It doesn’t matter what season you’re hunting in, there’s different brands of camo that allow you to hide yourself from the sharp eyes of wildlife. In this column, I used snow-camo and snowshoes, which should have worked well. (Photo courtesy of Real Tree c Camo

   As a kid, I loved the snow, the winter, not so much anymore, especially this year where in N.E Nebraska we’ve had two storms that dumped at least ten inches a couple of times.

  I remember one bad winter where the snow was so deep, that I couldn’t walk along the creek where I was hunting deer.

  The first time I went out, it was almost impossible to get through the snow and on my last deer hunt, the woods were full of pheasant’s, there weren’t any deer there, with the creek full of pheasants.

  The next time I went out, thinking I figured it out, I wore my snowshoes, actually it was the first time I’d used them, donned my snow camo and carried my shotgun, was pretty sure I’d have a good opportunity bringing some pheasants home for supper. 

   When the landowner saw me making my way down to the creek, he later told me I looked like one of the German WW2 snipers.

  One side of the creek had so much brush, even with snowshoes, I wouldn’t be able to get through it, so I crossed the frozen creek, thinking I could make good time there.

  The first few steps, with the snowshoes really worked well, until I placed my right shoe onto a tall mound of snow.

  That was when I realized it wasn’t a mound of snow, it was a snow-covered plum thicket, and as I put pressure on my right show-shoe, down I went, with one shoe on top of the ground with the other about three feet below in a thicket.

  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get out of the thicket, I tried rolling over, having both shoes in the thicket, I was tangled up, putting my shot gun off to the side so I could grab the snowshoe hoping to pull myself back on ground.

   What next, not only was I stuck in a plumb thicket, when I was hunting deer, all I saw were pheasants, and when hunting pheasants, I saw deer.

 All of my attempts to get free, I created quite a ruckus, and after several attempts, a nice buck with two does erupted from the cover, heading east, sliding across the ice-covered creek.

   It looked like I’d have to somehow get my right snowshoe unbuckled, which meant, I’d have to reach down to the plum thicket to attempt to get unbuckled.

When I was younger that wouldn’t be a problem, now, I wasn’t so sure I could bend over that far to get out of the snowshoe.

  It must have been quite a sight, my left snowshoe setting up on top with my butt up in the air as I attempted to free myself.

     It took almost a half hour, to get my boot off of the snowshoe and once that was done, used it to dig my way out of the thicket.

    I’ve had individuals ask me how I get into these predicaments, I told them, no I’m not an accident ready to happen, since I’m in the outdoors a lot, throughout the year they just happen.

   Wait till you read anotherwinter of my upcoming columns where I was thrown out of my deer stand by a couple of beaver?

   Gary Howey is an award-winning writer, producer, broadcaster, former tournament angler, fishing and hunting guide and in 2017 inducted into the “National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame”.

  He developed and was the Producer-Host for 23 years of his award winning gary Howey’s Outdoorsmen Adventures television series, the host of the award-winning Outdoor Adventures radio show. If you’re looking for more outdoor on the outdoors, check out www.garyHowey’soutdoors.com, with more information on these Facebook pages, Gary Howey, Gary E Howey, and Outdoor Adventures radio.