Snow Day

The imminent attack

Once again, it's been snowing. Normally in these kind of conditions I would be headed out to the ole' ski hill to do some schussing. Last time out I must have done some damage to my knee in the process of falling down a snow covered hill and was not quite up to the task of 'schralping the gnar' as the kids call it these days. But don't cry for me, I had a fallback plan.

My mighty duck slayer

The drive to The Point was spectacular. Slow, slippery and pooping snow the whole time. The whole time! I had a new weapon for my walk out with me as well. The Boruit RJ-3000 to be exact. Forever to be known as the Worlds Most Powerful Headlamp. (sorry Chucker, there's a new game in town.) The world before me lit up like a nuclear blast as I started the walk out in the driving snow. Much like driving in the snow with your high-beams on I had to work down to the lowest setting to see past the thousands of snowflakes falling around me. Although I'm fairly sure if I had pointed this headlamp straight up I could have been mistaken for the light atop the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, I kept it pointed ahead, and that's when I saw them. Two sets of glowing eyes sitting in the grasses out in front of me on the way to The Tip. One slightly higher than the other. A mother and child cougar lying in wait for me to struggle by them in knee deep snow on my way out. They were clear as could be even through the driving snow at a distance thanks to the Worlds Most Powerful Headlamp. I did not even have a cougar shell in the Benelli, and even if I did, there were two of them.

I kept looking down and then back up at those menacing eyes. Every step bringing me closer to certain death at the hands of these beasts. For all I knew they might even be snow leopards. It made perfect sense, it was snowing after all. I wondered if I could get my pack off in time to avoid being tackled into the deep snow and eaten alive. Blood shooting out of the holes in my jugular while they feasted on my still beating heart. Still I pressed on. Then, as I looked up again to the spot where they were, the eyes were gone.

When I passed the spot of cougar/snow leopard central I saw tracks loping out onto the lake. Sure, the tracks looked like two deer hoof-prints but I know how smart these killers are. They could easily disguise their prints as deer and murder me when my guard was down. I somehow made it to The Tip unscathed and set up my blocks. Those 20 minutes before the light came up were scary. I thought about how much I would miss hunting, skiing, my Sweetie, my friends and maybe even Clider. As it turns out the cougars let me live that morning and I settled in to wait for my chance to cil something. I covered my gear with a white sheet and made like a pile of snow but as it turns out nothing was flying or even anywhere in the general vicinity for that matter. I got cold, had to pee, knock the snow off my blocks, needed to stretch my legs and generally was bored when I heard my phone alert me to a text coming in from H7HT co-founder Fred G. It was at the exact moment I decided to stand up that the lone greenie, low and looking to land, flew right down the water line mere feet in front of me in the driving snow. An easy shot had I been where I was seconds before. He even made the wack wack wack call as he looked into my eyes and slowly peeled off to fly away. The only duck I saw all day.
GBCH