Well all was going smoothly until I lost my balance about 3/4 of a mile in and wiped out. Pack went flying, rifle buried in the snow and me on my back admiring the sky with my legs askew. I am sure I was quite the sight.
My trail breaking boats (snowshoes) are great but are something of a pain to take off/on when you are all geared up. So I tried (unsuccessfully) to get back on my feet without taking them off - not gonna happen with the parka and snow pants on as there was nothing to push off of. My hands were just disappearing into the snow with no ground to be found. Being the stubborn person I am I swam over to the nearest tree (about 10 feet) and used it to pull my self up.
At this point I was laughing at myself pretty hard and decided to just dump my gear and snowshoe around for a few hours as there was literally no coyote tracks anywhere. Saw 18 deer (group of 6 and a group of 12). They looked to be in very good shape. There was also more deer sign than I have ever seen at this time of year. Also saw a group of 20-30 turkeys (not sure how many as they took running and flying) and tons of snowshoe hare sign. One of the hare runs was wide enough and packed hard enough I am pretty sure I could have walked on it without snowshoes.
All and all a fun way to spend a cold afternoon.
