Days Five and Six

Day Five
Unbelievable. So the wind switches completely opposite so Tuesday morning it's out of the northwest, which means I'm not going back the blind that gave me the encounter the night before with the big 8. I'm pretty bummed. Shaun wants me to sit in a stand that he's "... hardly seen anything in." Great. I reluctantly agree and sit find my way through the dark, only guided by oral directions from the truck a half mile back. "I'll find it.", I figured. Eventually I did. I slipped into the blind and noisily started my sit. It was going to be another all day hunt. At about 8:30 I saw two yearling does and then about ten minutes later they went back where they came from (I didn't put this together in my head until later that night). After that, I did not see one deer until four o'clock. A doe and a fawn came from my left and walked across in front of me at about 110 yards (again not piecing this together). A short while later a lone doe came from my right and walked up against the face of the hill across from me and stood there for what seemed like forever. She was staring to my left (the west) behind the brush. Then she stared into the brush, then back, then back, and again. All of a sudden I heard a loud grunt come from the brush so I reached for my rifle. With my rifle out the window, I see a doe come out of the woods going left to right on the same trail as the previous doe and fawn (110 yards). I'm watching her watching her expecting to see the buck come behind her. I raise my binoculars to look closely at the doe's tarsal glands, and when I lowered them, I saw the buck tearing up the hill towards the first doe. By the time I got him in the scope, my crosshairs couldn't catch up to him and they were gone. Dang. He was really wide, really heavy, and a definate shooter. I stayed quiet and saw a spike come out that had broken one antler off, and a button buck that was grunting, it was pretty funny. Lots of action, just within the last 40 minutes of light. I leave the blind and pack up my stuff and I get back to the road and after I cross the fence, I feel my chest and realize I dropped Shaun's cell phone. Well I figured I'd go tell the guys in the truck first before we go backtracking. As I get to the truck, still frustrated with my missed opportunity, I peek into the bed of the truck and sure enough, there's a buck... wait, two bucks in the back! I couldn't believe it. Just then Joe goes, "Check out the drops!". Double droptine 10 point (12 total). Seriously unreal. Shaun's buck was a very respectable 125-130" 8 point. So Joe's on cloud 9, as he should be, and then I tell them we nearly had a triple. My heart still drops when I picture that buck running up the hill away from me with his nose in the air. Dang, Bill. Well, the wind stayed the same, so I am determined to sit there again. We got Joe's prize all caped out, gutted, skun, and Shaun's too. To listen to Joe retell the story is priceless and so I won't cheapen it by blogging about it.
Day Six
So I wake Shaun up. Joe, of course, is sleeping in this morning. Well-deserved, I might say. I get dropped off and I hike my way to the same blind in hopes of getting another crack at this wide heavy buck. By the way, the night before we had Richard (Shaun's neighbor) cape Joe's buck. I was telling him the story of the buck I got a glimpse of and he said, "I know that deer. That's a book deer." And to hear Richard say that means that he's had several good looks at that buck. Our descriptions lined up and so my adrenaline is off the charts as I sneak into the blind. 7:08am I'm hunkered down and quiet. I saw deer every hour, making 12 before noon, including one little fork. It got slow after 1:20pm until about 3:10ish. This yound doe was walking around trying to get a drink from the frozen slough. She walked behind some trees and rubbed her hocks together and peed. She started getting figitty and she bounced down the hill towards me a bit. Sure enough, here comes a buck. My rifle is already out the window at this point (I told myself no more binoculars). Through the scope it was obvious this was not the buck from the night before, but he was nice. A big 8 point. 10-11" G2s, 9" G3s, narrow, but pretty heavy. Probably gross high 140s. I decide that there's only one day after this, so I'm gonna shoot. I bring my crosshairs to his chest and baaa so he'll stop. On a dime, he yanked his head up. Bang! He ran up the hill like he was late for a meeting. I did not feel good about that. At this point it's about 3:40pm. I've gotta go check to see if there's blood. I'm skeptical. I hike over there and sure enough I find hair. lots of short white hair. Briskut. I shot low. No blood. So I head back to the blind because I've still got an hour before dark, but I didn't see any deer. Tonight the wind has changed again, which puts me in a predicament. Back to the Dead End Blind? We'll see in the morning. Canadian weather forcasts have been worse than the U.S.'s so far, if you can believe that. I'm ticked, but at least it was a pretty clean miss. He might feel a draft.

