10/26/2026
Always love the sights and sounds at Camp Aquapaug. Every photo is like a postcard... the colors of the sky following the sunsets reflecting off Worden's Pond. Also the moon reflecting off the pond throughout the night, and the early morning patches of fog all around the pond.
I woke up around 5 to an owl screeching in a tree above me, probably hunting rodents attracted to food debris that the boys no doubt dropped around the place. Then I heard a couple snorts and a loud stomp maybe 30 feet behind my tent. I actually felt the stomp through the ground where I was laying. I assume it was a really big deer. I googled to see when they're in the rut, and it looks like they start around this time. Probably not the greatest time to encounter them. Figured I better make some noise to scare it off before one of the boys gets up to p*e. I didn't hear it leave, but I'm sure it left the moment I unzipped my sleeping bag. I cleared my throat a couple times before I opened my tent to go use the bathroom. I looked around, but didn't see anything. Later, after the sun came up, I saw the leaves on the ground disturbed right where the sound came from. Probably did an "about face" and bolted from that spot when I started making noise.
Around 7 AM, I heard some shots to the north of us, probably a couple miles away, but a few moments after each shot, I could hear it echo off land on the west and south side of the pond. It was a neat effect. My brain was geeking out, thinking about the information that would likely be needed for math equations to try to triangulate where the sound originated based on the timing and locations of the echoes. Useless information, but my gears are always turning.
