Larry A. Smail's Blog

I was blessed with a beautiful sunrise this morning. I was happy to have been already on the top of the hill in time to see such splendor. This was my first morning out for the early muzzleloading season in Pennsylvania. I have tags to take either a Black Bear or antlerless Whitetail Deer.

The morning was young when a nice doe walked from the woods into a field of high grass. I stopped and maneuvered to exchange the muzzleloader for the camera. She stopped and looked away at first and eventually looked upon me with a penetrating stare. I took several shots before she ran away. The distance was around thirty-five yards. A shot would have been very easy, but I had made up my mind I wasn’t going to use my doe tag this morning. I would have fourteen deer sightings throughout the morning hours. I found one sizable pile of bear droppings, but they were not fresh.

A chipmunk moved to my right climbing a vine offering a photo. Once I saw the Chipmunk on the computer I noticed the Deer Tick on the cheek.

DAY 2: I tramped around until noon and quit for several reasons. I was getting warm. My knees were hurting enough and I was to play music at the God’s Choice event beginning at five. God’s Choice is a weekly event held at the local Kittanning Free Methodist Church. Individuals with special needs attend where they have a meal, sing and act and here a Bible story. they all love this evening every week. I reached the jeep at noon after being over the hills for five hours.

My second morning out was another beautiful morning. I chose a place, but some was disappointed. There was no food normally needed to hold bear. I checked two ridge areas with mature Oak trees and never found an acorn. There were no squirrels scampering about either. Most of the area had extremely abundant Autumn Olive trees around and not a single berry could be found and I covered much ground. I reached the jeep close to 11:00 deciding to head home.

I saw five deer.