Alberta - Day Four

Well, Shaun wanted to put me in what he calls the "Dead End Blind". So that is where I sat. All day. From dark to dark. Sun-up to sundown. I saw lots of deer (probably 15ish). The very first thing I see was a coyote. I should've shot him, but again, Shaun's pretty adiment about not shooting in areas that you're trying to hunt deer. Anyway, about a half hour later I saw a doe and two fawns, but they shortly disappeared. I saw a bunch of muley does followed by a fork. Then I saw a little 8 point whitetail working his way down the ridge across from me. To set the scene, I was on one side of this very large pond and there were hills on all sides, mostly covered with popples and willows. The pond was freshly frozen over and had a minimum of 6 muskrats milling about. Joe would've been out of ammo had he been sitting there. I had to step out of the blind to stretch and pee so I crept down behind the ridge I was sitting on and peed in a cows hoof print. The wind was strong and in my favor, so I wasnt too concerned about stinking up the place, even though Shaun insisted I bring a pee bottle. So back into the blind at about 11am. I am determined to stay vigilant. Not too long after getting settled again, I picked out the two fawns from before chewing on some saplings without their mother. After watching them for about 15 minutes, they moved behind a small hill and out of sight. about 12:10pm I saw two tails running away from me up the big hill in the woods. I quickly raised my binoculars and in runs two more deer. It's a buck and a doe. It takes a few seconds to get a good look at the buck and I realized I wanted to shoot. He was about 230 yards and in some brush. I reach to bring up my gun and as I glanced back at the deer, I saw him chase the doe up the ridge and out of sight. I didn't even get to put him in the scope. Aarrrgggh. In my binoculars I could see long G2s, really good mass, and he was chocolate. mmmm. I never saw him again for the rest of the day even though my contacts just about peeled off my eyes I was watching so intently. I saw a few other and a few of the same deer second and third times, but no new bucks. I'm going to sit there again all day in hopes of a decent shot. I know he's there. So I'll be ready. I'm rough guessing him at 145 as an 8 point, but he could have more points, I couldn't really tell. We'll find out when I blister him.

Alberta - Days Two and Three

Day Two

We woke up about 5:30 and decided to act on some advice from wise neighbor. A couple people had been seeing a 13 point in the same spot right at daybreak for a couple of days. We figured we see if he was worth shooting. So we sort of sacrificed a morning of sitting to see if Joe could get a crack at this buck. Well as luck would have it, we saw him, but at about 730 yards. A bit too far to take a shot, even for Joe. We drove off hoping that he'd continue crossing the field, maybe offering us a better shot. He didn't. Otherwise, we didn't see too much movement that morning. So we went back to the neighbors and discussed it all. That evening Shawn and Joe dropped me off where a few 'frenchmen' had seen a really big buck, but they couldn't tell if it was a muley or whitetail because they can only tell by its butt. Anyway, I sat for an hour or more before the first deer poked out. It was a young 4x5 muley. He walked down the fenceline, looking for a good place to cross. He crossed at about 175 yards. After another hour, a muley doe and fawn came out of the same side crossed the fence into stubble wheat field. Finally as light was starting to fade I caught some movement in the same area. Another muley doe squirted out of the woods with her ears back. She didn't even slow down until she was out of my sight behind the next hill. Sure enough, right behind her was a nice 5x5 buck. He was following her pretty close. He had pretty average character, with all slightly above average measurements. He would probably gross in the 170s-180"s. To end my evening, a little whitetail buck came beneath me by the fenceline, but never crossed into the field. He just sort of watched the muleys (which I couldn't see from that angle) and waited - probably until there were a few more whitetails in the field. I snuck out of there in case there were more deer I needed to get a look at that came out without me knowing. There wasn't.

Day Three

This morning we overslept a little bit. I threw together some bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches and we high-tailed it out of the house. Shaun and Joe dropped me off on this canola field that over looks a big slough. I saw lots of deer movement, but only two little yearling bucks were in range. I bet I saw over 25 deer, but most were at 1,200 yards or more. Still, it was good to see that the deer are starting to move or are moving into the morning hours a bit. The land where all these deer were meandering was private and well-known for 'no hunting'. Oh well. It looked like the deer knew that too. While I was sitting, some dohon drove his truck right through the field, parallel to where I was facing. He stopped to look over this hill and when he turned his truck off, I whistled at him. He cussed and drove over to me and apologized. I told him not to worry and off he went. As I thought Shaun and Joe were probably on their way back, I got up to leave. Here the guy came again to look for deer! What an idiot! It's not that often that I get worked up, but I was getting frustrated with this snaggle-toothed intruder. Anyway, got back to Shaun's, had some juice and a good little nap.

This evening Tyson (Shaun's friend) and I went to the other side of this monster slough in hopes of catching some of the same deer coming back up. We watched 30+ deer way across the slough and a quarter over from where I was in the morning. Unbelievable. I bet I watched four buck chasing does that were 2.5 or older. One was for sure a shooter, but again, only 1200 yards away. At dusk we saw two coyotes at 200 yards. I wanted to shoot, but I refrained. They want to do as little shooting as possible over there. Whatever. Shaun and Joe finally saw some deer tonight and got a glimpse of a borderline shooter, but he didn't present a shot for Joe. Hopefully tomorrow there will be some powder burnt.

