriend was out there he immediately asked “Is she somebody’s wife?” I guess assuming that would be a reason for me to run away. For once I managed to suppress my first reply instinct which was “Why, is your’s missing?” Given his mood at the moment it probably saved me from a police beating. They wouldn’t let me go get my girlfriend out of the tree, I guess they were afraid I was going to flee and leave my truck behind. I had to yell to her and direct her out of the woods from the truck (pre cell phone for you young guys). Luckily I had left my flashlight with her and she wasn’t in very far.
I could tell from her replies she was PO’d that I was yelling for her to come out but when she got there she found the whole matter extremely humorous and giggled and laughed incessantly throughout the entire line of questioning. This upset the CO even further. While his backup all left the scene he kept us behind for over an hour while he thoroughly searched every inch of my vehicle trying to find something he could cite me for. Alas, I was completely legal and in the end he had no recourse but to let us go.
As we got in the truck my girlfriend turned to me and said, “This was a blast! Now I understand what you see in this hunting stuff!”
In retrospect, there was a house directly opposite of the marsh from the ravine. I believe that the resident of that house may have been hunting unlicensed behind his home and happened to be walking up that ridge when the CO saw him. He ran back down the ravine and through the marsh to his house and I, having still been walking or climbing missed his passage through there. Nevertheless it made a memorable story.
The next day my mother called me up and asked me what I had been up to the night before. She apparently had been notified by three different people that my name had been broadcast repeatedly over the police band as they searched for the “fleeing suspect”.
I had been hunting pretty consistently near my hometown on a small chunk of then public land bordering a railroad line. There was a depression with a deer trail that bordered the top of it and to get downwind of the trail I had to climb way up in a white pine that was growing at the bottom of the wet bowl so I could shoot across to the top edge where the trail crossed.
My girlfriend at the time was curious about why I was so obsessed with deer hunting so I decided to take her out and post her up in a tree with a camera so she could get “the experience” of seeing some deer up close. We drove in and I parked at the end of the road where it dead ended at the railroad tracks. We walked down to the tracks (blue line in the diagram attached) and I took her to a spot on the other side of the tracks not too far in where she could overlook some open marsh from a deadfall. I couldn’t bring to where I was hunting because I was just standing on branches of the white pine about 30’ up and she wouldn’t have cared for that experience. After getting her set up I cut straight over to the tree I was hunting from and climbed up.
I wasn’t on stand for a half an hour when I noticed movement in ravine to the south of me. A man apparently walking a large dog came down the ravine from my truck and walked to the edge of the wet marsh. After circling around a bit he turned and headed back up the ravine (red line to the south). I was curious and a little concerned what he was doing by my truck. He retraced that path two more times.
Now I’m starting to get PO’d. He’s obviously trying to harass me but he was still a couple hundred yards away and not in the direction I was expecting deer to come from so I stayed put. Twenty minutes later I hear a noise to my north and, lo and behold, the guy and his dog are walking a semi-circle around me to the north and then back again. “What the heck?” by now I’m sure he’s messing with me but I stay put again, he hasn’t completely cut off the trail I’m sitting on and I really don’t want to get into a confrontation with my girlfriend out there with me. Besides, he's got a really big dog with him.
It’s now quickly approaching last light and the guy and his dog come back down the ravine. This time at the bottom they turn and head right for me along the edge of the wet marsh. As the dog gets to the tree I realize its on a long tether, probably 20ft. I let it pass under me and as the guy is directly under me I also realize he’s wearing the uniform of a State cop. “Now it makes sense! This is a tracking dog and there must be a lost person out here.” I figure I’ve been here an hour and a half, maybe I could help. I say “Did you lose someone?” as he’s directly under me. It obviously startles hm and he draws his weapon and says “Yeah! You, get down here now!” As I’m climbing down he’s asking “Why did you run from the CO?” “What CO?” I replied “I haven’t seen a CO out here in five years.” “Is that your truck up there? Well he says a bowhunter matching your description, dressed in camo an with orange fletchings on his arrows, ran down that ravine from that truck when he tried to talk to him.” Then he said “On top of that my dog lead me right to you.”
While he checked my licenses and ran my ID I explained the circumstances for my walk in and that his dog had not tracked to me but had in fact crossed my track several times without noticing me including right under the tree. I also pointed out the fact that his description of me would fit 90% of the bowhunters in the woods at any given time. He seemed to accept my story and as we walked out we discussed the hunting and everything seemed pretty relaxed.
As we approached the truck I realized that in addition to the CO truck there were two state police cars and county sheriff vehicle parked up there all with their overheads on. It looked like a scene from a movie where a mass killing might have taken place. Being the smart mouthed 20 something I was at the time I quipped to the CO “Did you need to call in the whole county to search?” Big mistake . . . that started the discussion off on entirely the wrong foot. He’s peppering me with questions and I’m relating the same circumstances I had just told the state cop. When I told him my girlfriend was out there he immediately asked “Is she somebody’s wife?” I guess assuming that would be a reason for me to run away. For once I managed to suppress my first reply instinct which was “Why, is your’s missing?” Given his mood at the moment it probably saved me from a police beating. They wouldn’t let me go get my girlfriend out of the tree, I guess they were afraid I was going to flee and leave my truck behind. I had to yell to her and direct her out of the woods from the truck (pre cell phone for you young guys). Luckily I had left my flashlight with her and she wasn’t in very far.
I could tell from her replies she was PO’d that I was yelling for her to come out but when she got there she found the whole matter extremely humorous and giggled and laughed incessantly throughout the entire line of questioning. This upset the CO even further. While his backup all left the scene he kept us behind for over an hour while he thoroughly searched every inch of my vehicle trying to find something he could cite me for. Alas, I was completely legal and in the end he had no recourse but to let us go.
As we got in the truck my girlfriend turned to me and said, “This was a blast! Now I understand what you see in this hunting stuff!”
In retrospect, there was a house directly opposite of the marsh from the ravine. I believe that the resident of that house may have been hunting unlicensed behind his home and happened to be walking up that ridge when the CO saw him. He ran back down the ravine and through the marsh to his house and I, having still been walking or climbing missed his passage through there. Nevertheless it made a memorable story.
The next day my mother called me up and asked me what I had been up to the night before. She apparently had been notified by three different people that my name had been broadcast repeatedly over the police band as they searched for the “fleeing suspect”.
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