From the Lowcountry to the high country

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"You must know Ed," he quipped.

"Yes sir, I do know Ed," was my reply.

When I finished signing the hunt sheet I walked over to his truck and introduced myself. He didn't know that I was a new club member and probably surmised that I had been invited to the property for a one-time hunt.

I was headed to the Well Drillers Stand. Ed had assigned me that unused stand on a recent tour of the property. It is situated on the side of a low hill overlooking a small hardwood bottom. A big swamp is just below the low hill, and a series of steep ridges rise across from the bottom toward the summit of a majestic hilltop. This place is unlike anything I have ever hunted.

The woods here are a natural mix of lofty hardwoods and towering pines. There is a thin understory of dogwoods, redbuds and sweet bay. A small brook gurgles and flows through the bottom. A screen of green bushes hide the swampy ground. Across the bottom, open hardwoods cover the ridge.

The stand is an oversized metal ladder stand, probably homemade, secured against a huge oak tree. A skirt of old army camouflage netting is draped around the sides. Days earlier I had placed a green plastic lawn chair in the stand and trimmed a couple of narrow shooting lanes through the bottom.

I climbed into the stand around 2:30 in the afternoon. There was a soft breeze from the southwest that blew my scent back down the little woods road toward my truck. The sky was cloaked in gray clouds, with an occasional open patch of the sparkling blue heavens peeking through. The hardwoods were a blaze of brilliant color - yellows, rusty reds and leathery browns. The dark green pines offered a stark contrast in these untamed woodlands.

My journey here was a long and twisting road. Finding the ultimate turkey hunting destination took me to the Lowcountry nearly two decades ago. The season opened earlier there, and it made sense to take advantage of that fact. Eventually I wound up in a big club on the Edisto River in northern Colleton County. It has offered good hunting for deer, turkey and ancient artifacts. There is river frontage, a big clubhouse and a nice fish pond. I've made many new friends there, but it's a long drive, and I've been looking for something closer to home. I'll probably still go to the Lowcountry - just not as often.

In recent years, I got to know Ed through my brother Matt. Ed had hunted with Matt, my Daddy, Uncle Robbie, brother-in-law Freddie Johnson and other family members and friends. I knew they had hunted property in the High Hills region of northern Sumter County. It was an era that I had missed, while serving in the military, away from home.

Ed invited me to a late-season turkey hunt this past spring on his hunting club and family land. I took along Daddy's old double-barrel hammer gun. Our hunt turned into more of a reminiscence than any serious hunt. We talked about old guns, family and friends. I realized then that this was the very land my family members had hunted with Ed, so many years ago. In my heart, it became hallowed ground.

We didn't see or hear any turkeys that day, but it didn't matter. Ed had given me some insight into a time and place that I had missed. I will be forever thankful for that.

Recently, Ed made room for me in his hunting club, and I joined late this year. I will need to learn the lay of the land, how to hunt these hills and get to know the other club members. My recent afternoon hunt was a good start.

This was my first deer hunt on the property, and I didn't have long to wait for some action. I was in the stand less than an hour when a small doe walked out of a thicket into a shooting lane. She wandered down the lane and bedded down in a fallen tree top just 30 yards from the stand. A cowhorn buck walked into the end of the shooting lane where I had a small corn pile.

Six more does wandered through the bottom in front of me during the afternoon. It was a good show. The deer never knew I was there, watching from the stand 20 feet above them. Later when I texted Ed, he said, "Next time shoot a doe." I think I'm going to like hunting this high country.

Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.