Alberta - Day One

After all sorts of chaos early thursday morning, we finally touched down in Edmonton in anticipation of seeing and hoping to get a crack at some of the biggest whitetails Joe and I had even laid eyes on. Mrs. Blackwood picked us up and off we went, stopping at Walmart to pick up my tag. Joe needed my friend Shaun (Joe's hunter host) to be present in order to get his tag. We arrived at the farm and the wind was absolutely howling. We hopped in the farm truck and took a quick loop around the section and still managed to see a couple bucks with their noses to the ground. Oh the excitement of estrous. We laid out our stuff and set my alarm for 4:55am. Morning came fast and I woke up Shaun way too early (not wanting to be late again). We scarfed some eggs and bread and hiked into a place Shaun had been scoping out for a few days. Well, with three grown men, two of which were wearing Carhartt bibs, it was simply too much noise to sneak in. We spooked one doe and that was it. We tried rattling a bit, but to no avail. We headed into town and picked up Joe's tag and got some Subway and eventually took a few minutes to make sure the guns were on. Then we split up - Joe and Shaun and me by myself. Joe and Shaun didn't see much for deer: one little 6 point and a few does. I saw a bunch of deer: 4 or 5 different bucks (the biggest being around P&Y) and a bunch of does still with their fawns. The bucks didn't seem all that interested in the does yet. They nudged them around a bit, but it looks like we're still a good week away from the rut. But, we'll keep at it. All in all, day one was good. There are lots of bucks around and Shaun's got permission on some choice places. I can't wait to see what Joe's gonna pull the trigger on. Stay tuned for day two.

Minnesota Rifle Season

My season is cut severly short by me taking a trip to Wetaskiwin, Alberta in pursuit of a "real" buck. Never-the-less, I thought it would be beneficial to log my hours in the field for 2008.

Opening Day: Steph and I sat on top of the hill in the groundblind in hopes of seeing a doe in heat or one of the bucks for her to shoot. We sat uncomfortably until about 9:30 and headed back to the cabin. Steph sat tight and warmed up and I ventured out to my ladder stand from about 10:30 to 12:30 without seeing a deer. There was a few fresh rubs, a wolf-kill, and a couple of fresh tracks. It snowed friday. I made a loop around the strips, brought steve out to my stand, put out some molassess, moved the trail camera, put out some buck jam in the shack field, and switched the memory card in mom and dad's Cuddeback. Steph and I went back to the groundblind and sat until dark. Zero deer for opening day. Mom saw a few does and fawns and a spike, dad saw a few deer too. Steve saw nothing during his one day season.

Sunday, Nov 9: Church in the morning and then rehearsal with Bob and it was back out to the woods. We sat at the 90 back in the cedars northwest of the landing. There was a few scrapes made the week before on the south trail, but not a peep. Zero deer for day two.

Monday, Nov 10: I grabbed my groundblind and headed to the refuge. Steph walked down to the shack with dad going to his stand. After getting set up in a completely unscouted place, I rattled and grunted once at about five minutes to seven, I saw a deer crossing the canada pasture from east to west. Looked to be a doe. After her I saw a second deer that was obviously a buck. He looked pretty good. 120s-130s? He was pretty heavy and narrow. I didn't want to shoot him in Canada, so I waited to see if he'd cross the border strip. I held my scope on the strip waiting and he didn't cross when I expected him to so I looked out of my scope. I heard a loud skid and crash through the ice. Then he started blowing. I don't know if it was another deer that was blowing or if it was him. Regardless, I should've stepped out of the ground blind for the shot. I was sitting too low. The cattails were too tall and I missed my chance. Crap. I saw one doe behind me before this and then I eventually saw another doe by itself go from south to north. Then I went back to the hill and went down to get Steph out of the shack. We both went back and sat on the border in the refuge in hopes to see another buck. We did see one deer (doe) cross really quickly. We could barely see it the grass was so high.

Tuesday, Nov 11: I don't know why I had my mind so fixated on hunting that same border spot. I guess nobody was seeing many deer at all at the hill, so I wanted to find a spot that I didn't think other people would be hunting at the refuge. Anyway, I sat and saw one little buck and again, he crossed so fast, I don't think I would've been able to take a shot if I wanted to. I packed it all up and came back to the hill for a bite to eat and then I went out to my ladder. I sat from 12:30pm until dark. It was about 4 and half hours of nothing and then finally I heard a crunch over my left shoulder. I knew that I would need to stand up in order to take a shot. As I stood up I thought I spooked her cause she took off running a few more steps. I thought I blew it. Then she stopped and I heard more footsteps from the same direction and then a loud grunt. This quickly painted the picture of what was going on. Buck chasing doe. Perfect. I got my gun up immediately. I saw the doe jump through the tiniest opening, so I put my gun on the branch and tried to get the opening in my scope. I waited patiently, safety off and finger on the trigger. I wasn't going to mess this up again. The buck took a couple steps and stopped what must have been just shy of the opening. I took my eye out of the scope to look what was going on, and I saw the dirty bugger scurry across the opening. I missed my shot so I grabbed my grunt call and let 'em have it. Nothing. I was so ready for the steps to turn and come in my direction. Instead there was a sound coming from the place I first heard the deer. Coming around some brush and skirting me, I lost him. Finally, I hear a twig snap right in front of me coming close. Stopped behind a tree, I thought to myself that this was it, this was the same big buck. Nope. He moved and revealed his two year old head. 7, 8, 9, I dont know how many points he had, but he was not the buck I hoped for. So I tried to relax and take in the show. The hot doe was long gone, but this buck didn't care. He was stupid. I grunted as loud as I could at him at 15 yards, he froze and didn't move until I snort-wheezed at him. Entertaining at least.

