Alan Liere: A Simple Request
It’s raining, and in the distance black clouds scud low and ominous over the top of Mt. Spokane. My mood is as dark as the sky. I should be wandering the hills north of Spokane with a shotgun looking for a lovesick turkey, but even with my “space age” rain gear, I am not particularly motivated to slosh about in the woods chasing a bird I sometimes think is smarter than I am.
In ugly weather, turkey hunting makes no sense, because bagging a turkey is not the primary consideration. Even the adrenaline rush of fooling an early spring gobbler is not nearly as appealing as being in the forest as it comes to life in April on a glorious spring morning – or to nap in the sun while leaning against a bull pine in the afternoon. Those are the reasons I chase turkeys.
Usually, February and March have a lock on the spring blahs, but April this year has seen more than its share of rain. Oh, I know – we need the moisture. And yes, I know that ugly weather is in the eyes of the beholder. I didn’t, for example, care much for the two feet of snow in my yard a few months back, but that snow caused the skiers to rejoice.
As a waterfowl hunter, I love to see rain and wind in late fall because inclement weather pushes ducks and geese from big water, causes them to feed more frequently and just generally makes them more accessible. Others would rather watch Cougar football in a light jacket.
In a perfect world, the weather would cooperate with me. If I wanted to go swimming, it would be hot; if I wanted to ice fish, it would be cold. If I desired rain for my garden, that’s what I would get, and if I wanted a good tracking snow for deer hunting, I would be accommodated with a couple of inches the night before. Nevertheless, perfection in my eyes would probably be less than satisfactory for others.
Right now, I am willing to compromise. All I really want are four warm, typically spring days between now and May 15. That should be long enough for me to find a turkey.
I would then like a long, moderately warm summer and a dry September followed by a frost on Oct. 1 so I could quit worrying about picking all the tomatoes. It would be nice then if October could produce a hard rain at about mid-month to quiet the woods for my deer hunting and keep the dogs from getting a nose full of dust when we chase pheasants.
I dearly love to ice fish. One prolonged freeze during late November or December would put a cap on Eloika Lake, and that would be divine; so much the better if the ice held through February and perhaps into March. After that, I’m back to April and turkey season. And I’m only asking for four good days.