Maine's Opening Day! First one in, Last one out.

Look what came in the mail today...

I got my first taste of opening day in Maine. It was a lot like Michigan. I got up at 5am and was in my stand by 6am and it was light out by 6:30ish. I was the only car in the lot when I showed up; first one in. I figured I would get in early before everyone else so they might push something my way.


Sunrise...finally.

 

I sat until 9am and didn't see a thing. I heard about 2 or 3 different shooters in the same piece of land I'm hunting. I don't know if all hunters up here can't shoot but every single time someone shot this morning or this evening it followed with at least one more shot. At 9am I was hungry and tired of sitting still so I decided to head for home for a hot lunch and come back. On my way to the trail head there were about 4 other sets of boot tracks from other hunters that joined the woods after me. I never heard any of them enter which was nice. I did hear one ATV drop someone off. There were deer tracks in the sand of the trail all pointing to my spot. No idea where the deer went. A lot of them were big buck tracks.             

Most of the buck tracks I found later were much bigger than this one. But, this one is a dandy.

Before I got to the end of the trail I decided it was still too early to leave so I found a trail that had no boot tracks and followed it a while. I am glad I did. I heard a grunt to my left and looked over to see 5 or 6 big does in some thick cover but coming my way. The grunting got louder and I could not pick out the buck but he was going nuts breaking branches and crashing around grunting. The does paid him no attention and unfortunately gave all of that to me. The front one stopped and used her 6th sense to decide to steer the crowd the other way. I can't shoot a doe anyway but I was looking forward to the buck at the end of the parade. I tried a few grunts but nothing ever stepped out. I went back to the car to find a ton of deer tracks and a few big buck tracks right in the parking lot. Guess I should have stayed there and let everybody chase them out to me. There were 4 other cars in the lot at that time. Lunch took about an hour out of my day. When I returned there was only one vehicle left this was around noon. I got up in my stand pretty excited that there was some chasing activity going on even though it was 65 degrees out. About 2:30pm I heard crashing in front of me and some more grunting. Nothing ever came my way though and shortly after some guy came walking under me. He waved and then met up with some other guy he was hunting with behind me. They did an entire lap around me for some reason then took off. I didn't see anything the rest of the night. At least there were no drag marks on the trail from anybody else. I was the only car left when I got out of the woods. First one in, last one out; no deer.

If I can take your picture with an Iphone you are too close dude.

I found an old well while I was walking around that is filled in partially but very cool.

Should have made a wish.

 

Another panoramic shot. I can see about 100 yards down two lanes. Most of my shooting would be within 50 yards.