Third Visit - Saturday 3/12/11

Our third trip to the cabin saw five of us make the journey. It was Lisa and me, my Dad, Amber and her friend Lyndsy. This was Amber's first time seeing the cabin other than in pictures and of course her friend Lyndsy had never been there either. I was more than a little concerned that Amber and Lyndsy would spend the entire day texting and checking Facebook and I really wanted them to put all of the technology aside and enjoy the simple charm of the cabin and its surroundings. I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the way that things went. Lyndsy and Amber made Jiffy Pop popcorn on the stove, which I think may become a staple of the cabin as it harkens me back to my youth and just seems like the kind of thing you should make at a cabin in the woods. We went for a nice long hike up the moutain and we did a bunch of shooting. It was really a fun day and the girls genuinely seemed to have a good time.

The visit started out auspiciously as we saw four turkeys on our land right at the road before we had even pulled into the driveway. That is more turkeys than I've seen in 25 years of hunting in Juniata County. Even after we drove up the driveway, got out of the car and were unloading stuff, we saw a turkey less than a hundred yards away fly up to roost in a tree.

Amber and Lyndsy sporting their shooting accoutrements \/

We did a whole bunch of shooting. We probably fired close to two hundred rounds of ammunition. I took my Glock 9mm, my Smith&Wesson 40 caliber and my .22 rifle along. My Dad brought along his .22/.22 magnum revolver. My Dad and I did a little shooting, but between the shooting range and the cabin, I can shoot pretty much whenever I want to, so I let the girls just have fun with it. I had paper groundhog targets that I stapled to pieces of cardboard and set up at varying distances on the hillside north of the cabin. They both fired all four of the guns. They were a little surprised by the punch of the .40 and preferred shooting the Glock as its lower recoil and muzzle jump do make it more comfortable to shoot.

\/ Lisa and Amber during the hike

The hike was, shall we say, interesting. To the northwest of the cabin up the mountain and across our neighbor's land, there is a trail that leads into Bald Eagle State Forest. We decided to walk out and look for it. We didn't find it, but let me just say that the terrain on the northwest side of the cabin is much steeper and rougher than to the northeast where Lisa and I had walked. It is very rocky and there were areas where the mountainside inclined so steeply that I had to use my hands on the ground for support. My Dad was with the three girls so I went ahead of them and ended up going to the top of the mountain. I don't think it is as high as the mountain where I'm used to hunting and our cabin is probably at least a third of the way up the side so the top wasn't as far as I may have thought. It was a tough climb though. I was wearing my Glock in a holster and a knife on my belt and had binoculars around my neck, but I was so thankful that I wasn't carrying a rifle. I really needed my hands free to navigate the broken and rocky terrain. I don't know that I'll do too much hunting up that way unless I find an easier path or an area where it isn't quite so steep and rough. My Dad and I were saying that we couldn't imagine trying to drag a deer out of there.

More hike pictures (top to bottom): my Dad, Lyndsy and Amber, a vista looking southeast from Jacks Mountain





I bought some mineral licks at Cabela's last weekend and when we first got to the cabin on Saturday, I put out the big 33 pound one and one of the smaller ones. I placed the big one about 20 yards to the southeast of the cabin so that it was visible from the front deck. After we got back from the hike, my Dad and I set up a trail camera to capture images of anything that comes in to visit the mineral lick. We tried two different trees and a couple of different camera heights before we got it set up properly. Each time we would test it by walking around in front of the camera. During the final test, I captured an image of my Dad that just really tickled my funny bone. He was walking from left to right past the lick within the sight line of the camera. As he passed the lick, he bent down and touched it. The image captured on the trail camera is just before he bent down. In the picture, it just looks like he is walking hunched over. Something about his posture and the woods in the background reminded me of the famous Roger Patterson Bigfoot video and made me laugh hysterically. See below. You be the judge.




All in all, it was another fabulously successful day at the cabin. I came home feeling happy and content. Can't wait to go up again and see what we captured on the trail cam.