Our First Opener

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 This year, I decided to get into the woods on the FIRST DAY OF THE SEASON. As a bonus, my kiddos joined me! Nothing better than spending time in the wilderness with my kids. The only drawback to this was that I wanted to get to the woods before the sun broke the horizon and the kids moved slooooow when their alarms went off.

We got on the road just before sunrise. Having never been to a season opener, I wasn't sure how crowded it would be. Turns out we weren't the only ones out for opening day. 

Cars, trucks, even a camper, at every official parking spot we passed and even along the road from time to time. 

As it happens, it was not only small game opening day, but the first day of the archery season for deer. I checked my normal spots... full. Naturally I forgot the map that shows all of the parking spots all over Whitewater, so after seeing all of the vehicles I was a bit concerned that we were going to have to head to another bit of hunting woods somewhere. I vaguely remembered a road that had a couple of spots on a far spot of the park and decided to check those.

VICTORY! We found a promising spot with nobody parked and quickly pulled in. The sun was up, but not by much, so we geared up and headed into the woods. The Boyo hasn't finished his firearm safety class, so I was the only one with a rifle. The kids were along for spotting and fun. As we donned safety orange and slung backpacks, I told them to grab the extra water bottles and we'd do lunch in the woods. Soon we were off. 




There were tons of deer tracks, but we were in the "State Game Refuge" area, which means no deer or waterfowl hunting. Unfortunately for the rabbits and squirrels, they're not covered in the "refuge" part of that.

Fortunately, it's all beautiful.

We found a suitable spot with lots of visibility and settled in. I sort of expected the kids to get antsy after a short time, but we ended up sitting very quietly for a full hour! We heard movement occasionally, but saw nothing. 

So we moved deeper into the woods out onto a steep sided finger filled with oak trees. We passed another long stretch when suddenly I spotted a little owl sleeping up in a tree. 

It was hard to get a picture with my phone through my little binocs. But I was so excited to see some wildlife!

My kiddos have adventure backpacks that are supposed to have almost all of the gear I have in my pack, so I told them to grab their binocs and take a look at the little owl.

Neither one had binocs in their bags. They had removed them at some point and the gear hadn't made it back into the bags. 

So we passed mine around and I continued to scan for squirrels.

"Ummm...Dad?" from my daughter. "I think that's a stick."

I looked again. It sure looks like an owl. So I got up to check and guess what?

It was a branch of that tree. No owl. No critters. Bah humbug!

It was approaching lunchtime, so I suggested we set up the little burner I had in my pack and whip up some lunch. We have lots of different freeze dried meals to try, so I was looking forward to some food and getting a fresh start for the afternoon. I had burned through my quart of water so I asked the kids how much water they had left.

They had none. Because they left the water bottles back in the car.

Oy.

They were getting tired and hungry, so we decided to call it a day. It was a fun hike back to the car. The squirrels were safe from us this day, but we had a great time in the woods.







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