I will admit, I am beginning to see why so many gave me a strange look when I told them I was going to hunt snowshoe hares this year.  You would have thought I had said I was looking for the Sasquatch.  Most told me they had lived here their whole lives and NEVER seen a snowshoe hare.  BUT, most told me they had seen tracks, just not an abundance of them.  Me, being ever up for a challenge, figured that if they were here I would find them.  I am optimistic, if not sometimes simply stubborn.

Let me explain why I decided to hunt snowshoe hares in the first place.  What happened is that I went to buy a grouse license this past fall.  After so many years of seeing more grouse than deer or elk, like multiply by 20, I had decided to hunt grouse in addition to big game.  My goal is to slowly wean my family off all grocery store meats and yet we still buy our chicken in the plastic packaging at the store.

Grouse hunting it was to be.  The gal at the checkout counter was not too familiar with an upland bird tag and she seemed confused until a good Samaritan disguised as another shopper pointed out that I needed the “Small Game” license.  The girl was happy with a solution and I was happy with another license to hunt.  Done, I became the bearer of a small game license.  Later that night when I told my husband about my license and what I paid for it, he said, “You paid too much.  The upland bird tag is only $16.  Why did you pay $24 for small game when you are only hunting birds?”.

So, that’s the story.  I am hunting snowshoe hare because I paid $8 extra for a small game license instead of upland bird.  That makes total sense, of course it does.  I mean, $8 for days and days on snowshoes in the woods looking for the elusive wabbit and only finding tracks.  Totally worth it, priceless actually.