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Deer Hunting in the Adirondacks

I went deer hunting last week with my friend Bill at his camp in the Adirondacks. The trip over entailed a beautiful ride down Route 28, then a misty boat ride across a frosty lake.

The camp sits on land that’s part of the 50,000-acre Adirondack League Club – the largest privately held preserve in the ADKs. Such clubs were the rage back in the mid- to late-1800s, as families flush with cash from the Industrial Revolution bought up land so they could have a place in the country to recreate. There was also a conservation component; as the Adirondack region was being denuded by timber interests and market hunters, these private preserves served as incubators where progressive forestry and wildlife management techniques could be practiced.

The camp itself was a gorgeous homage to the past: a modest, simple structure on the edge of a lake with exposed 2x4 framing, chamfered clapboard siding, a big screen porch, stone fireplace, wood cookstove, blue milk paint on the kitchen walls, Adirondack guide boat in the boathouse/garage. It was the kind of 1920s-era charming that warrants glossy spreads in Cottage Living magazine, though with more firearms and wet boots and wool hunting clothing hanging over the stove.

The woods around camp featured a cherry, red maple, yellow birch overstory and a wicked beech understory. I’ve heard foresters talk about the beech brush problem in New York, and always thought yeah, yeah, we have that in Vermont, too. But now I see what they’re talking about. Some of the cherry trees out there were smoking beautiful – like Alleghany cherry. And in some places it grew in pure stands, which I’ve never seen before. There was some red spruce and balsam fir, too, especially at higher elevations and around wetlands.

The land itself was this wild testament to the Laurentide ice sheet. There were all these (I think they’re called) drumlins – from the Irish droimnín: “little ridge” – these small, sheer hills with flat tops that ran parallel with one another. The land was also marked by giant glacial erratics – much bigger, a lot of them, than what I see in Vermont. Here they’re usually car- or truck-sized. Quite a few of them I saw in the ADKs were small house-sized.  

The bird song was provided by the usual, mostly atonal, late fall suite of birds, but also by some loons who hadn’t left the lake yet, their cries a throwback to summer and odd to hear while walking through snow. I guess adult loons migrate earlier than juveniles, and with snow on the ground for much of my visit, I’m guessing these were procrastinating youngsters.

There were not a lot of deer per square mile in the area, as it’s in the lake effect snowband and the coldest region of the Adirondacks, but the ones I did see were impressive. In southern Vermont the deer are built like little race horses. Out there they’re built like percherons. Bill shot a fine buck with an obscenely swollen neck. When we gutted it there was a sheet of caul fat around the viscera and adipose deposits along the spine the likes of which I’ve never seen. There are no beech nuts out there this year, so I don’t know how he put on this weight. But all the deer seemed to be doing it. Even the does looked like round balls – like hogs on long legs.

When I was a kid I used to read Adirondack hunting stories, and they all seemed to end with a big rack buck being paddled across a lake in the dark. At 11 p.m. on Halloween evening we emerged from a spruce swamp and loaded one such buck into a boat, then shoved off beneath a star smeared sky. Life doesn’t often conform to what’s in the storybooks, so I made sure to appreciate every moment.

Discussion *

Dec 17, 2020

I enjoyed your post it brought back the simple things of nature, being a boy and growing up in the woods.

Scott
Jan 18, 2017

Great story Dave. Deer hunting in the Adirondacks is special.

Steve Sawn
Nov 21, 2016

Your post brought back nice memories, Charles. Unfortunately Ed passed on two winters back. I wrote this piece in Northern Woodlands as an homage to him—I miss him a lot, especially this time of year: http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/editors-note15

Dave
Nov 17, 2016

Almost as good as “Old Deercamps Never Die” years ago in Field and Stream…wish you would submit more to F&S !  Ed still around?

Charles Gresham
Nov 15, 2016

It’s a good question, Alane. And I don’t have a good answer. My guess is that because there’s so much land and a low enough human population density, hunters may play a smaller role in the overall deer population swings than they would in southern parts of NY and VT. If there’s less of an effect, the deer population can tolerate longer seasons. The real people to ask would be the NYDEC. As for feeling safe, I’d wear orange but otherwise go about my business without concern. There are about 4 “incidents” per 100,000 hunters in the U.S. each year, and almost always the accidents feature self-inflicted wounds or 2-party wounds (one hunter accidentally shoots his partner). Here’s the source of that info: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/nyhrsi2015.pdf. The bottom line is that you stand a much, much greater chance of being injured colliding with a deer in your car than you do getting shot by a hunter. There’s no reason not to enjoy the woods and feel safe.

Dave
Nov 15, 2016

Well done Mr Mance! I enjoy your always informed, often poetic articles but this one was beautiful, and a compliment to your art. The ADKs sound idyllic but my recent hunt on opening day in the Northeast Kingdom simply reminded me of how fortunate we all are to revisit old trails and stands ( like old friends ) here in most parts of the Northeast. Thank you !

Frank Mills
Nov 14, 2016

Could someone please explain to me why hunting season in the Adirondacks is so long? It begins around Columbus Day and ends after the first week in December, around the 8th. In Vermont the season is 16 days, if I understand correctly. I’m a hiker who would love to enjoy the fabulous fall weather and colors, but hesitate to do so. Why is the season so much longer than in Vermont? I do notice Vermonters hunting here, I guess since their season is shorter. A little equal access for other outdoor enthusiasts would be very nice.

Alane Vogel
Nov 12, 2016

Don’t let the cherry fool you. Although the trees can look impressive, Adirondack Cherry is at the bottom of the food chain as far as wood quality for some reason. And I think because of soil quality it red rots very easily. Yes you went to a beautiful place indeed.

Cliff
Nov 11, 2016

Sounds like a great place, similar to many of the thousand plus acre hunting clubs in this area. “... not a lot of deer per square mile” is almost a requirement if you want large bodied deer, especially in relatively poor habitat where the forest understory is dominated by beech. It would take some deer exclosures to really know, but it may well be that the deer are a large part of the reason that the understory is dominated by beech—the deer would have eaten almost everything else first.

Charlie Schwarz

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