Got some time to hit the woods today. Hung the first cam of ‘21. I put it back on the apple tree to hopefully pick up the drop tine and verify he survived the winter. I know he survived the season.
Then I went to one of my main stays and dug around a huge thicket that has given me trouble over the years. They’re super unpredictable in there due to lack of structure. I’m pretty sure the big bucks bed on several hundreds of yards long transitions. The does are all over the place. I’ve scouted this thicket very extensively multiple different springs. But low and behold I did learn something.
I think I found a small island that isn’t noticeable on the map. Just by chance I’ve walked up to it (up to the water) on 3 different sides... but for whatever reason I never pushed through that area in a grid fashion until today. Only problem was I wasn’t expecting any water hazards and didn’t want to swamp my hiking boots. (Excuses excuses) so as I tried to get around this creek and low spot, I realized it made a big horse shoe and I couldn’t get to the middle
map shows what looks to be a couple slightly bigger trees so there’s gotta be dry land there. To make it even better, it’s in the center of this thicket area and it would make sense that this would receive the least amount of pressure. Might be a crucial discovery?? Might be wet and not amount to much? Time will tell.
I did check on several existing sets and made some adjustments to a couple of them. Picked and discretely prepped one new tree. Have to go back for two more... ran out of time. 5.96 miles walked.
By the end of the evening I think I shed a lot of light on the highest odds bedding in there. Will be fun to try a couple new and different approaches this fall.