I've noticed this tree many times in my 40 years living in here Pestletown. Yesterday, while taking my gun for a walk, I photographed it for the first time. It is located in an area that was carved into active bogs as early as 1870 on the Vermuele maps. Hard to say when the bog operations ceased but in 1930 aerials it had reverted to a cedar swamp. My guess is that it is at least 100 years old.
Guy and I explored this area a year or so ago looking for some very old corner stones and when we did, we crossed the Pump Branch, a.k.a. Albertson's Branch. I lent him an extra pair of hip boots that I had. Well, yesterday I found a fairly well made foot bridge built by a hunter who apparently has a stand deeper into to the cedars. Knee boots would suffice now. Lat week while scouting for trapping spots I found a bridge constructed with the exact same materials, including bright white pipes. It would be really tough to drag a deer over these footbridges.
I also discovered that someone has moved into the area on the north side of the Branch where my sons and I have hunted for many years. We never baited the area and we stealth hunted with climbing stands in this perfect natural deer crossing that I found in the 80's. We never left any sign of our presence. My sons both hunt and are married and have their own homes now and one has joined a deer club, so I hunt alone a lot of the time. Now there is a skirted ladder stand with a camera on a tree and corn and pumpkins dropped in a clearing about 60 feet downslope from where I would hang my portable climber. Fortunately, I was still hunting yesterday and didn't pack the stand in.
Little does this person know that if he did a little homework and spent more time in the woods he wouldn't need to bait. Now the bait will torque things around and most of the deer in that specific area will never leave the floodplain where the bait is. Time for me to find a new spot I suppose.
Guy and I explored this area a year or so ago looking for some very old corner stones and when we did, we crossed the Pump Branch, a.k.a. Albertson's Branch. I lent him an extra pair of hip boots that I had. Well, yesterday I found a fairly well made foot bridge built by a hunter who apparently has a stand deeper into to the cedars. Knee boots would suffice now. Lat week while scouting for trapping spots I found a bridge constructed with the exact same materials, including bright white pipes. It would be really tough to drag a deer over these footbridges.
I also discovered that someone has moved into the area on the north side of the Branch where my sons and I have hunted for many years. We never baited the area and we stealth hunted with climbing stands in this perfect natural deer crossing that I found in the 80's. We never left any sign of our presence. My sons both hunt and are married and have their own homes now and one has joined a deer club, so I hunt alone a lot of the time. Now there is a skirted ladder stand with a camera on a tree and corn and pumpkins dropped in a clearing about 60 feet downslope from where I would hang my portable climber. Fortunately, I was still hunting yesterday and didn't pack the stand in.
Little does this person know that if he did a little homework and spent more time in the woods he wouldn't need to bait. Now the bait will torque things around and most of the deer in that specific area will never leave the floodplain where the bait is. Time for me to find a new spot I suppose.
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