Finally: Winter Returns to the Blue Ridge

We finished out the last two days of deer season at the cabin on Strum Island arriving on New Year's Eve full of anticipation and sadness.

With a Calgary Clipper on the way scheduled to arrive on New Year's Day, we were just sure the deer would browse before the cold and snow made their appearance. And, in these two days another season would draw to a close.

Temperatures fell throughout the afternoon of the 31st to an overnight low [that also became the high temperature thus far for the new year] of 36 degrees. New Year's Day saw steadily declining temperatures but no movement by wildlife. All wild creatures, large and small, were hunkering down. My day ended as two does on the run passed me along side the main channel of the Holston River.

14 degree temperatures and a white landscape greeted us Wednesday morning - the last day of the season. Had there been any movement it would have been easy to detect. Slipping through the 1"-2" snowfall was as quiet as could be - with the blanket of snow smothering the usual crunch and snapping of twigs.

I decided to circle the entire circumference of the island to see what tracks led on to and off of the island. It also seemed a pretty good strategy for staying warm. The only tracks found were from the main channel of the river, with the wind, and into the last food plot with greens. Sure enough, does had worked over that patch of greens.

Our season ended without any new racks for the wall. But the freezer has ample venison from a doe taken during bow season. And, we're better for having spent time together, time in the woods, time being the hunter/gatherers we've been since the creation of man.

The more I'm in the woods, the more I know hunters and fishermen are the true stewards of our environment - the ones who have some understanding of the actual nature of the natural world.