VIDEO: Have a Big Woods Adventure

The big woods are vast uninterrupted stretches of forests that are exceedingly difficult to hunt. They hold far fewer deer than suburban fringe habitat and agricultural land. They are hard to get to and even harder to get through. Hunting the big woods takes grit, fitness, a strong will and a desire to push one’s limits. It’s for hunters who think “If we’re not going to see any deer, we might as well have an adventure.”

Hard Going

Brian and I uttered that very phrase with some self pity as we struggled to navigate the root-laden remnant of a trail through the thick woods in the pre-dawn darkness. Our packs were at full capacity carrying our tent camp and a weekend’s worth of supplies. What had felt like a reasonable load back at the truck now felt unmanageable as we pushed more than two miles into the Adirondack wilderness. We alternated carrying the cot, and cursed its unwieldy aluminum frame as it banged into roots, rocks and tree trunks, tripping us into the dirt under the weight of our packs. This was New York’s early muzzleloader season and our plan was to hike and hunt our way back into these mountainous woods, staying in a tent for two nights so we could live with the deer, in the hopes of bringing one out with us. 

From the first step it was hard going. The Adirondacks are not logged like other industrial big woods so there are no logging roads, or skidder trails for easier walking. The trees reach full maturity and come crashing down in storms, taking dozens more to the ground with them to rot for decades in a tangled, impenetrable mess. There is mountainous elevation, bogs known from the region’s Dutch heritage as ‘vleis,’ and a mix of softwood and hardwood forests. 

As dawn broke we split up to sit for those first few hours of light when the crepuscular whitetail is most active. We eagerly shed our packs and as a chill set in we bundled up in wool to watch the woods for a while. It was an uneventful sit, but a nice break from the hike, which we resumed mid-morning on our final push to camp. We set up our lightweight Seek Outside tent, complete with titanium wood stove, the full kit weighing it only 6lbs. We prepared some firewood and got water filtering before heading out for the afternoon hunt. For me the afternoon was a discouraging failed experiment in navigating acres of tangled blowdowns. Brian actually saw a deer on his hunt but just a teasing, fleeting glimpse. 

Home in the Woods

Back at camp that night we were eager to cook up a hot meal on the woodstove, but were interrupted by wasps emerging from the warming earth inside the tent. Nothing was easy back here, and Brian referred to it as Type 2 Fun.

Type 2 Fun: An experience that is somewhere between uncomfortable and miserable as it's happening, but that you know you'll look back on with fondness, longing to do it again.

 The wasps eventually subsided and we discussed strategy for the morning hunt over venison sausage sandwiches until our full bellies and utter exhaustion put us to sleep.

Day Two

Day two began with climbing a mountain in the dark. Our strategy was to get to the top by dawn, hoping that bucks would be doing the same thing. They might want to feed on beechnuts and scent check for does or danger as the morning thermal air currents rose up from the valleys. We split up to cover two different topographic saddles, and just as we did we enjoyed a bizarre stroke of luck. Each of us had deer following us up the mountain in the dark. Our strategy appeared to be working. The big woods doesn’t deal in instant gratification and it would require several more hours of patience, physical exertion and vigilant observation before I would detect a small buck feeding through the beeches within range. With intent focus on making the most of my single-shot muzzleloader, and a little luck, the buck was down and our Adirondack adventure had become all the more memorable.

As tough as the hunt had been to that point, the bulk of our work was still ahead. The deer needed to be dressed and dragged through a mile of woods to camp. Then we packed camp the two miles out to the truck in order to empty our packs, only to hike back in, quarter the deer, and pack it back out. It was grueling work, and the farthest thing in the world from sitting on the edge of an agricultural field, picking my deer out of a herd just yards from my truck. But this was the adventure we set out to have, and it did not disappoint.