In the final few hours on the final day of hunting season, Dennis and I hopped in the Jeep and headed to the woods. After some driving around scoping the landscape for deer, he took me to a red pine plantation in Hodgdon, just a little ways from his home. He treated me to a beautiful location not only to hunt but to spend time exploring, walking the pathways through the trees and along the brook.
Red Pine Plantation
There is something that greatly appeals to me about tree plantations. Maybe it’s my slight OCD that makes me really, REALLY like things in order, straight, evenly spaced, etc. Maybe! I find trees of all shapes, sizes and species to be beautiful and have photographed my fair share of them, but when they’re lined up in row after row after row…it’s such a stunning display!
It was cold at the end of November. The sun was just starting to slide down behind the ridge. We walked in quietly and sat down on the ground, leaned against two trees across the path from each other…waited…and whispered. Dennis told me about times in the past when he’d hunted that same area. We were sitting just above a spot where he had found a scrape and had seen deer coming out of the woods to travel through the plantation. He’d also seen quite a number of places throughout the adjacent woods where they’d been bedding down, so we were in a prime location for hunting.
I didn’t have my rifle in the Jeep when we left, so Dennis said I’d use his that day. I hadn’t fired it yet, but I was itching to! He hunts with quite a sweet piece of equipment. He has a Remington Model 7 Magnum Alaskan Wilderness Rifle in 7mm Remington short action ultra mag mounted with a Leupold 6×42 scope. It’s one of his prized possessions and rightfully so! I hoped to try it out that afternoon, but more than anything, I wanted to tag my first deer.
I sat on the cold ground with what I quickly found was not enough layers of clothing for the occasion. I checked the safety again on the rifle, laid it on my leg with the barrel resting across my boot and began scanning the woods around us with eager eyes. We watched and listened with hardly a sound stirring in the dense forest circling the stand of pine. I could hear the water moving down the brook, a few birds sounding off, then one sound that made me turn my head. I looked across at Dennis, and he had heard it too. He pointed in the direction to my back, so I turned a little and listened, peering through the trees. Nothing. The sound stopped. I settled back into my pine needle seat.
We sat for over an hour watching the light fade to dusk, to the point I couldn’t see well enough to make out antlers if they’d been 50 yards in front of us. Dennis was watching the time closely and signaled when legal time was over. We got up, I brushed pine needles off my ass, handed him the rifle, and we started making our way back down the long path to the Jeep.
I was absolutely freezing, not having dressed well enough. I know better, and know now after several months with this outdoorsman of mine that I need to be prepared for wherever the road takes us when we leave home. That’s my kind of adventure! He asked if I was cold, and I answered him with trembling lips. He smiled, took my hand in his, and we walked out of the woods side by side. He never let go until we reached the Jeep.
No deer, no significant sightings or heart-pounding experiences…just a man and woman sitting on the ground in the quiet woods, watching the sun set…and it was the best date I think I’ve ever had. A slow day in the woods is better than any day anywhere else.
Till next time…
Maine Outdoors Woman 