When I was young, I used to envision that I would hunt and fish to my heart’s content. Getting married and setting additional priorities has changed that. I still wish that I would have the freedom and not feel guilty about taking time to do what I want but make no mistake, there is a changing of philosophy.

This year, deer camp was more about father/son time. I brought my son with me and of course I was hunting with my dad (and uncle and brother). When I was young, around eight, my dad used to alternate taking me and my brother hunting. I used to look forward to this time for weeks ahead of time. When it was my brother’s week I used to spend an hour questioning and trying to get the low down on what happened. It is hard to express how jacked up I was by missing out and looking forward to my week.

Now that my dad is in his mid-seventies, the opportunities to spend this kind of time is dwindling rapidly. And more so than that, my son’s time is dwindling as well. He is a senior this year and a lot of his familial interactions have been with his mother’s side of the family. So, it is kind of a opportunity to make up for lost time. I was really a senior when I started to spend time with my mom’s father so it is not too late and was definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

The season that we had tags for lasts nine days. It started on Saturday and ended on the following Sunday. The weather was not favorable for hunting. Yes, mid-eighties sure is nice camping weather but it makes for a pretty dire chance to see animals. For that reason, we did hunt but I also took the opportunity to look around too.

One afternoon, the temp was in the mid-eighties and my son and I went to to see something called ‘Hole in the Ground’. This was apparently a geothermal vent where water got trapped and ultimately exploded causing a giant depression. Unfortunately, the picture does not do it justice. I would say that it this is why going to deer camp was valuable. I would never just spend the time to drive to it or make it a deliberate destination but it is something that we can share as unique to this trip.

I used to be pretty rigid about missing school but that has changed. Not only is my son a senior so there is not much more that he is really going to learn but my observations of the quality of that time has been diminished. I observed in 2020 that seniors just graduated at spring break. This tells me that even the school system really doesn’t take those extra months of ‘education’ seriously. What is a couple of days?

Weighing the time spent family bonding versus a couple of days of school is no question. These are memories that don’t come any other way versus another forgettable high school day. All that being said, I could only afford to take one day off because of my new job so he only missed one day of school. In that case, it really was a minimal disruption.

Ultimately, I don’t really care if my son develops a desire to hunt. I am relatively certain that my vegetarian son won’t. So whatever our future looks like, we will have to meet where we are. I happen to hold many of the same interests that my dad has. That makes it relatively easy. I plan on half-heartedly pursuing hunting and fishing the rest of my life. But, my son’s and I may have to find other places to meet in the middle.

We did see other things, like we saw a wild badger; that was a first for me. We saw how men should behave in an all male setting. I gave him a the freedom to go explore on his own and make some of his own decisions in this setting. I taught my son how to perform a proper deer drive. I think all of those things are character building experiences.

End Your Programming Routine: We left with only three days of hunting put in while everybody else was going to stick out the rest of the week. For our portion, it was scarce on seeing deer and nothing bagged in camp. That is OK because what we got was much more valuable than a trophy. It was me and my son spending time together that we rarely do and hopefully this will be a worthwhile memory. It was for me.