Northern Maine Trip Starts in 11 Hours

[trekker]

My hunting buddy, and I take a yearly trip to Northern Maine every season the week of Thanksgiving. If you've never hunted the big woods this is the place to go. It is very challenging because of the low density of deer, but it is the most satisfying hunting I've ever done. We are lucky they recieved 6 inches of snow Friday, so Monday morning we'll hit the logging roads looking for the fresh track of a big deer. Once we cut a good sized track the passenger will take off on a chase that will last the rest of the day. It's my year to drive, so after dumping off my pal I'll continue driving until I find a good track to follow. We will follow the track until we shoot the buck, or it gets late in the day at which point you check your GPS and start busting trail back to the road before dark which could be a five mile hump depending on where the track has led. Sometimes you will jump the buck 3 or 4 times before you finally get a shot. Somedays you never do catch up as these bucks put on some serious miles in search of doe groups that are seperated by some distance. Somedays we end up hunting 10-15 miles from eachother, so if you're ridin shotgun you might end up waiting an hour or so before being picked up. This goes on for six days, and after chasing a Northwoods buck up mountains, and thru swamps all week you are beat. We rent a cabin that is 50 miles from the nearest paved road. We get back to the cabin, fire up the woodburner, and relive the days hunt on a few cold ones. After spending many years of sitting in treestands in Ohio it's a real adventure to hunt this style in some serious wilderness. We've never seen another hunter in the woods. The closest camp to ours is ten miles away by air, which equates to about an hour drive on those roads. The area we hunt is a six million acre piece of timber company land. Once we pay the 25 dollar fee to enter, we can hunt anywhere we want. Hunting the North Country in the snow. I wish everyone could expierience it.

Anyway, I'll hopefully post some picks when we get back.

Happy Hunting!