Sunday was the first chance I had to take my son hunting, so on Saturday, we took a trip to town to get Colby a small game license and some blunts for his arrows, and we got me a general deer license and an archery permit. Then we got up early on Sunday morning and headed for the walk-in areas in Laramie County.
The main purpose of our trip was to get Colby a few rabbits. I wasn’t very optimistic about finding deer. This part of the state is a much better antelope area than deer, but I figured it would be worth a shot. And as it turns out, we saw a lot more deer than I figured we would.
We saw a bunch of other wildlife, too. We sat near a water hole as the sun came up, and we watched a sandhill crane going through its morning rituals out in the middle of the pond. We didn’t find any rabbits by that pond, so we moved on. As we drove, we saw a sharp-tailed grouse and a bunch of Swainson’s hawks.
We stopped at several more walk-in areas, trying to scare up some bunnies. I was sure we’d find some, because they’re thick around my house, but we didn’t see a single one all day. On the other hand, we startled a doe mule deer out of the waist-high grass in one walk-in, and four spike bucks in another. All those deer were way too far away to get a bow shot on, but that was OK with me. I was just happy to be out in the field with my son, pointing out those critters when they popped up.
After a long day of walking through every walk-in area that allowed rabbit hunting, we dragged ourselves back home. We’d seen some great country, but we hadn’t seen any rabbits.
As we turned onto our driveway, two jackrabbits and a cottontail zipped across the road. I guess next weekend, we’ll just hunt at home. We probably won’t see any deer, but we’ll have a good chance of kicking up some game for Colby.