Now, it's off to Albert - the land of giants. My hopes are through the roof. Stay tuned, I'll write in a week or less.

The Pre-Rifle Season

Well, Steph and I sat last night in the same tree I killed my buck last year. With hardly any light left we heard grunting and a few deer milling around. I grunted back at him and eventually he turned and came towards us. I could only see a silhouette it was so dark. He stopped at about 40 yards and would not come any closer. He started making a scrape and raking a branch overhead. It was pretty frustrating to be able to hear that and not even see the buck. The real bummer is that Rifle Season opens in four days and there's no chance to get back in there and hunt before the chaos unfolds. Oh well. I guess we'll have to wait.

As far as patterning deer, the day after my last post, I checked my one trail camera I put over a scrape and got some immediate results. Seven different bucks were using it. We found the scrape on the 4th of October (six days after the new moon) and at that point, it was already fairly well used. The majority of the pictures went until the 10th or so (almost two weeks after the new moon). Then there was a big lull in getting photos. The nights of the 27th, 28th, and 29th brought two of the three bigger bucks around again. The October new moon was also the 28th, so that could have something to do with it, but the other bucks did not come back through the 3rd of November when I took the camera down. I need to spend Monday over there walking and scouting for the newest sign.

Bucks were out last night nudging the does around in the fields, which means there are a few about to come into heat. The first bucks I saw nudging does was on the night of the 27th and the morning of the 28th. Both were young bucks, but it was promising that we were about two weeks away. Now, one week away in most places. November 11th is usually the peak by our hunting land, but more like the 13-16 at the refuge.

I've only seen a couple new rubs as most are made in pursuit of does not ready to be bred yet. So Im guessing they're making some right now, but this next week will be the beginning of a lot.

I need to piece together some the bucks at the hill. their range seems so irratic.

Rifle Season is at our doorstep. I'm anticpating a lot of young buck activity, but I think I can change that.

October's Palette

I've been out a few times in the last four weeks. For the life of me, I have not been able to pattern these deer when compared to last year. The only real differences between this year and last are an abundant soybean crop nearby and no frost in September. As far as dates line up, the moon phases from last year to this year are all backwards. So I have to figure if things are two weeks ahead of schedule or two weeks late. I'm leaning towards late.

I've tried moving a few cameras around but still haven't had that much luck. I brought my Wildview up to the hill to check on a buck I had seen from the road. So I've really only got two cameras functioning in the search. I think the strategy for the time being is to locate rubs and scrapes and try and monitor them. I've neglected parts of the refuge that make me really curious now because its likely that the bucks have picked up on the fact that they remain undisturbed areas.

I've got a few hunches to the west, a few to the north, and still a few more to the far northeast. The bucks have started making scrapes, but I'm doubtful that they are anything more than territorial. Unless, of course, I believe that the 'October Rut' holds any validity. If I buy into this, it would suggest that only the best of the best of the most healthy does are able to be bred in October (or that they enter their estrous a month early). If I believe this to be true, then that would mean a few things: there would be fierce competition for mating rights for these few does (or none at all - depending on how you look at it). The bucks should still be in bachelor groups, unless the best of the best of the dominant bucks split off from the group because they know there'll be no competition for those few does. Bottom line is I need to find the bachelor groups.

Go west young man.

Opening Weekend

Well, saturday morning came faster than I could expect. Stephanie got first dibs to hunt a spot I had a really good feeling about. I was with to film and for some light encouragement. We got settled in just before light and at about 15 minutes to 8, we had a doe and two fawns come right beneath us. While I was filming them, Steph was trying to get my attention. Finally, I looked down, mostly wondering why she was moving around so much, and she looked at me and said, "Buck!" So I turned around and could see a deer's body. His coat was fully gray, but I couldn't see his head yet. I was hoping for something huge, but nope. It was a young little 8 point. Steph said that there was a second buck with it, but I never did get a chance to see it. I only got a bit of footage of the buck, because I was trying to lean over to talk to her. She's right, our stands should be closer together. I adjusted them later. But overall, it was a great opening morning and Steph's first bowhunt was a success, without even shooting.

That evening we sat in the rain in my groundblind hoping to get a crack at a buck making his way down to the bean field to the southeast. Didn't see a thing.

Monday morning was my birthday and so I wanted to hunt, obviously. We went back to the same spot that we sat opening morning and didn't see a deer. Maybe Steph needs to be hunting in order to see something. Well, maybe we'll shoot one Thursday morning. We've got plenty of decent bucks to hunt, it's just a matter of getting in the right spot at the right time.

