This time of the year not only offers fine fishing for me, but also the anticipation of the whitetail deer season. My son and I have hunted this area of Pennsylvania for a quarter century and we have many fine memories. For those who never hunted deer, it is a very challenging quest, but one that has many rewards. The friendships that are made last lifetimes.
While the actual opening day is the Monday after Thanksgiving, several weeks before that day some scouting of the woods is necessary to see if there are deer in the area, especially bucks. Bucks leave distinctive markings, trees that marked by them show bark that has been rubbed of the tree. They also make scrapes in the dirt, these scrapes are used as mating signs. Since we hunt oak ridges, acorns and the abundance of them is also a good sign.
So with this preseason work and some luck we will be able to place a tag on a special gift..... a Pennsylvania whitetail.
The mountain ridges we'll be hunting. Every year they seem to get higher and rougher to climb.
I now find it easier to walk a half mile out of my way just to find a gentler slope to access the top.
A whitetail rub. By the size of the tree, this might be a good buck.
A whitetail scrape. This one is active, the ground was damp, this is hard to see from the photo, it was a windy day and the leaves were blown into it. Notice the sapling, it is well rubbed.
There are many little creeks running through, some containing brook trout. This is a favorite.
The Alpine....a favorite spot to stop. The best German smoked sausages, and provisions. Landjaeger.
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