Twenty-Four Hours in a Tree - recordreview_20250723_trr-2025-07-23-0-010_w-ocr_art_2.xml
By: Mark Walters Twenty-Four Hours in a Tree This bear cub climbed up Mark Walters tree. Thursday, July 10 High 83, low 57 This was home for exactly 24 hours. Here is the plan; Joe set me up on one of his food plots and I would be very comfortable 18-feet up in the air in a 2-man ladder stand. My diet would be a stick of garlic cheddar elk sausage, a zip lock bag of green beans that I had just picked, and a half-pound of cheese. I had a frozen one-gallon jug of water for hydration which also kept my food chilled. Clothing wise: mosguitoes, ticks, rain and heavy dew at night were all important so I wore layers and rain gear after dark as well as a gilly suit. At 12:10 p.m. I was dropped off by UTV and was very comfortable and looking forward to my challenge. My view is a t-shaped food plot planted in clover and grass that is 100 percent surrounded by forest. I think that it is worth mentioning that so far this warm season, I have had 13 separate experiences where ticks have lodged into my carcass and with each experience, it sucks for about 3 weeks. Until 4:58 all I really observed besides a great view was a lot of robins. At 4:58 a large doe entered the food plot, did not like something and left. During primetime I was very excited to see a bear, deer, turkey etc. but I did not see any of that. I passed the time eating my snacks, especially the green beans. At dark I had not climbed down and realized with 9 hours in, I still had 17 to go and this was going to be a challenge. 11:58. p.m.:There is a full moon and my eyes have adjusted to the forest and food plot as well as I could hope for. Four large deer are feeding within 30 yards of me. I can see the red of their bodies perfectly but cannot make out horns. There are no fawns and I am thinking bucks.They had no idea of my presence and were communicating in snickers. It was very cool. The deer kept me wide awake but by 2:00 a.m. I was getting tired. Though I was strapped into my tree if I would start to relax, my legs would slip out from underneath me and thus, zero sleep would take place. It started to become light at 3:15 and light was very obvious by 4:00.1 was in an excellent mood at 6:05 when to my left I saw about a 250-pound sow with 3 cubs enter the plot 70 yards to my right. To watch the cubs was to watch an endless gameofthem playing with each other and exploring by themselves and they were making a sort of clucking sound to communicate to each other. Kind of bad luck came my way when they started heading directly at my tree. Things got a bit touchy when one of them climbed my tree and the other 2 tried climbing my ladder. So here is the scenario; I have a cub directly behind my head on the back part of my tree and the other 2 trying to climb the ladder. Mama decided to mosey on over and see what was so exciting. She was 10 feet in front of the ladder, looking up and using her nose. The cub in the tree climbed down, the other two headed to mom and for the next half-hour I was able to watch these four play and rest in the plot. That my friends could have become a very different situation. Friends would ask me afterward if I was scared. I can honestly say that I was not. Some of the drivers and ice on the road scare me more. Technology puts fear in me as I have not kept up. The family of four experience was just one very cool memory. I stayed in my tree until 12:10 p.m., changed into shorts at my truck and was consumed by mosguitoes. During the drive home (I had been awake for 35-hours), I was fine until I hit Marshfield and just like that I simply could not rationalize driving. I pulled over at the zoo, took a 30-minute snooze and was good to go. I want to thank 'Musky Joe' for almost feeding me to the skeets and bears! Sunset Quite the show was put on by mama bear and her cubs. AWARD WINNER Îï-Srjf CHEVROLET Catering • Weddings Company Meals Family Reunions • Funerals 715-223-2777 www.smithbrosmeats.com Hwy. 13 South • Colby, Wl 54421 Klemme Sales Inc. 125-129 Second Ave., Stratford.WI 54484 ph: 715-687-4511 .fax: 715-687-4507 Ell 191* . f http://www.smithbrosmeats.com By: Mark Walters Twenty-Four Hours in a Tree This bear cub climbed up Mark Walters tree. Thursday, July 10 High 83, low 57 This was home for exactly 24 hours. Here is the plan; Joe set me up on one of his food plots and I would be very comfortable 18-feet up in the air in a 2-man ladder stand. My diet would be a stick of garlic cheddar elk sausage, a zip lock bag of green beans that I had just picked, and a half-pound of cheese. I had a frozen one-gallon jug of water for hydration which also kept my food chilled. Clothing wise: mosguitoes, ticks, rain and heavy dew at night were all important so I wore layers and rain gear after dark as well as a gilly suit. At 12:10 p.m. I was dropped off by UTV and was very comfortable and looking forward to my challenge. My view is a t-shaped food plot planted in clover and grass that is 100 percent surrounded by forest. I think that it is worth mentioning that so far this warm season, I have had 13 separate experiences where ticks have lodged into my carcass and with each experience, it sucks for about 3 weeks. Until 4:58 all I really observed besides a great view was a lot of robins. At 4:58 a large doe entered the food plot, did not like something and left. During primetime I was very excited to see a bear, deer, turkey etc. but I did not see any of that. I passed the time eating my snacks, especially the green beans. At dark I had not climbed down and realized with 9 hours in, I still had 17 to go and this was going to be a challenge. 11:58. p.m.:There is a full moon and my eyes have adjusted to the forest and food plot as well as I could hope for. Four large deer are feeding within 30 yards of me. I can see the red of their bodies perfectly but cannot make out horns. There are no fawns and I am thinking bucks.They had no idea of my presence and were communicating in snickers. It was very cool. The deer kept me wide awake but by 2:00 a.m. I was getting tired. Though I was strapped into my tree if I would start to relax, my legs would slip out from underneath me and thus, zero sleep would take place. It started to become light at 3:15 and light was very obvious by 4:00.1 was in an excellent mood at 6:05 when to my left I saw about a 250-pound sow with 3 cubs enter the plot 70 yards to my right. To watch the cubs was to watch an endless gameofthem playing with each other and exploring by themselves and they were making a sort of clucking sound to communicate to each other. Kind of bad luck came my way when they started heading directly at my tree. Things got a bit touchy when one of them climbed my tree and the other 2 tried climbing my ladder. So here is the scenario; I have a cub directly behind my head on the back part of my tree and the other 2 trying to climb the ladder. Mama decided to mosey on over and see what was so exciting. She was 10 feet in front of the ladder, looking up and using her nose. The cub in the tree climbed down, the other two headed to mom and for the next half-hour I was able to watch these four play and rest in the plot. That my friends could have become a very different situation. Friends would ask me afterward if I was scared. I can honestly say that I was not. Some of the drivers and ice on the road scare me more. Technology puts fear in me as I have not kept up. The family of four experience was just one very cool memory. I stayed in my tree until 12:10 p.m., changed into shorts at my truck and was consumed by mosguitoes. During the drive home (I had been awake for 35-hours), I was fine until I hit Marshfield and just like that I simply could not rationalize driving. I pulled over at the zoo, took a 30-minute snooze and was good to go. I want to thank 'Musky Joe' for almost feeding me to the skeets and bears! Sunset Quite the show was put on by mama bear and her cubs. AWARD WINNER Îï-Srjf CHEVROLET Catering • Weddings Company Meals Family Reunions • Funerals 715-223-2777 www.smithbrosmeats.com Hwy. 13 South • Colby, Wl 54421 Klemme Sales Inc. 125-129 Second Ave., Stratford.WI 54484 ph: 715-687-4511 .fax: 715-687-4507 Ell 191* . f http://www.smithbrosmeats.com
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