Last Saturdays Spring Turkey Opener while not successful as a great time and an awesome way to spend some time with friends on the mountain. Unfortunately, while the turkeys are abundant down here they seem to have the dates on lock down and disappear from huntable land, if only we could hunt in neighborhoods, ha-ha. But a bad day hunting is better than a great day at work.
Gary grabbed me Friday and we stopped by the shop to say high to Steph before bouncing to meet everyone. In true fashion we got caught up and where running late but that ok because most everyone else was too. We met at the Lake Henshaw Resort, but the dinner was closed so we headed down the hill for burritos. Then back up to Palomar mountain to hang out on the side of the road and catch up before crashing for a few hours in our cars.
We got up at four and put our stuff together and headed down the area we were going to hunt, it was my first time here, so I just followed Gary and when I found a nice tree to lay under, I took advantage of it. It was a cold spring morning and frost was still on the ground, I should have dressed a little better for it, I was cold. Yes, even someone who teaches back country skills will forget their gear and tough it out from time to time.
It was a great reminder though about what we do teach when it comes to heat transfer and maintaining your core temp. I want going to die just suffer a little especially since I couldn’t move around. So, what reminders did I have… Convective cooling in this case was very real, I was almost ok except where I was laying on the ground. Lesson learned seats are not just for comfort have a barrier for between you and the ground.
I was getting a little cranky laying in the cold so I figured with the sun coming up I could go get some radiant heat, good idea but the damp ness in my clothing from laying on the ground caused some evaporative cooling that was not aided by the heavy winds convective cooling in the open sunny area, truth be told I was actually warmer out of the wind.
In the end much like Goldy Locks I found a spot that had dried, was exposed to the sun but sheltered from the wind and it was just right. All I had to do now was lay back and listen to one person call a turkey and every other hunter in the area start calling, ha-ha. While we didn’t walk away with a bird I did have a good opportunity to relax and reinforce some skills.