My First Bear

A week ago today, I shot my first bear. Well, actually, my second bear, but the first that I found. The friday before (September 5th) I shot at a small chocolate bear and we tracked him for over 1000 yards before he bedded up and quit bleeding. We filmed both hunts and were able to watch the shot placement over and over. I think I only got one lung on the first bear. So, although I was dissapointed, I got back out in the woods and we had another decent bear come into the bait station. this one we guessed at 250, but he had a nice white V on his chest, so I elected to take a shot. A little further back and a few inches higher was my shot this time. He only ran about 50-60 yards and started his death cry. I was thinking, maybe he's growling cause he's ticked and he's gonna come out of the brush and head right for us. But that was it for Mr. Bear. Over all, it was a really exciting hunt. We're going to head out there today and try to get my friend Benji a big bear. So maybe I'll be writing again.

18 Days

I have been busy this summer. Sadly, I've become completely neglegent of this blog thing. But, since bow season opens very soon, I imagine I will have more significant things to write. Steph and I have been out a few times throughout the summer, checking trail cameras and just going for drives some evenings. We've laid eyes on a few good bucks..."Perfect 10", "Crabs", and "Hanger" just to name a few. It's so funny to name deer. It seems cheesey and I'm still not all too comfortable with the idea, but it does make for easier communication. Anyway, I've picked up two Cuddeback Captures this summer and for a few days now, have had three cameras of my own and one other of my parents' getting pictures. About a week ago, a bear put his paw on my Wildview camera and dented the clear plastic lens cover. So that camera's on its last leg. I've gotten two bucks on camera that will be over Pope & Young, but otherwise, not much yet. Hopefully as the cooler weather continues in the night time, more bucks will be up on their feet.

Last year on the 28th of August, I saw a bachelor group that had two bucks completely out of velvet and had their grey coats, while the other three (including the biggest one) still were in full velvet, with their red summer coats. It was odd to say the least. So that's just around the corner.

I got a call today from the DNR asking if I wanted to be put on a short list of hunters to hunt a 'nuisance bear'. I said yes, and so if the landowner calls me, I have a chance to take a bear the easy way. It'd still be fun, I think. I'd just have to get it on video. I'll write more and more as days grow closer to fall.

Independence Day

It's been quite a while since I've written a blog. Partly because summer's been more about fishing (and I'm not sure if that needs its own blog - in which case I'll have to just wait), and partly because it's just been checking one trail camera and setting out a few more... we'll call them mineral stations. So far, I've put out a 25 lb bag of antler king mineral salt, three trophy rocks, a 25 lb protein block, lots of molasses, and a couple jugs of deer cocaine.
I've only been watching one trail camera this entire winter, which has shown lots of different bucks. Finally, on thursday I was able to get to the refuge and hang up another camera overlooking a molasses stump/trophy rock.
There have been two times where I've went to check the first camera and the rock has been out of place or off the stump. Just this last time, the trough-like log was rolled all the way over. I only got one picture of the bear. The camera has been set on a video mode that I think I'll take off next time I go out. I think what happens is the camera takes a video, and after the video, it takes a photo. The videos have been set on 25 seconds, then I think it has to wait one minute to reset, then it takes the photo, then it needs one more minute to reset. When you watch the videos, it's evident just how much can take place in 25 seconds, let alone 1 minute. So needless to say, it's easy to miss stuff.
The new Cuddeback Captures are on backorder due to a 'delay in manufacturing', so I cant get my hands on one just yet, but I hope to have two more camera's up and running by the end of summer. Stay tuned.

Memorial Weekend

I have been spending less time in the woods lately. With the outbursts of ticks, mosquitos, and poison ivy, it will likely be less and less in the months to come. However, I will still be checking and moving trail cameras. Steph and I were out yesterday morning cutting a few trees down so I could see another50 yards from my permanent stand. Also I wanted to cut until we hit a tree big enough to set up a trophy rock out there. Well we finally found one and right near the end of falling it, I got the chain pinched in the tree. "Stupid Tree!"
After getting dad's chainsaw out there, he and I were able to cut just enough on the side to roll the tree off the stump and, more importantly, off the saw. I still have about a dozen trees to cut to make thing how I want it down that strip, but I suppose I'll be back out there again in a week or two.
As far as trail cameras, I'm still only running the one. The number of pictures have lessened a bit, but I'm optimistic that by putting out the old thick molasses, they'll pick up here in the next two weeks. I ended up switching the camera to video though. The biggest reason I wanted to switch it to video mode is because Sunday morning the 25th, we woke up to five bucks crossing the corner of the yard up at The Hill. This tells me that they're finally getting into their bachelor groups. When the camera is set on picture mode, it takes a picture when triggered, but then has to wait one full minute to process the picture. A lot can happen in one minute. Those five bucks were there and gone in about two or three minutes. So, I set the camera to take 25 second videos. Yes, the camera still needs one minute to reset, but at least this way, we'll get a better look at each deer. The only downside to video mode is how much it sucks the batteries. I'll likely have to go change them in two weeks.
Anyway, it's going to be interesting to watch the antler growth of these bucks. There were at least three of them that I would call mature (4 years old or older).

