Sunday, March 9, 2014

30+ Inches of Snow Still on the Ground in March

Sunday brought forth nice temperatures and sun. It also brought a road trip to my best shed site, "The Farm". It's funny that no matter how bad it is everywhere else, the farm always makes me feel better. With this winter being so bad for finding those wonderful bones in our area,I needed to get on to "Hallowed ground".

I needed to collect up a Wildgame Inovations Camera I had set up in a hemlock grove that surrounds a stream valley.This spot has been a traditional wintering yard for ever, but I had my doubts after the last snow storm. The camera had been sitting there for a month and 2 weeks and the batteries were going to be long ago dead in this cold.

I secured my snowshoes and threw on my pack and headed out. I was hoping to get a picture of the big deer wounded during rifle season. Upon reaching the brook crossing, tracks caught my eye. These crazy deer were walking down the frozen brook using it for a main trail because of the lack of snow on top of the frozen stream compared to the woods where it was DEEP.

So since the tracks were days and days old, I thought it safe that there would not be deer close by (not wanting to disturb the deer or lead predators to them), so I followed the brook and tracks down into the wintering area where the camera was. There was also a total lack of fresh tracks near the camera, but the camera had 4 photos on it. Yup only 4. A button buck with his buttons still intact and 3 does. No big bucks and nothing recent. I pulled the camera and moved out.

I worked my way up to a place called "Bear Ridge" to get a look at what was going on. Bear Ridge is a finger ridge that separates the stream valley from the foot of the twin peaks on the farm, both are respectively 1400 feet above sea level. After scanning the surroundings I could see a trail leading from the South East end of Bear Ridge up the lee side of the mountain to a series of shelfs that starts with hardwood and slowly mixes with some hemlock as you climb up. After a lunch break I started my assent.

I had been measuring the snow depth with my walking stick all during my trek and to this point it had varied from 12-28" but as I went out into the low spot out in the open on an old tote road it was a whopping 30" still. As I wove my way through the hardwoods I could see a beat down trail up on the next shelf, I followed this trail until I came to an acceptable place to leave the camera (with fresh batteries and card), it was a 3 way trail intersection facing North. I left the camera facing the intersection and starting following the winding trail rolling over these shelves but avoiding going down any of the trails that lead down to bedding areas in the hemlocks (for now, while the snow is deep to respect the deer's needs and safety, I'll come back later after melt).

This entire backside of the hill is my favorite place in the world, Patriarcal Mountain. It was completely covered with sign. I did a quick scout about in 30" of snow here knowing full well that realisticly the odds are way against me finding a thing. I worked the shelf at a moderate pace heading up and out the old clearcut the deer had worked over at some point this winter towards the outskirts of another wintering area at the back of the cut to see if the deer had in fact used it.

Since the sun was kissing the tops of the mountain though I decided to take another snow measure in the cut itself. 33", this alone illustrated to me that it was in my best interest to head back to the farmhouse for some coffee and wait til another day to comb the hills for sheds. Since this property is fully closed to the public and I have exclusive shed hunting rights, I have no fears of someone legally getting out here before I get back given that tresspassers are not tolerated by the farm well.

While out today I noticed that the "lee side"/ low snow side of the mountain is on the Northwest side this year and almost all of our storms have blown in from the South East and North East meaning the snow is deeper on those sides. You might keep this in mind when going out shedding this spring as the deer stay mostly in the low snow "lee sides" and at least in my areas this will mean check those North West hillsides first!

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