Ah! It felt good to be back out in the woods. It had been a long, hot summer.
The problem was, the summer wasn't done with me yet.
I had packed the truck for the opening weekend archery hunt in my home state of Florida, and I'd sweated as I did it. I'd sweated as I gathered my bow and other gear. I had showered before I left, and sweated before I could get into the truck, crank up the air conditioner and leave.
It was a hot, humid day. Did I mention that?
When I got to the campground in the early afternoon, I set up my screen room tent. That made me sweat. The doctor had me wearing a heart monitor; I sweated one of the electrodes off. Dried myself off and glued on a new one. Went to the grocery store. Sweated. Bought gas for my truck. Sweated. Drove to woods and started walking, scouting. Sweating!
You would have thought that I would realize that it was going to be this way all weekend, wouldn't you?
I didn't. Call me an optimist.
I waited at camp until 10:00 PM, and the other guys hadn't gotten there yet. Went ahead and set up my little one-man tent and rolled out my sleeping bag. Sweated off another electrode; turned off the heart monitor and packed it away for the weekend. After the guys showed up and we sacked out, I lay on top of my sleeping bag in my tent, flaps open, screens closed against mosquitoes, stripped down to my boxers... and sweated.
Arose in the morning and headed to the woods. Had my climbing stand hooked on the tree by 6:00, roughly an hour before shooting light. And wouldn't you know it? I was positively drenched with sweat.
That wasn't the way I figured it was supposed to be, but that's the way it was that weekend. I had a good time, met some good folks and spent time in the woods with them and a friend. Saw some new country, and spotted some hogs the day before the season opened. Killed more nasty biting yellow deerflies in one afternoon than I had seen in the past year. Saw some squirrels, got out of the house. Drank a few beers in the evenings, told some stories.
And I sweated.
Come on, winter!
