A Day of Luck.
Every hunter of long experience could tell of the ups and downs along
the trail consisting of good, bad and indifferent luck and as usual
tell of our hits and let others tell of our misses, I will tell of a
day of good luck. It was in November and there was no snow on the
ground. I was camping on the Holman branch of Pine Creek in
Pennsylvania and one night, just at dark, a party of several men came
to my camp and asked to stay over night. They stated that they were
going to camp on the opposite side of the ridge on the Sinnamahoning
waters. My camp was small but I made room for the hunters the best I
could.
This party was going into a section of country where I had several
bear traps as well as a good number of smaller traps set for fox,
mink, marten and other fur animals. As I wished to look these traps
over the next day before this party got scattered about the woods
where my traps were, I got up early the next morning, ate a hasty
breakfast and put a lunch into my knapsack and was ready to start out
before the party of hunters was up. I cautioned the hunters to see
that the fire was safe when they left camp and then started on my
day's hunt without the slightest idea that I was starting on one of
the luckiest days I ever had.
I had to climb a high ridge, then my route was for some distance on a
long ridge, which I would follow for a distance of a mile and a half,
when I dropped off the right hand side of the ridge into a ravine
where I had a bear trap set. This ridge was a clean open one of beech
and maple timber. I knew it would keep me busy the entire day to get
over the trap line, the best that I could do, so had no intention of
spending any time looking after deer. When I got to this open ridge,
I took a dog trot along the ridge.
I was making good time when on looking ahead along the ridge I saw a
good-sized buck come from the left hand side of the ridge. He would
take a jump or two then drop his head to the ground and then take
another hop or two and again drop his head to the ground. I knew that
he was on the trail of other deer. I had hardly time to bring my gun
to my shoulder when the buck wheeled and disappeared back over the
ridge from where he had come. I started on a run to where the deer
had gone out of sight, thinking that possibly I might catch him
before he got out of range down the side of the hill. Imagine my
surprise when just as I reached the top of the hill, where I saw the
deer disappear from my sight, I almost ran against the buck. He had
turned back to cross the ridge when I met him. He whirled down the
hill but I was too close onto him and I caught him before he could
get out of reach. I took out the deer's entrails and bent down a
sapling and hung the deer up, then I crossed the ridge and started
down the ravine to look after the bear traps.
I was hurrying down the hill near a jam of fallen timber, when all at
once out jumped five or six deer from this timber. In an instant the
whole bunch was out of sight behind the jam with the exception of one
large doe. I could see, one of her hips standing out from behind a
large hemlock tree. Without hesitating a moment, I fired at what I
could see of the deer and it dropped out of sight as the gun cracked.
I hurried through the jam of timber to where I saw the deer and there
the doe lay, trying to get on her feet. I soon ended her misery by
shooting her in the head. I soon had her entrails out and hung up as
I had the buck. It was the trail of this bunch of deer that the buck
was on when he ran into me.
After I had hung up the deer I hustled on down the ravine to the bear
trap. When I got to the place where the trap was set it was gone. The
trail led down the ravine and was easy to follow as I hurried along
and I soon found a small bear tangled up in a thicket of small brush.
It was only the work of a moment to fix bruin in shape to skin. After
I had the hide off, I cut the bear up into quarters and hung the meat
up in the trees. I toted the trap back up to where it was set and
reset it then I went back down the hollow to where I had left the
bear skin and took it on my shoulder and made tracks down the hollow
to the main creek where I had a string of deadfalls set for mink and
coon. The bear skin was about all the load I cared to tote, but I had
not gone far down the creek before I had the skins of two good sized
coon and one mink tied to my load. The coon and mink skins I could
get in my knapsack so they did not bother much.
After following the creek a distance of about one mile I left the
creek and went up a long narrow sawtooth point to cross the divide to
the Cross Fork waters where I had some bear, fox and marten traps
set. When I was about two-thirds of the way up this point I stopped
at the side of a large rock which would shelter me from the cold
wind. The point was covered with low laurel. I had been watching down
the side of the hill to see if I could not catch sight of some animal
on the move, but I had not got a glimpse of even a squirrel.
I had about finished my lunch, when I saw the motion of something
move in the laurel, forty or fifty yards below me. I picked up my gun
and stood watching, when I again caught sight of the animal and in a
moment I saw the horns of a deer. I could get the outline of the
deer's body so I said, "Now or never," and let go the best I could at
the bunch, but when the smoke from the gun was gone, I could neither
see nor hear anything but stood ready with my gun to my shoulder. I
again saw a part of a deer move in an open space in the laurel. I
again fired at the bunch with the remark that I guessed that I could
drive him out of there after a while.
I left the bear skin and knapsack at the rock, knowing that the rock
would be a good landmark to find them by and went down through the
laurel to see what effect my shot had. When I got to where the deer
were, when I shot, I readily saw plenty of blood on the green laurel
leaves and I only had a few steps to go when I saw the buck lying
dead. I cut his throat and stood waiting for the blood to stop
flowing and saw a trail that was fresh. I could readily tell by the
way the leaves and ground were torn up that the trail was of some
animal that was having a hard time to keep on its feet. You can
imagine my joy and surprise to get two deer so unexpectedly. I had
only a few rods to go when I found a good big doe dead.
Well, you may guess that I lost no time in getting the entrails out
of these two deer and swinging them up as I had the other two for it
was getting well past noon. I would be a good five miles from camp
when I got to my first marten trap.
After I got to the top of the divide, I made the best time that was
in me. I looked at several fox and marten traps but none had been
disturbed. When I got to the first bear trap on the divide I had an
occasion to scold and scold hard, but all to no purpose. I found the
limb of a tree jammed in between the jaws of the trap. Of course, I
thought some hunter had done me the favor and having as hard a stunt
ahead of me, you can guess that the trick was not pleasing to me.
Well, here I learned how foolish it was to fly off the handle before
you know what has been doing. Now, after a little investigation, I
found that the limb had been broken from the tree by the wind and it
so happened that it fell right onto the pan of the trap and sprang
it. Setting the trap, I hurried on to the next bear trap and here I
had another chance to be disgusted, even more than in the first case.
This time it was a porcupine in the trap but there was nothing to be
done, only reset the trap and hurry on again. None of the other traps
were disturbed, neither the small traps nor the bear trap until I
came to the last marten trap which had a marten in it. It was now too
dark to see to skin it so I was obliged to dump the carcass into the
knapsack and tote it along with the coons and mink pelts.
I had about one mile to go to reach the road, then four miles to camp
and I often thought what a hunter and a trapper would endure and call
it sport. It must have been nearly nine o'clock when I got to camp,
where I still found the hunting party. They had taken a part of their
outfit to their camp grounds and had worked on their camp until
nearly night when they returned to my camp to stay for the night and
get the balance of their outfit.
Well, I was pleased to find them still in camp for they volunteered
to go with me the next day and help me get the deer and bear out to
the road in return for venison and bear meat. This ended one of the
luckiest and hardest day's work that I ever did on the trail or trap
line.