pete has a cold and my sinuses are running crazy so we knew there was no way we could tent camp and have any hope of getting better. we made plans to visit relatives in north alabama with a detour to the camp to shake some hands.

arrived in cullman late wednesday night and it was cold. next morning we drove to the check in station at black warrior. spoke with the area biologist, matt brock, and he said it was 19 degrees when he arrived for work and that it was now 25. woowee, it was crisp and fine deer hunting weather, if you were well.

left a note under the coffee pot for mirage243 and headed north. stopped at a trading post (sensationalized convenience store) in wren to buy some maps and then went to visit some kin folk. we had hoped to return that night to visit mirage243 but the family wanted to make dinner and who would turn down a home cooked meal?

decided to head home friday and returned to the camp around 3:30ish to see if anyone was there. mirage243 was still in the woods so we left some coffee cakes and hit the road. birmingham traffic was awful. waited an hour for a wreck to clear and arrived home around 11ish last night.

summary:
the bankhead national forest/black warrior management/sipsey wilderness area is stunning. the terrain does not make for an "easy hunt". there are very steep ravines and plenty of rock. you had best hope to drop a deer where the dragging, carrying is gonna be slightly downhill to where you are going or it's gonna be a long, slow process to get it back. with so many hardwoods, the woods are "more open" than they are along the coastal part of the state.

squirrel nests are very abundant and the squirrels we saw are large.

we were told that hogs are also abundant and there was one hanging in camp friday night.

you can never predict alabama weather. it could have been in the 60s or it could have been in the teens, as it was this week. the highs were in the 40s, which was nice, but those cold nights on the ground will get you.

best of luck to those who hunt. maybe we will be blessed with better health next year or, can get us a hunting trailer set up like mirage has. it was a nice set up.