"Dad, when are we going hunting?" This was a question my 5-year-old had asked me dozens of times throughout the year. This last week alone he must have asked 3 times a day. But now I could finally say "Today is the day."
Orion has gone hunting with me before, but this time would be a little different. The first time I took him on a hunt was for his 3rd birthday. We went out for a pheasant hunt, and I had absolutely no expectations. I don't even think I loaded my shotgun that day. There were other hunters there and they all made a point to greet him and let him pet their dogs. That day we made it about 200 yards up the trail before he was ready to go back home.
Today would be a little different because I was going to let Orion take the lead. He had shown me in the past that he is capable of being quiet and patient (while hunting at least) and was good at spotting wildlife. We went to another area of public land that was a little closer to home. Once we got to the parking lot we got on our layers and gear and set off. Orion was wearing his new binoculars around his neck. Something he had been dying to try out in the field. The blaze orange vest he wore for the 3rd year in a row was still being held on by safety pins. A couple more years and it might fit without them. Right away Orion spotted a couple of feathers laying in the grass. He of course decided he need to have a collection of everything cool that he found, and these feathers would be the start of it.
We continued down the trail, stopping every 20 yards for Orion to study the landscape with his new binoculars. We made it a half mile down the main trail and then we decided to follow a game trail through some waist high grass. Orion led us along a small stream and into some young woods. There were thorns bending over the path and blocking our way, crisscrossing in front of us as if to tell us the way ahead was prohibited. But we plowed ahead, ignoring the thorns as best we could. I would step in front of Orion and use my legs and body to move the thorny branches out of the way. Eventually the thorns subsided, and the trees took over. There were plenty of shooting lanes and some fresh sign of deer.
The woods were littered with tracks, rubs and deer scat. We found a small log to sit behind and played the waiting game. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and I wasn't expecting to see anything, but this would be a good practice in patience for a 5-year-old. The binoculars kept him entertained for a whole 3 minutes before he got fidgety. He found some twigs and leaves nearby and started to make a little house with them. I looked on for any movement through the trees, but it was as quiet as it was still. The only sound was the constant ringing in my ears and Orion's construction project.
We sat for 45 minutes, which is about as much as Orion could bear. We continued south through the woods and came to a small clearing. The tall grass was matted down in several places. A sure sign of a deer bed. We stopped to check it out. I took this moment to explain to my son how to identify deer beds. The beds were fresh enough to show the rough outline of the deer. "So this is a deer's nest?" Orion asked. "If they laid eggs, then yes, but they just pick a spot to make their bed and go to sleep." I replied. He was a little confused that the deer didn't have a home or a permanent place to go to sleep.
A dozen yards away was a scrape and a broken branch hanging just above it. It looked suspiciously like a mock scrape, but it was still something to show Orion. I explained how the bucks will use a scrape to communicate using their scents and pheromones. It's a way of saying "Hey, I'm here for the babes and you better get out of here." Orion didn't quite understand, but I assured him he would when we got to be a teenager. (Something I'm definitely not ready for.)
Another dozen yards up the trail was a trail camera. It was pointing right at the scrape. We were definitely caught by the camera. I pointed it out to Orion, and he promptly walked right up to it and said "Cheese!" while waving. Probably the best way to handle a trail camera.
We continued on and made our way through more thorns and grass taller than Orion. As the thorns were getting near impassable, I was wondering if we had bitten of more than we could chew. We had already hiked over a mile at this point, and it would be another mile and a half to get back to the truck. We broke through another patch of raspberry bushes and as if Orion heard my thoughts he turned around and said "Dad, I love hunting!" I smiled from ear to ear and was relieved to know he wasn't feeling miserable about bushwhacking through all the bushes and thorns. We got to another open area of tall grass and as I studied the area Orion started pushing down the grass. "What are you doing?" I asked him. "I'm making a nest for the baby deers." he said matter-of-factly. I laughed out loud and took a picture of his habitat creation. Something to show him when he gets older.
After convincing him that his efforts were appreciated by all wildlife, but not necessary, we took a look at the map on my phone to see what our new heading would be. We needed to go northeast, back to the truck. We next checked to wind to see if we were going to have a chance of finding any deers in their nests. The wind was going due west, which was good for us. We kept on hiking, Orion leading the way, and kept on the lookout for any wildlife.
We were approaching a small, wooded area. Mature oak trees towered overhead, and we had the pleasure of trying to sneak through a carpet of crisp leaves. I showed Orion my 10/20 rule. We took 10 painstakingly slow steps and stopped for 20 seconds while watching and listening. 10 minutes crept by, and we were through the woods. As we got into the prairie, a small buck stood up. there were too many shrubs in the way for Orion to see and he was 5 yards to my right. I waved my hand to signal Orion to come to me. The buck wasn't going to wait for us however, and he bounded away and out of site before I could get Orion up above the vegetation. He would just have to take my word for it that we came across a real live deer.
The main trail we came in on was 300 yards away on the other side of the prairie. I gave Orion my phone with the map pulled up and told him to lead us back to the truck. Somehow my 5-year-old kid knows how to use a phone to navigate to a waypoint. I made a mental note to make sure he knows how to use a real compass when he's older. The 300-yard hike across the prairie took longer than it should have. We stopped several times to make more deer nests and to look through our binoculars. We were spread out 20 yards apart from each other and slowly made our way across hoping to bump another deer. No wildlife revealed itself to us but for a few crows in the distance. As Orion stood in front of an oak tree searching the prairie, I took a moment to stop hunting and snapped some shots of my son. As my boss put it about sitting in a deer blind with his daughter, "We're not really hunting, we're bonding." I didn't have any expectations when I took Orion out for a hunt, but we were rewarded with quality time together with no distractions. That alone was worth the price of admission. And if you take your kids out on public land, admission is zero dollars.
