Outdoor odyssey day 4, taking advantage of opportunities

Posted on: October 8, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

An opportunity to hike can reveal lots of what's going on in the woods.

An impromptu hike, a matter of taking advantage of opportunities, revealed evidence of white-tailed deer, such as this buck rub.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures

If you’re going to get outside 260 of 365 days, you have to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

This was such a case.

My truck needed tires, so I went to the shop and made the arrangements. That done, I asked how long might it take for everything to be done.

“I’m going to say about an hour,” the man behind the counter said.

Translation: one hour and 52 minutes.

I suspected as much, so I said I’d check back in a while. In the meantime, a couple hundred yards up the road, was the back entrance to a local park. I’ll take a hike, I thought.

Man, the wild food that revealed.

Hickory and beech nuts and walnuts are plentiful in places.

Wild foods seem abundant in the woods this fall.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures

Hickory nuts and beechnuts and walnuts, for starters. They were everywhere in places.

I saw a couple of deer, a few squirrels and I can’t say how many chipmunks. They were all busy feasting on the bounty.

Some other places I’ve been exploring look good in that respect, too. The red oak acorn crop in a couple of spots in particular looks pretty good. Not record good, but good.

Folks in other states are reporting similar things.

The West Virginia Department of Natural Resources does a wild food survey each year. This fall, according to that report, mast production is above average, with hickory, walnut and chestnut oak in particular having done well.

That’s good news for wildlife. It may make things tough for hunters, though.

Lots of food spread across lots of places spreads wildlife out and makes species like deer harder to find.

Scouting, as always, will be key.

I’ll be out there looking. Hopefully my days if buying tires are over for a bit, but I’ve got four days on this adventure down, 261 to go.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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