Thumbing my nose at wind and rain

I’ve stayed dry, but felt cold in packable raingear. Rivers West raingear changed that.

On a South Dakota bowhunt for deer, my Rivers West Lynx jacket and pants kept me warm and dry for hours in a driving rainstorm. I ALMOST didn’t mind the weather, a remarkable feeling for someone who fled Oregon, a state famous for its “liquid sunshine.”

We endured the weather so we’d be prepared to hunt the next day when the skies cleared. I didn’t ditch the raingear, though. Weather forecasters failed to warn us before we left home that the temperatures and wind chill would be more reminiscent of December than early October. We wore everything we owned to stay warm. For me, that included my Rivers West raingear.

With five pockets in the pants and three in the jacket, I had plenty of places to stow tree stand steps, bow hangers, car keys and other gadgets. The extra warmth costs you nothing in weight—the Lynx vest and jacket weighs the same as my Pella and Cabela’s packable rain suits.

Rivers West offers a women’s Lynx vest as well.

Hiding in plain sight

Yukon Tracks Elite Enforcer ground blind concealed me from two whitetail deer only 10 yards away. How is that different than any other blind? It’s tall enough to accommodate shots while seated with a recurve bow. Actually, I can shoot from it standing up, but I’m only 5 feet tall—probably a few inches shy of the average hunter. My 6-feet-tall husband, Mike, who shoots a 66-inch-long recurve, can shoot out of the blind, also.

We hunted from the blind during a north-central South Dakota whitetail hunt. This area, well east of the Black Hills, is known for pheasants, not its woodlots. Trees can be a mile or more apart, with those suitable for tree stands even more rare. The blind got us close to the deer near the brushy areas where the deer hide.

The Enforcer Elite folds up into a package not much bigger than a cloth folding chair you might take to a concert in the park, weighing about 14 pounds. One person can set it up.

Unseasonably cold weather hit South Dakota during our early October hunt, with high temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below normal. Add chilling winds often reaching 20 to 25 miles per hour with gusts up to 30 miles per hour and you have times of too-cold-to-hunt conditions. We didn’t miss much, though. The deer hunkered down during the worst of the weather.

The blind withstood the wind and protected me from wind chill, while Mike shivered in a tree stand. Due to the weather, I only got one shot, but we’ll be buying another Yukon Tracks Enforcer Elite blind. Mike has had enough of turning into an icicle.

Use the store locator on the website or order directly from the company.

1-800-345-6007

Yukon Tracks Elite Enforcer blind: $219