October 19th: I saw a deer!

Finally got a slight improvement in the weather and it paid off this afternoon, but not after a hot nerve wrenching.  It was a very warm morning, 63 degrees for the walk in and morning hunt, calm with a SSW that was supposed to switch to WNW by 9:00 am.  I couldn't avoid sweating slightly despite wearing light camo today, which added to my already diminished expectations for the morning, and then it got worse.  The first hiker of the day arrived at 7:45 am, walking his two dogs down the cart road I come in on, only 70 yards from my stand.  I know the road gets used a little by horse back riders, but I'm hoping this guy isn't a frequent flyer as his dogs were running freely through the woods, luckily they were down wind and weren't too loud.  I bailed early because I couldn't keep my eyes open this morning, the weakness of a daily hunter, something I'm sure you've all experienced before if you've woke up at 3:30 am for multiple days in a row.  I parked my jeep on the shady side of the powerlines I drive into and embarked on a mid day recharge nap in the drivers seat.  In my 3 and half hour slumber (and trust me it was worth it!) I heard a woman and her dog walk by, roughly an hour in between her passing both ways by my jeep, the nerve she had to wake me up, "another yuppy?" I thought.  When I woke up around 2:00 pm I decided it was time to shake off the cobwebs and get going, the wind was supposed to die down and the low for tonight is freakin 45, deer might actually move!  I got settled into my stand by 3:00 pm with the WNW wind blowing steady in my face, the perfect set up today.  At 3:15 pm I heard something walking right behind my stand that made me turn slowly to look, I'd be astonished if a deer was on its feet now, its still above 70 degrees, and then... The 3rd yuppy of the day.  This guy walking by himself down the cart road I enter on, which its important to note my camera has been watching for over a month with zero human activity, walks right by me.  I yelled to him to stop him from going into the bedding area I'm waiting for my buck to walk out of, and he waves and keeps walking.  Then I asked him "where you headed?" so he points forward and keeps walking.  I actually got lucky that he was down wind of the bedding area and did in fact turn down wind of me instead of walking up into the bedding area.  I was so close to getting down, but I figured with the sound being covered by the wind and his scent staying down wind of everything, I may be ok.  The wind died by 5:30 pm, but was softly and quietly blowing out of the WNW still, then I heard something making noise on the slope out in front of me above the cut clearing I'm over looking.  As I starred in that direction, my heart jumped as I watch a branch start flying around, BUCK.  I raised my binoculars and could see the body and legs standing behind the flailing branch, he took a few steps forward and I could see a nice rack as wide as his ears.  Likely not my buck I thought, but with the fading light my heart was pounding because I didn't know for sure.  When he stepped out into the clear cut, I could finally recognize the familiar buck, I named 6 Pack.  He slowly worked down into the open cut, staging there and feeding on acorns until it got dark when I packed up and slipped out, likely within 50 yards of him, but I stayed down wind and he didn't take off.  He must have thought he won, fortunately for him I'm after something bigger because I let 6 Pack walk at 35 yards broadside while he was eating. Everything worked out in my favor to end the day, and to end the warm front as tomorrow brings a 45 degree morning, finally some weather that will bring more deer movement and higher hopes, on to tomorrow.