Ursus Americanus

After an amazing lunch over at Grandpa and Grandma's, we headed up to the hill. We called to see if Chris and Jill wanted to come up, which they did. Jill and Gabriella stayed in the cabin and relaxed. I don't hold it against Gabriella for not coming out in the woods. It would take her forever to cover any ground. Five month-olds. Haha.

Anyway, we headed into the cedars and split up. Stephanie was up for a couple days and her and mom went together for the first part of the walk. Chris and I walked about 30 yards apart from each other in the cedars. After about 15-20 minutes, I came across a skull. I thought it was a deer skull, which wouldn't be anything too out of the ordinary, but when I turned it over, I saw the molars were way too big. You might think I'm an idiot, but half of the top part of it was gone, deteriorated or something, but just not there. Also, the canine teeth were missing, which would've been a giveaway. I realized it was a bear skull. It was definately a small bear, maybe a yearling. I walked over towards Chris and showed him. It was the first bear skull I'd ever found. We continued on walking and after about 5 more minutes, i saw another skull that was sitting upside down and was in good condition. I knew right away that this was another bear skull. This was pretty weird to find my first two bear skulls 75 yards from each other. Both of which were small (yearling) cub skulls. My theory is that they were old enough to make it into hibernation, but if mom was killed or something, they may have left the den in search of food and just didn't make it. Or they were both shot and left, but there wasnt really any place to sit and hunt back there. On this leg of our walk, Chris and I also came across the biggest deer droppings I've ever seen. Now that might now fascinate many people, but when you've seen as much deer poop as I have, and suddenly some sticks out as enormous, it's strikes me as interesting. But we kept crossing it and so that kind of let us know a general area of travel or time spent by, what I think was, an older deer - probably a buck. Eventually, we met up with mom and Steph and made our way to the Little Hill.

We all walked south towards the road and weaved in and out of good deer trails from the early winter. We popped out 100 yards from the road and decided it was getting too wet. Oh, by the way, Christopher didn't have water boots on. By this point, he's absolutely soaked up to his knees. Poor guy. Anyway, we turned East and curled back north, trying not to cover our same tracks. We headed north-northeast back towards the three corner. We saw a lot of rubs and buck sign from november, but nothing as far as antlers.

I'm betting most of my money that for whatever the reason, the deer spent most of their time in the cedar swamps. Both at the Hill and at the Refuge. I might get out a couple more times before green up, but you can bet I'll stick near the edges of the cedars.

Wickin' Water

This last week has brought us some rediculous weather for April 23rd-27th. Tuesday and Wednesday weren't too odd, but just not ideal for being out. But then it turned cold and the snows came. Before the snow came, Joe and I were able to go out to the Bog for a few wet walks. It was raining all morning, but we only had the one day free, so... well that's what we do. It was a good day to realize that I'm lacking in the area of rain gear.
Our first walk, we put on about a mile or two zig-zagging through on the ridge by the Big Stone. I found one kill, but no bones. More importantly, no head. After about an hour of walking, my buckskin gloves were soaking wet. Of course, trudging through thick briar chasing rabbits isn't the best way to stay dry on a day like this. It was a neat falling haze of rain until about 11 or noon. Then it stopped. We went up to the Flaten crossing and went west/northwest on an old trail that i'd never been on. It was kinda cool. A ways back there we found a dead bobcat, which struck me as odd. Possibly trapped outta season or something and just left. Anyway, we didn't really find anything breathtaking back there. The trail went right up to the border, so we headed back to the East paralleling it back to the road. By this point we were both soaked.
We hopped in the Exploder and headed back to the Hill for something to eat.
The second our clothes were dry enough to bare, we headed back out for one last walk.
On our third little trip, we hung around the northwest end of the firing line. This was a really beneficial walk as far as last fall's bucks sign goes. We found dozens of scrapes in a pretty confined area and a few intersections and travel routes that you can tell were getting used during or just after rifle season. The thing was, the deer wouldn't have ever needed to cross the firing line. So even though we didn't find any antlers or other cool items (well joe found Gatorade's prototype can), we gained a lot of knowledge of what the bucks were doing last fall. Or more significant, where they were running.

