New Year's Hike

My New Year's Hike this year was delayed one day till January 2; but close enough. For a couple of weeks prior, we had snow cover, but had an unusually warm period between Christmas and New Year that melted the snow very quickly. As a result the hike was probably a bit less strenuos, but not quite as scenic.....but always enjoyable.

I went to an area very familiar to me. I did not realize that it was muzzle loader deer season that weekend; I believe for antlerless deer. As I returned to my car, the game warden pulled in and informed me of that. We visited a bit, and he left....giving me a break, because I probably could have been ticketed for not having on a blaze orange vest.


The woods naturally are quite bare this time of year, but offer a long distance view, not there when the leaves are present.

If you go to an older post titled My Hiking Pals, you will see a version of the below picture with snow cover. One has Shiloh beneath it, and the picture below it has Emma running down the hill above it.....just a nice comparison of how snow transforms things.

Looking down the small valley I was passing through. It runs into the Middlefork River eventually.

Across the river bottom area to the woods.

As almost always, I came across the remains of several deer. The first picture below is of what little remains of a deer after the scavengers have been there. Notice the hair scattered in a large area. My thought, is that coyotes probably cause this when they grab pieces and move it away from the pack to eat it withouth sharing with their pack mates.
                                      

This is a deer leg from the same area.

And here is Emma....trotting along quite happily with the deer leg. She eventually gave up and let it drop.

This is the first time that I have found a deer carcass in this condition. What you cannot see in the picture is the large hole in it's chest; so my conclusion is that this deer was shot and the hunter was not able to find it.....and that is NOT an anti-hunting statement....just a fact that sometime the deer are not found and retrieved; but this will provide good food for the many scavengers...from coyotes, foxes, crows, buzzards, and even mice that will chew the bones.

It appears that I will need to follow up with chapter two of my outing....as I keep getting error messages when trying to upload further pictures. Stay tuned for pictures of deer rubs, river pictures, river ice, and a few others....until then..........