Opening Day

Tomorrow is "opening day" for hunting mule deer with rifles. (More ardent sportsmen than me have been out since the first of September hunting antelope with bow and arrows.) BUT, I have decided to take the year off. Unfortunately, the sun will rise without me on one of my very favorite places in Montana ~ a place I can only go during hunting season. "But why?" you may ask.



Let me explain. Montana ranchers have partnered with the state and with hunters to control the deer populations on their properties. They allow hunters to treat their private land like "home" during the season in exchange for avoiding over-population. I have harvested two decent mulie bucks on one such property.

Yes, we found our way to the bottom of this one.

It is a tract of land that Dan and I have spent time exploring extensively. There is a deep canyon that we made our way down into, only to find that we had to climb a mini-waterfall to get back out of. An adjacent plot has a couple of coulies that had me looking back over my shoulder for a mountain lion (think Incredible Journey). Dan likes to remind me that lions pick off the stragglers. Hahaha!

Ever get the feeling you are being watched?

Perhaps my favorite thing about the place, though, is the view ~ we can see

A rainbow in a sunrise

three separate mountain ranges. Nothing beats a sunrise turning the snow-capped mountains pink!

The other special thing is the wildlife. One chilly morning, we were sitting on a rock ledge overlooking a little valley while the sun was coming up, and a porcupine waddled by about 3 feet behind us! He stopped and looked at us as if to say, "WHAT, pray tell, are you?" Down in the canyon, in the middle of the day, a little owl hooted at us from his perch. Maybe he was too drowsy to care enough to fly away. Two years ago, my dad came out from Michigan to hunt with us, and we watched a very nice buck pester a doe, who was having no part of his amorous advances. It was cool to watch in the wild what I had previously only seen on TV. And last year, there was the owl who kept hooting in the grey pre-dawn. You can't get any more "one with nature" than that.

Hmmm... I am feeling almost a little homesick. Maybe I will have to go get a license after all. A license to wander... Rifle optional. :)