Boston University

So thursday after a friend got off work, he picked me up and we headed out to some state land near his house. We started off in a lower part that was kinda wet. There were lots of good trails, and some rubs on some smaller tamaracs, but no antlers. We walked south and west until we came out to a field corner, where we kicked up a couple deer. There was an old bale just a few yards over on private land, so it was obvious that there had been deer back there through the winter. we circled up to the east and headed towards a pine ridge. Turning back south we walked through some more good sign, but no antlers. I had a hunch that somebody had already been through the area on foot this winter. Regardless, it was time to turn around and take the ridge back towards the gravel road. I tried to stay close to a winding gravel road that came back into the ridge (well close enough to see where it was). I paralleled the road and came across a couple of carcasses, but given how close they were to the road, I'm sure they were just dumped there. Both were does. I was looking down and in front of me and I noticed that the deer trail I was on was going to intersect with another. I love trail intersections. Maybe that sounds weird, but it makes sense that if you're looking for antlers, you need to be where deer spend the most time. If im able to find criss-crosses in travel, I have better odds of seeing something. It's just that simple. Anyway, I was about to take the intersecting trail to the left, but I decided I should look back on it first. So I glanced to my right down this new trail and saw a couple pieces of old garbage (rusted tin can, aluminum foil, glass, etc.), when I noticed something all too familiar. It looked a tiny bit like a small point. It actually looked like a rib bone, but I figured I better go take a closer look. Sure enough, a couple steps further and I yelled for my friend to come over to me.
Laying perfectly on a nice green piece of moss, it was a small 5 point antler (41 6/8"). The way it was sitting, it couldve been easily burried by the snow, or even just missed by a passerby. Regardless the case, it was mine now. We took a rest back at my friend's house and looked at an atlas and headed up north of HWY 11 and took the wheeler around some state land. We walked quite a few miles, but found nothing significant. A good day though; Good company, wind in the face, and the sun shining. Can't ask for more.

The Weekend

Okay. I have to go back to Friday, the 18th.
Steph came home and she, mom and I went out looking for sheds. First we put up the cuddeback over the new trophy rock and then we made our own loops around through the cedars. Nothing.

We quick got out of there and headed over to the Bog before we lost any more daylight. By this time, it was probably 7ish.

We parked and walked north-northwest along the ridge for about a quarter mile or more. About 10 minutes into our walk (I was in the middle of us three), I came around a big jackpine and there sat a buck skull, plain as day. I had Steph's camera and took a few still photos before I called mom and Steph over to have a look. It had been there for a couple years and surprisingly there were no chew marks at all. A respectable 8 point, he grossed 112 and net 106". We continued on, but without any luck. We veered back to the east and out to the road. We covered an outside edge of the east side of the road on our way back to the vehicle.

Saturday, April 19th

Steph drove into Roseau around 11am and we headed up to the Hill again. Steph took a good nap while I headed out to the Bog again to cover some more ground. It's definately not ideal to be out shedding by yourself, as far as trying to carefully comb over an area, but I will take any chance I can get to be out there. Steph deserved some peaceful sleep anyways.

First off, I drove south and parked by the outhouse. I walked west into the cedar swamp with high hopes. But those hopes were left high and dry. Well, they weren't so much dry. I walked out with on good possibility for a bow setup this coming fall. Next, I drove up to the south side of the Salto Field and walked south to the firing line. I cut to the east and covered a small woods I've been curious about for a while. Again, nothing.

Then I walked west over towards what I'm calling the 'nook'. Well I entered the woods just on the north side of the nook and slowly walking west, I crossed the two heavy deer trails. I went a bit to the north and slightly west when I looked to my left and saw a mess of hair and a piled up carcass sporting a decent rack. this one was from this last winter and about half the hide was still on. I'm not positive if the buck was killed before the snow, or during the winter (hunting season vs. wolf-kill), but regardless, about a month earlier, I walked within 60 yards from it. I'm thinking it was burried in the snow.


After I shook all the beetles out of the nasal and brain cavities, I was able to cut through the remaining hide, twist the head off the spine and leave the carcass behind. I walked north and came to the longer 'bowl' and veered to the east and found another smaller 'bowl'. I caught a glimpse of a whiter-looking stick. I realized that finally, I was looking at a shed. Even though it was fairly obvious that it was a couple years old, I was glad to be rewarded and maintain trust in my 'worthless' vision. It was a 3 point from a 2 1/2 year old deer. It had a few chew marks on the G2. I took some photos and then noticed that the Steph's camera case had a belt loop thing on the back of it. So I took the long carrying strap off it and put it on my belt next to my buck knife. This was going to be way more convenient than having to dig the camera out everytime I saw something cool.



I walked through some more jackpines and briar and other fairly tight brush without finding anything noteworthy. I went east over the ridge, crossed the willow slough back to the Salto Field and finally sifted through the west end of the little gravel pits before I got back to the Jeep. I opened the jeep door and reached into my right front pocket of my jeans for the keys and when I looked down, the camera case was wide open and empty, well minus the twigs that had accumulated in there. NO CAMERA! All I remember thinking (and probably saying outloud) was "Frick." It was gone. I patted all my pockets and looked in every pocket in the backpack and it was nowhere to be seen. I debated retracing my steps immediately, but I was running out of time. We were supposed to go for supper with her folks. Not to mention my new blistering sore on the front of my ankle/shin (shankle?) was crying for a change of foot attire. Needless to say, I went back to get Stephanie and had to tell her how big of an idiot I am. But I needed her to believe me that we'd go find it the next day.

Sunday, April 20th

After the CHIC dinner after church, we got our water boots on and headed back out to the Bog. We retraced my steps as best we could. We crossed the slough, weaved through the briar on the ridge, zig-zagged through the big jackpines and walked down the trail with nothing to show for it. That little jont, made up for about one third of my previous day's venture. After spooking a skunk, we headed back into the smaller jackpines towards a line of spruce that I distincly remembered walking along. In the middle of conversation, I said, "Oh. There it is!"

