At the same bike shop I also found a cargo rack that mounted over the rear tire. Next came a homemade bow rack consisting of a piece of aluminum tubing, purchased at a hardware store and a set of bow/gun holders designed to mount on an ATV rack or handlebars. To make the bow rack I attached the piece of aluminum tubing crossways at the farthest rearward portion of the cargo rack, using nuts and bolts, and then mounted the ATV bow/gun holder to that. It worked like a charm, and I was soon making it silently to my stand in a third of the time that it’d have taken me to walk.

It wasn’t long before I was using my bike for other hunting chores, like hanging tree stands. Of course, you’re not going to carry a ladder stand through the woods on a bike, but lock-on type stands and even some climbers are easy to strap to the rack. By using the front basket to carry a bag of screw-in tree steps, a safety harness and a haul line, and tasking the rear rack to carry the stand, hauling my entire set-up to even remote parts of my hunting property was a simple affair.

But it didn’t happen without some trial and error. My first design flaw became apparent when I tried to carry a lock-on tree stand and a bow on the rear rack at the same time: not enough room. Raising the height of the bow holder with longer bolts and metal spacers solved that problem. By getting the bow above the cargo, I was able to make use of the entire length of the rack.

PACKING IT OUT
Admittedly, ATVs outperform bikes when it comes to one critical task: getting a deer out of the woods. Sorry, folks, but I’ve tried it all -- plastic sleds, bike trailers, you name it -- and there’s just no good way to lug dead weight with a bike.

Every stick, vine, rock, branch and felled log finds a way to impede your progress -- and that’s just going downhill. Skinned ankles, banged-up shins and the never-pleasant lunging off the seat and onto the bar of the bike are good-enough reasons not even to try it.

When it comes to dragging that trophy buck back to the truck, you’re far better off either using a motorized vehicle or doing it the old-fashioned way with muscle power; go back for the bike later. If that’s discouraging, take heart in the fact that you might not have even seen that deer were it not for the bike.

* * *

If you’re looking for a low-impact way to hunt, using a mountain bike will serve that purpose very well. It’s quiet, quick, versatile and just plain fun. If you’ve never tried it before, you owe it to yourself to pull that bike off those hooks in the garage, trick it out and hit the woods with it.