There’s not much I like better than packing deep into the wilderness with all I need to survive for nine days on my back. That’s a recipe for a great hunt, whether we find the critters we’re hunting for or not. Just getting out and matching wits with the wild for an extended period of time is immensely satisfying – especially on those occasions I survive the expedition.
But unless you’re independently wealthy, you probably don’t have the ability to jet off to the backcountry for nine days at a stretch as often as you’d like. I think my boss would be a bit unhappy with me if I even suggested taking that much time off. So I have to get my hunting fix in small increments most of the season, and save up the time for one big, extended hunt.
Before my kids came along, most of those small hunts happened on weekends. Sometimes they were overnight trips, but more often, they were just quick day hunts. Like most of my hunts, those short ones very seldom resulted in meat for the freezer, but I still enjoyed my time outside.
Now that I have two young boys, weekends are usually filled up with activities they’re engaged in. That doesn’t leave us much time to hunt. But the nice thing about the boys still being young is that they don’t require as much hunting time in one stretch as I do. In fact, the shorter the trip, the better, for the most part.
So to take care of our hunting bug, Colby and I went out into the pasture last night in search of rabbits. All we needed was our bows, a couple arrows with blunts, our hunting licenses, and conservation stamps. We used the last couple hours of light after I got home from work, and we had a great time. We both got shots at cottontails, but we only brought one home. That was all right, though. At least we got to go hunting, and we had a great time while we were out there.
