ESCANABA — The clock keeps ticking and folks like me are chomping at the bit to head out to camp or our favorite woodland haunt as the opener of the 2009 firearm deer hunting season approaches. Trying to forecast the success potential for hunters in pursuit of the wily whitetail is an ongoing process that begins shortly after the close of each season and continues through summer until quotas and regulatory changes go into effect Aug. 1. That is when the new Michigan Hunting and Trapping Guidebook is published, by statutory requirement. Michigan continues to sit high in the list of states with good numbers of deer taken. In 2007, Michigan was second only to Wisconsin in total harvest and still has nine seasons that rank in the highest 32 nationally. 2008 saw a change in the UP statistics not only in deer harvested but in hunting pressure, both down for the season.