I think in the last post I discussed a need to travel and get myself and Grayson, my 9 year old daughter into some new hunting areas. Since that time I have been researching the Redlands WMA area near my home and have done a little exploring there. Unfortunately the Redlands is not one contiguous area of land, but it does consist of 37000 acres that are broke up throughout the Oconee National Forest near Lake Oconee. I have done quite a bit of camping and fishing on the Oconee River that runs through the area, but have done very little hunting; mainly squirrel. Last weekend we decided to go down and explore a section of the area that may contain hogs. We started out across a flood plain and I quickly realized as I looked around that I had a very good chance of getting turned around and lost. Once away from the truck, everything in all directions looked the same, tall trees and privet. It was a flat flood plain with zero geographic features to use as guides. This being my daughters first exploring walk in the woods, I decided that I would be best served to find something else to do instead of getting potentially lost and scaring her. We only had a couple hours before dark. After making it back to the truck I looked at the topo map and decided to backtrack and ease in on a small creek valley and find a ridge to use a an overlook of the flood plane. Turned out we found a very nice spot under a large Beech tree and had a very nice evening hunt. This was also the first time this year I had a rifle, and knowing that I was lethal as far as I could see, I appreciated the new found extension beyond bow range. AS we walked in I explained to Grayson that she really needed to pay attention to the land and the feature we walked past and through so that she could have an understanding of where she was in relation to the truck. I went on the explain that she needed this information so that if something were to ever happen unexpected, she could get out of the woods on her own. She wasn't sure what to think about that scenario but we went on and I assured her that everything was ok, just always pay attention. After a beautiful evening we packed up and as we prepared to walk out I told her she was responsible for getting us back to the truck. She was a bit surprised, but pretty quickly turned around, assessed the area and started out. I stayed back a bit and offered her no clues. Anytime she stopped, I would turn and look in any direction opposite the way we needed to be going. I was very proud of her. She managed to cross two draws and then find the dry ravine we came in on. This is dark thirty and its damn near dark and she did not have a flashlight. The ravine we came in on was in heavy timber with a lot of undergrowth and it branched repeatedly. Only once did she follow a branch further than she should have but she realized it and backtracked to a crossing point and then kept going. After about 10 minutes we were standing in front of the truck in the dark. Hell, I was impressed. I've been in the woods with adults who couldn't have done that.
About 3 days later I went and explored another section of the WMA by myself. Nothing was killed, but I found some sections of old growth timber along a swamp that were just beautiful. I also found several Redheaded woodpeckers that are uncommon in this area. I've seen them so few times that I didn't know what I was hearing as I listened to them in the trees. When I finally got a bearing on them and looked at them through my scope I was blown away. Absolutely beautiful birds. Finding these birds made the walk worth wild, and I may go back there again just to show them to my family. Again on this trip I was looking for hog sign. All I found though was armadillo sign. Nasty little critters seem to have invaded the whole county in the last couple years. Tomorrow I plan on visiting another section of Redlands that lies on a different river basin that spills into Lake Oconee. In years past there has been word of hog over there so I am going to go see.
On another happy note, I killed a doe with my bow this morning and my daughter apparently filmed it with my Iphone. I'll do another post on that adventure though. It deserves more attention of it's own.
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