Last Minute

So we were sitting around the house wondering what to do, when mom says, "well i'm going."

That's all she has to say for me to know she's going to The Hill to look for sheds. She's hardcore.

So Stephanie and I decide to go up with her. Why not?

We park the blazer and take off walking. It's gorgeous out. It's like 35 degrees, sun's shining, and all the antlers should be out for the pickin'. We devised a plan and covered quite a bit of ground. Although, it was mostly cedars with scattered openings or moreso changes to birch. Even if you stuck to the deer trails, it was a good workout. Finally I poked out on the west end onto an old logging trail. Steph was to my left (south) and I had no intention to follow the trail to the north. However, I decided to gaze up the trail. After quickly looking north, I looked back at steph and then froze. Something wasn't right with the stillframe I just took of the trail to the north. I did a double-take and had to figure out what I thought I saw to the north. It couldn't be. In the bush?

A hanger? Without even realizing it, I began walking in the direction of the U.H.O. in denial the whole way. It looked gray. At this point, I know it's an antler, but was it an old one? It was right on the trail suspended in a small willow shrub. It couldn't be from last year, mom and I walked this very trail on February 2nd. Sure enough it was a freshie.

As a got closer, I couldn't believe my eyes. It felt so good to find a shed at The Hill. It had been a long time. Years for me. Without touching it, I turned around to head back to Steph. I stopped on the trail waiting for her to come back out. When she did, I calmly said, "I found one."

"Shut up.", she said. She had never been out looking for sheds. At least not like this. So this was clutch.

We didn't touch it. We both went and just admired it. We took a few pictures, but we only had phones on us. Mom had the good camera. So, we left the antler and went looking for mom. Whistiling as loud as I can, mom was as good as gone. We ended up making a huge loop. Almost back to where we started and then headed back to the shed. We picked it up and walked the half-mile back to the blazer.

We finally found mom and told her the news. The three of us went back to the scene to try to locate the match. No such luck. We came across the remains of a carcass, but we couldn't find the head.

All in all it was a great day. It was a shot of hope for the home team. The shed scores 53 6/8", which would put him about 107 4/8" without a spread, and about 123 4/8" with a 16" inside spread, which I think is pretty fair. You can bet we'll be out looking for the other side next weekend.