2009 in Review (Jan 2010)

2009 In Review

By Tom "Gutshot" Bepler

Well it has been a year of adventure and a few firsts for me. I guess I will go back and start out with January and walk you through the outdoor and special events that I came upon throughout 2009.

January was really the start of an exciting year for me and the end of the 08-09 deer hunting season with a late flintlock hunt. I had a good time during the hunt even though there was no harvest. The New Year started out with a P.M. on TalkHunting.com from a now life long friend, Ron (WesternKYHunter) when he invited me to his property in Kentucky for a weekend of hog hunting. So there I went, my first road trip of the year and what a memorable time I had meeting all of the Talk Hunting folks there and Ron’s family and friends. By the way, there was one hog harvested and one consumed.

February brought with it some serious snow and my annual coyote hunt in north central Pennsylvania. Several hunting buddies and I braved the trip to camp and the extreme cold weather. One of the other events, along with the coyote hunt weekend, is the wild game feed put on by the local hunt club. Hey, we have to eat too you know, you just can’t go off and have fun without food. Next I received an invitation from Hunt Master of Talk Hunting to join the Pro Staff on the Camp Fire News as a staff writer, and here I am. Guess you all can see what my answer to that question was.

March brought on a weekend trip to camp to see how everything there faired through the extreme cold weather and the heavy snow, and to make some preparations for the upcoming trout season that would start in mid April. It was also the first opportunity to pull the trail camera and check out the SD cards for pictures.

April brought in the beginning of the Pennsylvania trout season which brought me back to camp with some of my family and friends to hit the streams. The cool temperatures and high waters made for some slow fishing, but we were out there giving it everything we had. The surf and turf, trout and venison back straps on the grill, were the highlight of the weekend.

May was what I had been waiting for since the deer season ended, it brought in our spring gobbler season. Once again, and I think this was the 4th consecutive trip to camp; we were loaded for the elusive gobblers that inhabit the mountains of north central Pennsylvania. I took two of my friends that hadn’t hunted turkey in years. We headed out the first morning with three hunters and only two guns. I didn’t carry a gun as my focus was getting the other two on birds, I was doing the calling and they were to do the shooting. Well I did my part, but the birds never made it into gun range. After noon that day, we traded in the shotguns for fishing poles. That’s the best part of the spring gobbler season, it runs concurrent with trout season and you don’t have any wasted time during the weekend trip. I was able to hunt turkey for the next several weekends. I didn’t get a turkey but I did take a rattlesnake, and I got a photo of a newborn fawn on the last day of the season as I was walking out of the woods. That was worth the whole season to me. On a sad note, one of my long time hunting buddies, George Pastor, passed away after a short struggle with cancer, he will surely be missed around the campfire. The upcoming season will not be the same without him.

June had me cleaning weapons, fishing, and taking care of gear for the upcoming hunting season. I got in a couple days of groundhog hunting with no success, and a few more weekends of trout fishing at the camp. I also put out the trail cameras at camp to see what the deer herd was doing and hoping to get some of the local bears on film. The deer did just fine but the bear must not like their pictures taken. I took my father to camp for a weekend of golf and fishing over Father’s Day and it rained so much they closed down the golf course. I also had a painful gall bladder attack at the end of the month that put me in the hospital for a few days. The pain went away but the Doctor said that I needed to have it removed because it wasn’t functioning at all. I told him I would get back to him when I could fit it into my schedule…hunting and fishing schedule that is.

July was a slow month and I didn’t do much outdoor activity because of the health issues, but I did a few days of fishing and preparing for a road trip to Holly, MI for the Talk Hunting anniversary party.

August started with a bang, moving our business from one location to another and opening a warehouse. Next I headed out to Holly, MI to join all of my Talk Hunting friends from the north, at one of the three anniversary parties that were held across the country. You will need to go to the forum to see pictures and read all the stories from all three parties; a good time had by all. The following weekend I was in the hospital having the old gall bladder removed. Now you can see what my scheduling issue was. Recovery was pretty quick and I was back to work in a few days, taking it easy and not doing any heavy work.

September rolled in with archery season starting locally for doe only, and a couple of business trips that limited the amount of early archery hunting I was able to do. Well believe it or not, I do have to work to support my outdoor habits. I also got to pick up my full body coyote mount from the taxidermist that I shot in October of 2008.

October opened the regular archery season which I was limited in the amount of time I got to hunt. I only got one weekend to hunt at camp and only one day around home. I was okay with that as it was still pretty warm and the season is long. I also took my wife to North Carolina to her sister’s cottage for a long weekend. After we got back, small game season started, then my favorite time of the year, muzzleloader season. We headed to the camp for a three day hunt. The hunt went very well, except for the rain. Well, we ate great anyway, but there were no tenderloins or back straps on this trip.

November started out with the fall turkey season. We tried that, without any luck, however just being in the woods at that time of the year is simply beautiful. I had another great opportunity to meet another Talk Hunting member and spend the entire weekend in the mountains with him. Dave Rice, which most of you know him as DLR, was able to get out of the house that weekend, so we met up at my home and headed north. What a great time we had. We didn’t do any hunting but we got in some shooting, and once again some great eating. There were so many stories to be told that we just couldn’t fit in a hunt. However two weeks later I made it to camp again along with nine others for the PA bear season. We arrived at camp two days before the season opened and saw 6 different bear right around camp. We hunted hard and put many miles on the old legs with no success. Everyone went home for Thanksgiving, only to return to camp on Saturday for the opener of the PA regular firearms season, for deer, which started on the last day of the month.

December is now upon us, and well I can tell you that it rained for the first five days of the season. I was fortunate enough to take an antlerless deer on the second evening of the hunt. When the rain stopped, the temperature dropped and the snow came. That was a welcome break, my rain suit was crying from all the rain. I’m not sure but it may very well still be wet. Well on Saturday I was fortunate again to fill my last doe tag for the northern WMU. I have returned home and will await the late flintlock season that comes in the day after Christmas. Any hunts or special activities that take place through the end of the year will be included in the 2010 review next year.

I truly hope that everyone had a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.

May all of your trips afield be fruitful and all of your hunts safe.

Tom "Gutshot" Bepler

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