October 7th of this year marked the archery season opener here in eastern Massachusetts. Like most of you, it's also the beginning of wilderness therapy for me. Non-hunters have a tendency to think that when we head out into the woods we only have one thought; Kill. Kill. Kill. For anyone who has spent much time hunting, that is a sore stereotype. While the end result is, hopefully, putting meat in the freezer, it is often a time of reflection.
Whitetail hunting in the east is often riddled with downtime. Even in the west, or areas where you can practice spot and stalk, we still spend very little time on the "end result". When you consider the amount of time we put into getting to that end result, you start to realize that there is a considerable amount of time, effort, and often money that goes into attempting to achieve our goal. What most folks don't realize, is that there is more than one goal for a hunter.
Yes, the primary goal for a majority of hunters is putting meat in the freezer. Even the best hunters, I would venture to guess, spend about 1% of their hunting time actually doing that. There are hours of looking for property to hunt on, followed by hours of finding the right spots on that property. Then there is the time scouting, setting and reviewing game cameras, and prepping the spots for the hunt. Many folks are already counting days or weeks out of their lives in a year before they even plant their butts in a stand.
Once the season opens, we spend hours sitting and waiting, or stalking, or scouting. Last year alone, I spent 180 hours in the woods after opening day. When you divide it down, that's 15 twelve hour sits. To top that off, I ate my tags last year. Now I'm not sure about you, but I have a pretty decent attention span, and even with that I don't think I could spend 180 hours thinking "Kill, Kill, Kill."
I think my time in the woods is much like a conscious version of dreaming. Not "day-dreaming", that's different. My mind processes through the different aspects of my life. I think about my wife, and how lucky I am to have her. I think about what I can do to show her how much I appreciate having a non-hunting wife who realizes fully how important hunting is to me. I think about my kids and how much I love them.
Inadvertently, my mind will then wander through all the stresses in my life. What are the bills I need to get paid. How much of my debt can I get rid of this coming year. What tasks do I need to get accomplished at work next. Right down to mundane stresses like: who do I still have to buy Christmas presents for? As the mind processes through these things, it also unravels the many tiny beads of stress that are formed within us through daily life.
For those of my readers who do not participate in hunting, trapping and angling have the same basic principles. You set the traps and wait. You cast the line and wait. Sure, if you're new to activities like fly-fishing, your mind starts out being constantly concerned with "when do I transition direction?" "How much force should I apply on the whip to get the fly where I want it?" "Am I even doing this right?" As the muscle memory turns these tasks into routine, those thoughts fade and are replaced with thoughts that help you unravel the subconscious maze of stresses within.
Now, are there folks that do not have this feeling in the woods? Sure. When you're out hunting squirrels and the bowhunter in the tree stand starts screaming at you like he owns the woods? He/she isn't doing it right. If you are taking in the powers and spirituality of the wilderness, then you should no longer have the ability to go from dead calm to all-consuming rage in point five seconds.
With that, it's Saturday morning and I'm going to be heading into the woods shortly to close out this first week of archery season. Hoping the wind dies down a bit or I may just be an observer today. Good luck to all of you out there, though I know most of you who planned to hunt today, are already out in the woods. Thank you.
Comments