Sometimes You Just Have to Give Up on the Corporate World and Find Yourself an Island Paradise.

So, about that lease...

The one from my last hopeful post?

Yeah, didn't work out so well.  Before I even comment further though, I have to say it was no particular person's fault, and everyone involved acted very courteously.  Basically, shortly after the lease was official my partner in it drove up to check it out.  The access road had a gate across it, about a quarter mile or so away from the property boundary.  The gate had the name but not contact info for another hunting club.  Strange.

A few phone calls were made, which resulted in more confusion.  They assured us the property had been leased the previous season with no problem.  One well meaning person in the leasers office suggested cutting the chain lock and putting our own lock on.  I wasn't about to do that without some face time with the gate owners.  Also, a search of the property appraiser's website showed that access road traverses the land of another timber conglomerate.  Very strange. 

A few more phone calls were made, and direct discussion with the land manager for that region revealed that he was relatively new to the position and had no personal information about the parcel.  An employee who had been with that section much longer would know, he assured me, but that guy was out on vacation until the next week.  Even stranger.

I googled the adjacent hunting club's name every way until Sunday and finally found a hit on a Craig'slist ad for new members, posted just a few weeks before.  Aha!  A phone number!  I let my hunting partner call because I think he can sound a bit more sympathetic on the phone.  That's where we got our answers.

Seems this 80-odd acre parcel had been leased for years by someone who lived adjacent to it and never had an access issue because he just walked out his back door and across his yard to get to it.  Seems its a great parcel, one of the biggest bucks in the area had been killed there a few years ago.  Seems there wasn't any other way of getting there by vehicle except across their club's road.  Seems the club had voted years ago that no one without a club membership could drive said road.  How much was a membership?  A cool grand a person per year, thanks for asking! 

Actually Donnie said the man talked very nice while telling him this, and I can't blame him for not wanting other people on the land, insurance being what it is. 

So the people at a certain timber company were actually very understanding when the situation was related, we got all of our money back as well as some additional help by the land manager in finding another parcel.  Unfortunately 95% of the parcels are way out of our price range.  One that we could have afforded was about 85% cut over, as in that season, as in a debris-strewn field.  We saw evidence of poaching there too, butchered deer carcass tossed out by the road much younger than January. 

So I've gone back to Plan A, and actually quite happily I might say.  Public land, limited access permits, and having a goal of a mile from a parking area.  My little island paradise in Goethe is waiting for me still.  I went over there yesterday to do some pre-archery scouting, but I'll save that for my next post.  Its pretty optimistic, seriously.

Meanwhile, here's a shot of my hunting bow in my makeshift 15 yrd range behind my house.  I had been shooting down into the ditch at 20 to 30 yrds but its had water in it for a few months now. 

Samick Sage, 45 lb limbs, shooting Easton Epic ST 600 arrows off the shelf with Woodsman Elite broadheads.