Outdoor columnist Dan Geddings: Last day

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I carefully pushed the truck door shut then started down the pine straw-carpeted road. My stand was just ahead. If there was a deer at my corn pile, I wanted to see it before it saw me. I paused and scanned the open pineland before me and studied the road ahead. Then pressed on.

At the stand, I stopped and tied my rifle to the pull-up cord, then stepped onto the metal ladder. I climbed slowly and leaned back to keep tension on the ladder so that it wouldn't squeak as I climbed. Limbs from the tall, scraggly myrtle bush raked at my back on the way up. At the top, I slipped my pack off and hooked it on the corner of the seat platform, then turned and sat down. I reached over and pulled my rifle up and laid it across my lap. I could feel the wind in my face.

It was a comfortable position, the wind was perfect, and the green leaves of the myrtle screened me with natural camouflage. Squirrels scampered across the road below me and in and out of the corn pile. It was after daylight and was a beautiful morning. I was planning on sitting for a couple of hours. The deer had been feeding heavily on the corn, and I was hoping one might come in.

I can sit for an hour and a half or two hours, then I get restless if I'm not seeing anything. The squirrels can keep me interested for a little while, but I was hoping to see deer. I intended to hunt all day and had other stands I could move to if I needed a change. No deer appeared, and I started thinking about the snack and cold drink that I had back at the truck. I eventually climbed down.

After a short break, I drove to another section of the club and signed out a stand that I have on a powerline that runs through a section of the swamp. I parked and took my path through the shady, swampy woodland. At the creek, I stopped and carefully tip-toed across my plank-and-ladder bridge. The tower stand is tucked into the trees on the near edge of the powerline facing more swamp and a 40-acre cut over to the north. Several deer paths cross here.

I got settled in the stand and within minutes saw deer legs moving through the brush on the other side of the power line. Then brown bodies moving that disappeared into the brown forest floor when they stopped. The deer are colored perfectly to blend in to their forest surroundings this time of year. Two does stepped into a small opening, and I could see more deer coming. Two more does. For some reason I started thinking about the wind now.

The powerline is covered in a thick stand of wispy panic grass, and the wind was pushing it over from the southwest, but I noticed that the grass would lean back and the wind would swirl around to the northeast. Not good. The deer seemed to notice, too. They were close and were probably catching my scent when the wind swirled. I got my phone up and took a few pictures before they disappeared back into the woods at my front.

The wind was not good here, so I didn't linger. After a short time in the stand, I got down and headed back to the truck. I took the chair from the stand with me, as I knew I wouldn't need it again until next year. It was near midday now, and I took a break for a couple of hours to have lunch with Ginger. We had the traditional New Year's meal of collards, black-eyed peas and side meat. I was tempted to stay home and take a nap, but the woods were calling. After all, it was the last day.

I saw more deer that afternoon but could not get a shot. I sat in the stand until dark and watched the day turn to night. I didn't get a deer this year, but that was OK. Maybe next year.

Email Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.