Well, I arrived in Red Wing on Thursday night at about 6:30pm and we got right into looking at the new map. We purchased a $90 topo/aerial map of the section of Whitewater State Park that we'll be hunting. The map measures 4' x 3' and it's quite a sight. After we himmed and hawd at the map for a few hours, we decided to get some sleep. Alarms were set for 4:45am and it was of no use - I couldn't hardly sleep a wink. I ended up driving to Scot's Friday morning and we had breakfast instead of hunting. He needed to finish up a report for work anyway. Donny joined us for eggs, sausage, and fried potatoes before Scot and I hit the road. We made our 42 mile trip to Elba, MN in about 50 minutes and checked the photo board before heading out to hang some stands.
First, we checked one of Donny's cameras and there "zero pictures" on it, but that ended up being operator error. Too bad.
Then we headed up to Melcher's Ridge. Both spots I wanted to check out were south of Melcher's parking spot. The closer of the two was only 350 yards from the truck, but I hoped it was overlooked by the uneducated hunter who didn't understand the importance of maps. Turns out there was great bucks sign - mostly scrapes - and mostly made at night, I'm sure. We hung the first stand (with my new Gorilla replacement seat) and hung my broken Cuddeback Capture over the biggest scrape in attempts to see what's been tearing up the ridges.
After we got that all situated, we headed east along the south edge of a privately owned cornfield. We saw a beautiful trail heading south down a draw from the cut corn field and I glanced down the trail and asked, "are those all scrapes?" to Scot. Sure enough they were - four distinct scrapes under one tree, so I set up my Wildview there. I know that I should probably have had two separate cameras in two separate areas, but I couldn't resist that kind of sign.
As we mozied our way down the ridges to the south and back to the west again, we kicked up a loan doe. We walked SW along this big clearing with tall grass. We eventually dipped down the bluff to the south in an attempt to get to the very bottom. This draw is known as Fabel Ravine and runs 3 miles from it's beginnings down to the actual river. The place we dipped down into really was one of the best spots I've seen for funnelled deer activity - steep bluffs to the north and a sturdy shelf to the south. Bucks have been tearing up the bottom with scrapes and rubs. The sign can only be as good as the competition for breeding rights. So, in other words, the ratio is balanced well. The effort it is going to take to get to and from the bottom is quite extraordinary, but could prove very worth it.
After a rediculous climb back out to the north, we headed back the 1.3 miles to the truck for a breather. We headed down to Elba for a pizza and then headed out to get dressed for the evening sit. Scot didn't have time earlier to set up another stand for himself, so we walked across the ridge to the south to look for a place for him. After a few failed attempts, he got into a tree that wasn't the greatest for cover, but offered him a 30 yard or less shot.
I really didn't have that eventful of an evening until the last 5 minutes of shooting light. Sure enough, a doe and two fawns, along with her yearling fawn from the year before walked by at 30 yards with their noses in the air trying to figure out what was going on. Scot was on his way over and so I sat still until he could spook them rather than me. There really was no light for filming at that point. When the deer finally spooked, they alerted more deer to the west up the ridge that I hadn't seen yet. Who knows what those deer were. So I guess that there were about 7 or so deer that were right in the same group - right at dark. This is probably going to be typical behavior near food sources on this high pressure public land. I need to drop into the bottom in an attempt to cut off deer heading back to bed. The wind had really died down. The forecast continues to change and so each day will be taken as it comes.
I believe that tomorrow (Saturday) we are going to attempt to cross the river. Should be very interesting.
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