Many people like Indian Summer. Indian Summer frustrates me. We have had the cooler days and colder nights and then bam! Warm weather returns. Not to stress though. October meant grouse season in the Mid-West. It was the first workout of the year for the bird dogs and time for us to head north to Wisconsin. I saved my vacation for this week to ten days each year. We would head north up I-65 through Indianapolis and Chicago. Once you hit the border it was two lane highway through about 20 small town USAs. We normally arrived in the middle of the night. The fishing “resort” we stayed at would leave the keys to the cabin in the mailbox for us. We would unload, take a short nap, and head down the road to a small cafe for breakfast. Across the street was an outdoor store that we would pick up our tags. Down the road about a mile was the location of the DNR office. We would stop by and say hello to the local game wardens. Extremely friendly locals everywhere we went were used to a handful of out of town hunters that came through each season.
The leaves had begun to change. This area tended to have more yellows than the other fall colors. There would be stretches of gravel roads that had yellow canopies covering the road. It was beautiful and a warm day was 55 degrees. Perfect weather for grouse hunting. We would head down the logging roads and start the hunts. Those stories are still to come.
When we returned to KY in the middle of the month, Indian Summer normally had ended and it was cool enough to get into the deer stands. In Georgia, the entire fall feels like Indian Summer. Today the rains had ended, but it was humid and warm. I will wait until next week when the temps drop and then I will get back into the woods. Grouse season hasn’t started yet in Georgia so it will be bear and deer hunting until November.
Dirt Road Dispatch 