Sometimes it isn't what we see in the woods that matters. I've hunted all my life.

I'll probably keep right on hunting until I'm too old and crippled to get myself out there.

To be honest, I have never seen anything that I couldn't explain.

I can't say the same for the things I've heard.

There are always going to be dead trees that fall over, and then there are the smaller critters

that make noises outside of their own jetter. Squirrels drop- nuts and raccoons and rabbits scurry around and make

scratching sounds. Even deer can make a lot of noises. I know that. Every hunter knows that.

And anyone who knows anything about the woods knows what silence means.

Usually that means a predator is nearby.

It could be any kind of predator depending on where you are.

In my neck of the woods it means bears. So I can explain most of the sounds I hear

when I'm sitting 25 feet up a tree in my deer stand.

The first time I began to think there might be something out there in the woods that I didn't know

about was years ago during a shotgun season.

It was one of those frosty late fall mornings when every step I took walking out to my stand was

accompanied by the crunch of frozen grass and sticks and

acorn shells and leaves. It was take a step and wait all the way in.

Stalking in is generally the best policy, but when there's frost on the ground, it always sounds twice as loud, no matter how nimble footage you try to be.

I got up in my stand just as the sun was breaking over the horizon and I took a long deep

breath of cool air. There's nothing quite like being alone in the woods.

At least I thought I was alone.

I was looking out over a meadow

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