Have you ever heard or seen something long before daylight on the way to your deer stand? I’m not talking about these sissy stands about 20 yards off the road with feeders, air conditioning and comfy chairs. I mean one of those stands so far off, about halfway in no matter your physical condition, you are wondering if you were ever sane or in your right mind to put a stand so far away? Yep. That stand.

Now my folks are from the mountains. We are solid Appalachian stock, and I grew up with stories of haints and boogers, panters (panthers or mountain lions), wild people and outlaws. I heard my great grandmother tell of hearing panthers scream at night and of her grandmother walking home late at night being stalked by them. I’ve heard great uncles and cousins tell of ghosts and spirits that were lurking in the deep hollers of the Fannin and Gilmer County regions of Georgia. I love those old stories and I’d give anything to hear them again around those same fireplaces, on those same porches, in those same old hills.

But right now, I want to know if on those long walks into a deep woods stand have you ever seen or heard something you can’t explain? Last year in Morgan County for instance there was a sighting of Big Foot. Now you may laugh, and you may scoff but I won’t. I’m a bit too afraid to offend whatever that might be. Is Big Foot real? I have no idea, but my people have been telling stories of him since before there was time.

On a walk at night following hounds through a middle Georgia swamp have you ever stopped walking and heard footsteps continue? Have you ever peered through the mist of an early morning to only see bodies walking and the figures of those long since gone? All these things are commonplace amongst the people of the Appalachians. We settled in an area never wanted by anyone for centuries with native peoples no one had seen when we arrived and histories no one knew.

To be honest, though, I’ve never seen a Big Foot. I did go to his museum last year with my wife and kids. Pretty cool place outside of Blue Ridge. We had been up at Lake Blue Ridge with my aunt, cousin and his family at their lake house. On the way home my wife and I thought it would be fun to stop and it was. It’s a fascinating history of the creature and its sightings and folk lore and in my family we are suckers for old homes, battlefields, and museums. We all enjoyed it and spent way more than an hour in there that afternoon.

I have, however, seen a ghost and while that’s a story for a different day I just thought that right before deer season opens, and everyone gets out in the woods amongst all those creatures and beings that you ignored the rest of the year. Remember a lot of them haven’t been ignoring you. … While you walk thru the woods early of a morning think of all those who walked the same land, the same river bottoms, the same ridges. Even though it was long ago, let’s just hope they are pleasant companions for the day.

In all seriousness though. Enjoy the coming season and tight lines and following seas y’all!