Sandy Caster

North Dakota

September 3rd, Marc and I anxiously head out to North Dakota to meet up with the guys at “Ultimate Outdoor Adventures” for opening day Whitetail hunting Nodak Style.  A slight four hour construction detour/delay through West Yellowstone proves to be exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time.  Anyone who hasn’t traveled over Bear Tooth Pass, you need to!  Twenty hours later, 10:00 pm we finally arrive in Bismark, weary and exhausted and let’s just say not at our best!  After a great night sleep we head out to John’s 2000 acre ranch where by evening we will have experienced our first ND hunting adventure.  Kurt, drew the short straw and got stuck with me.  Sorry Kurt!  Our blind proves to be fruitless that evening, while Marc scored big time thumping a nice 120 class buck!  OK, now the pressure was on.   Thanks Marc!  The next day we strategized, scrutinized, theorized, and all those other ized, and the verdict was unanimous that we would hunt the ever-cleaver designed “Black Blind”.  About 5:00 pm we headed out and waited for the elusive whitetail deer to appear.  About 7:30 we finally got a glimpse of a small buck, and within the next 30 minutes we had deer all around us, however none seemed to want to come close enough for me to get a shot.  After watching and waiting, something spooked the deer and they began filtering out of site.  Fortunately, two unsuspecting bucks starting heading our way.  I was trying to calm my nerves so that I wouldn’t have a problem pulling my bow, so I simply told myself that I was only shooting at a target, it just happened to be walking.  Well, it worked I was able to calm myself and once the deer were in sight, let my Easton arrow fly.  Whack!  Thank you Team UOA for an absolutely amazing time.  Your generous hospitality, genuine kindness and all around quirkiness was much appreciated.  You’re welcome in our camp anytime!