minute or two, Dad finds a print that he did not want to see. It was a coyote print and it’ s fresh in the blood trail. Some coyote was on the track of my deer and had probably pushed her out of this spot. With a sickening feeling in our guts, we continued to follow the trail. We thought the worse that the coyote had probably pushed the deer beyond where we would find her. To our surprise, two more times the doe had lain down, and two more times the coyote had followed her. Eventually, we came out of the thicket and into the valley. My deer might have been long gone thanks to that coyote chasing her! We kept following the trail. As we followed the trail, the spots of blood became smaller and less frequent until it seemed multiple times that we had lost it. Then, one of us would pick it up again, and then it would disappear once more.
After over almost ninety minutes of tracking, we thought we had lost the trail for good because we just couldn’ t find it. As I was searching for blood, I came across a tiny trail that seemed to go back the way we had come from. In the snow on that trail, I found the dog tracks. They were also heading back to where we had come from. I showed Dad, and we tried to figure out why the dog had left. We thought he must have found the deer, ate his fill, and then headed out. But where was the deer? If it had been in the thicket, we would have found it. Puzzled, we went back to the last spot we had seen blood. Dad went down a deer trail to the left, and I went down one to the right. Finally, Dad
spotted some blood on a bush. I walked over to where he was, and we both tried to find the next spot. We came up to this big bush, and Dad went to the left while I went to the right. Suddenly, Dad tells me to stop and back up slowly. The deer was looking right at us from the other side of the bush! Hastily, I aim at her neck and shoot. I had my first deer!
When we were about to start the gutting process, Dad pulled something out of his pocket. It was a Buck knife signed by Chuck Buck, and he was giving it to me! I got my first deer and first Buck knife on the same day. Soon, we had the deer gutted, and pulled her to the four-wheeler. Happier than ever, we drove back to camp and packed up. We drove into town and got ice on my deer, then took her home to show her to Mom and Daniel.
Angry snow-storm clouds, a coyote, and losing
the blood trail were just a few of the obstacles my Dad and I faced. In the end, God took care of us, and I was able to get my first doe. Without a doubt, this was a hunting season I’ ll never forget!
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