as another hunting season gets under way.....

[adkmountainken]

i have come to realize i no longer feel the need to prove myself as i once did, every minute, every hour, every day i spend in the woods means more to me then it ever did before. the woods and the hunt just soothe the soul and wash away worries, pain and anything else that brings you down.  i kill less every year and enjoy every season more then the last. such a wonderfull gift the thrill of the hunt is and it means so many different things to so many people. if it were not for my LOVE of venison i doubt i would even worry about making a kill.  the day i can not roam the mountains anymore will be the day i take the journey. good luck to all the go afield and my you find the peace and beauty that i have found.

[Adirondackman]

Well said Ken. The "Hunt" is much more meaningfull to me than the "kill". I just enjoy the opportunity to enjoy the woods and maybe get close enough to my quarry to make meat. I respect my game and thier environment. Maybe I'am just getting old.

[Ghost Dog]

Any reason that calls me to the woods is reason enough to go. Just the scent of redwoods, sage and madrones is all it takes to bring me there, and more than enough to keep me there.

[Killdeer]

My shirt still smells like last week's campfire. The more I hunt, the more important the campfires, the coffee, the spruce needles and the winter wrens beome. I don't kill nearly as much as I used to.

Maybe I am just lazy. Small game hunting has become more attractive, mostly because of the lighter drag, I think.

Killdeer

[the not so straight arrow]

i miss that feeling so much lately since my move to manchester NH to go to school. the woods arent more than a 20 minute drive away from the city but things are so different when i cant hear coyotes at night and smell real fall air.  value what you have guys, i never knew i would miss it this much. i feel like josh turner in that song "lord have mercy on a country boy". good hunting all.
-cory

[Killdeer]

Cory...I am in a two-bedroom flat overlooking a highway. Value what YOU have.

Killdeer  

[adkmountainken]

Killy,
      you are the one i think of the most and wish you could have the freedom i do hunt so much public land. i will give gps coordiants to anyone hat wants them directly to my stands as i wish as could feel the love of the mountains that i do. i do not take for granted what i have here, i give thanks for it every day. i wish you could be here my sister. you and Mocking bird with love it!

[Bonebuster]

The "Big Bang" theory suggests that a bunch of rocks bumped into each other in space. After the boom, what was to become earth "landed" just far
enough from the sun for everything to be good. Add some water, and here we are. (Simplified version)  :p  

Our brains developed into what they are, we became practically hairless, lost 98% of our instincts, and we are left to figure out where we belong in all of this. All of this happening in the blink of an eye.

SOME of us however, have kept the hair(me), and some of us did not lose quite so much of our instincts.

Those of us who have kept more of our instincts than others, have SOMETHING different inside. These are the ones who MUST wander. These are the ones who MUST smell the campfire. These are the ones who KNOW they are not seperate from the earth, but rather a part of it.

I believe that when a person begins to feel as adkmountainken describes, it is because he is unlocking a place inside him that allows his instincts to come alive again. And each succeeding year brings more and more of a return.
Suddenly a person does not need to prove anything, because they already KNOW. Instinctively, they already KNOW.

What it is that we KNOW...I don`t KNOW.

I believe that there are many people who still have the instincts, but do not know what it is they feel. To them, there is always something missing.

Wonderful October. The earth is getting ready to rest, and those of us who KNOW, can FEEL her excitement.    

Happy day adkmountainken.

[Mark Baker]

I have a head start and probably a few years on you Ken, but I'm there too!   Like you I am blessed with natures beauty everyday here, and could'nt imagine living anywhere else, really.  Take each day as the gift it is! Good luck, too, when you do decide it's time...- Mark

[adkmountainken]

Bonebuster,
      very well said. the echo's of the past still ring in many of us its just that it has been so long that they are muffled and hard to understand, you have to listen really close and the woods will talk to you.