The 2022 Season

The 2022 hunting season has ended.

In 2022, when I wrote about the 2021 season, I started off with this:

 It wasn't a great one, for a variety of reasons.

And that statement was true once again for 2022, but for different reasons, a lot of which had nothing much to do with the hunting season itself.

That's because 2022 has been the year of the field of Medicine, or age, or perhaps lifestyle, or whatever, catching up with me.

Self portrait, and a bad one, turkey hunting.  I was wearing a coat under this coat, and frankly I don't look like I was feeling particularly well when this photo was taken.

In the Spring I wasn't feeling well, which after much delay and finally responding to a demand from Long Suffering Spouse, caused me to go into the doctor's office, which lead in turn to a prescription for some medicine.  I'll spare you the details, but like most medicines and me, I didn't really respond terribly well to them physically. They did their job, but they also made me a bit ill, and made me ill just in time for Spring Turkey Season.  I hunted turkeys, as I always do, and I did see some, but I never got up on them (I tend to stalk them, rather than lure them in).  I did get a turkey call, which I'd never had before, but that failed to bring any in.  

A couple of weeks later, by which times things had warmed up enough to wear my Park Service dress campaign hat, the replacement for my long serving but now lost M1911 campaign hat.  I miss the old hat.

I also had the joy, and I won't detail it, of being pretty sick while hunting.  Something I rarely have experienced.

It was fun anyhow, but not something for a subsistence hunter to write home about.

That takes us to fishing season, and here too, for one reason or another, I just didn't get out over the summer as much as usual.  Indeed, "didn't get out as much as usual" was the theme of the year.

I fished the river several times, and one of the mountain streams I fish.  I attempted to take my daughter and her boyfriend down a significant local canyon, where I'm sure there are big fish, but we failed at that.  I hadn't scouted the route, and ours was pretty impassable.

I did try something I have not for several years, however, which was fishing from a kayak.

The doctor's visit mentioned earlier lead to a colonoscopy, which I wasn't too quick to get set up.  That ended up getting scheduled for early Fall.  And that lead to a major surgery in October.

The North American Retriever getting a cool drink from a mountain stream while blue grouse hunting.

Prior to that, I got out for blue grouse, but failed to see a single one.  I never made it out sage chicken hunting.  I didn't draw antelope, but my son did, and I went out with him.  None of us drew limited deer, but my daughter and I went out opening morning and nearly got a couple of really good deer in a general deer area until some fool blasted right by us in a truck, scaring them off.  We went back out a couple of weeks later and my son got a nice deer in a very distant area.  So at least that was a partial success.  

I went out for antelope with my son, and he was successful.

I drew an elk tag, but I only got out twice, once before surgery, and once after.

Surgery put me out of action in a major way for well over a month.  When I got back on my feet, only waterfowl was open.  

It's been a pretty good waterfowl season, however.  The weather has been right for it (lousy) and lots of waterfowl have been in the area.  I've shot more geese this year than I ever have before.

I thought about closing this entry out with a quote from Kristin Lavransdottir about Lavran, when he last rode away, or the video clip from No Country For Old Men at the ending with the sheriff protagonist is recalling his father.  Instead, I'm just going to note that I still don't really feel up to speed, but I'm putting in for everything.