MIDDLEVILLE, Mich. – The Hudson family has picked their perfect time for a week-long family vacation.
One week, in the woods, at the end of deer bow hunting season and the beginning of the deer firearm season.
It’s a tradition Leonard Hudson II said he started 11 years ago, “It was important for me to do this with my dad and I want my son to feel the same thing and when he gets older and has kids, I hope he continues the same thing.”
The main goal during their week of ‘roughing it’ is to find a deer or two.
A task Hudson’s son, Leonard Hudson III, said is not easy to come by, “We actually have a chalkboard in the trailer where we chalk up who has missed and who has hit. And last year I think we were running out of room for my misses.”
For the Hudsons, it is what happens in between the time out hunting that makes a lasting impression.
“People start to grow on you after a week without a shower,” the oldest Hudson said. “But it’s all fun and everyone has a good time. A lot of years we don’t get anything, some years we get a few, so it’s just coming down and being out here.”
The family remembers the time they found new tradition just laying in the woods.
“We started carving it the year that we come down,” said Hudson III as he holds a large stick with descending years carved into the bark. “It was actually our fire poking stick and it became our tradition that every year we pull it out of the woods. We actually hide it.”
For this family, this traditionally solitary sport is one they plan on always sharing with each other.
