Nov 3 - another quiet one

Even quieter than the day before, we only heard a couple of distant shots during the day. For the morning hunt we went back to the same place as the day before -- in at the trail that starts close to Reddicks. Alex sat off the trail a little towards the lake and I opted to sit a couple of hundred yards towards our cottage. I got fidgety after about an hour and radioed Alex that I would drop some stuff at the bike and then walk down the trail and around the point, moving anything in the area towards him ... if there was anything in the area.

It was cold out; the leaves were crunchy, and even colder as I walked down the hill. By the time my walk was over, however, I was hot -- hat off, coat and sweater undone, just from the effort of walking up and down the natural terrain with all that clothing. In that whole walk, which took over an hour, I only saw two piles of deer poop. That was quite a contrast with last year where on the same trek I'd seen deer sign everywhere. Not this year -- I don't know where they've gone, but it's not in the bush behind us.

We organized to head back and the 3-wheeler wouldn't start. After not too much cranking the battery was spent so Alex waited while I went back and got the battery booster and "quick start" ... still no luck. Alex waited some more while I went back and got a fresh spark plug -- that did the trick. The plugs gradually get fouled up in the cold damp weather, for some reason. Perhaps they don't like it either !

After an early lunch -- 10:30 -- we went back out. This time we went up the trail that starts fairly close to 522. It was wet, with lots of deep puddles and once we got close to the lake we parked our bikes and found spots to sit. We both had good vantage points to watch ... nothing ... We did see a couple of flurries -- the precipitation come down and bounced off us -- little ice pellets -- a prelude for things to come. We left around 3pm, got back and went fishing for a few minutes until the wind picked up, the snow started and we were blown off our anchorage. We figured that was a sign and headed back, played a little pool, ate "Kim's ribs" for dinner and watched half of The Fellowship of the Ring.

The day was done.

We heard from Jason via email with their flight itinerary for March 13-20, flying from Detroit to Orlando. That's great !

Today, I think that we're going to go down the trail that starts between our driveway and Jason's and sit on one of the early ridges looking away from our cottage. With so little activity in the bush I don't have high hopes. It's cold, at -3C, so we might not last very long. It doesn't really matter how much clothing you wear; without any activity the cold seeps through.

That's it ... Alex will be up in a couple of minutes and we'll eat our cereal and head out a little after 6am.