Hanging from a branch was the little silver treasure. It never even hit the ground. Which explainse why I didn't hear it. Anyways, we walked a little more afterwards and Steph found a skull that belonged to a 1 1/2 year old buck that had shed it's antlers. Either a wolf-kill or he bled to death from shedding his antlers. But she spotted it first, so props to her.

DC Retreat 2008

I doubt that the Discipleship/Confirmation Retreat will be at Minnesota Hill very often, but since a storm rolled through the Duluth area and forced us to change our plans, I couldn't have thought of a better place to have it. We played bocce ball, went for nature walks, jumped off gravel piles, walked to canada, and ate some good food. It was about perfect.
I took Isaac Lang and the five 8th graders on two group walks through the woods. We walked to the bus before lunch. We went back into the cedars and sat down and talked about how God has gifted us and what James had to say about it. Then we walked back and stopped by the cedar tree I cut down a month ago. All the molasses was licked clean.
After lunch and some bocce ball, we hopped in the van and drove up to the gravel pits. We jumped out and instantly they wanted to climb the gravel piles. Naturally. After some extreme jumping and whatnot, we headed up some trails and I took them right to the canadian border. I'm pretty sure most of them had never walked on the border before. So that was kind of cool. We made a big loop by the old softball diamond and examined some discarded carcasses and headed back to the cabin.
It was a gorgeous day and I'm certain everyone had a good time.
It was hard for me to not go into shed hunting mode.

The Lost 40

Today we were planning on leaving for the 8th grade confirmation retreat at Bluewater. Well, the weather among other things suggested we should change our plans. Anyway, the students all were preapproved to leave at noon on friday. Garrett was one of them, except Garrett finished his homework and he was allowed to do something else. I told him I was planning on getting some groceries and bring them up to the cabin for the 'Plan B' retreat on Saturday. Afterwards I was going to run around in the woods and I told him he could come with if he wanted to.

Well after dropping off the groceries at the cabin, we headed back down to the East-West Road (as we call it) and parked on a crossing and headed south...way south. We walked for at least a half mile before we even started to look for antlers. We covered some ground that I had never been to before. It was mostly clumps of willows among quarter after quarter of native grass and slough. All of these lead further south into the swamp where a friend of mine hunts. We didn't go that far, because that's another day's worth of walking.

Anyways, the day was chilly, cloudy, and rather disappointing overall. There was still some now in places where it drifted. But at least we were out. Mom joined up with us after going back to get her boots on. There was great sign of where the bucks had been cruising through last fall. Wish I'd've had a few trail cameras out there. Oh well.

Lots of buck tracks, but no antlers. This puzzle is starting to get to me.

Well at least I've got some time. I've got a good month before things start to green up.
We'll keep lookin'.

Cedar Stump Stomp

Another beautiful morning on Friday, contrary to the mute weatherman. Stephanie and I drove out to the landing as our adventure began. This time out we brought the chainsaw, mineral rocks, molasses, apple buck jam, and deer cocaine to start the preseason off right. For the sake of not jeopardizing my own hunting success, I won't dislose the exact location. I cut down a fairly big cedar tree on the edge of a clearing. The chainsaw I was using was a 1950s model and weighed about 25 lbs. While I was walking through the snow, I lost my rhythm and stepped into a bit of a hole. When I lifted my leg out of the snow, the chainsaw was on its way inward and it collided with my knee something fierce. Right on a ligament above my knee. Ouch.

So after I limbed the tree, I cut a nice slot in the stump and placed the trophy rock on it. It was something like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. So don't try to move the trophy rock off the stump or death will chase you. I poured molasses all over the freshly cut stump and man did that stuff smell. It was like hot fudge that was cooling. It was so thick! It's set up perfectly so a camera can catch the trophy rock at about 15 feet and a main trail running behind the rock at about 25 feet. Hopefully the Cuddeback Excite can get the job done with the 40' flash range. In about a month, I'll head back out there and groom the unwanted trees out and then tack my way in and out (reflective tacks in the trees).

After catching my breath, we headed back to the jeep and then headed down to my portable ladder stand. There was hardly any fresh deer sign if I remember. Of course it's been melting fast enough to sort of distort, if not do away with, any recent tracks. We got to the other trophy rock and I went into the story of Tank... and how I blew my chance at this beautiful 4 1/2 year 9 point. After memory lane, we walked south around the east edge of the big clearcut. We came back up through the clearcut, veering into the point on the west side. In the woods about 20 yards, Steph spotted a chunk of hide and hair. Of course that got me all fired up. We looked pretty hard and didn't find any other sign of a kill. I'm still not sure what happened to Tank (my missed opportunity). We headed north to the other place I want to clear out this spring. It'll definately take a couple of days in there to get it how I imagine it. But I know once we did, if we left it alone, the deer would love it in there. Anyways, we headed back out to the strip and up to the jeep.

We had some Mac 'n' Cheese for a late lunch and sat around lazy-like and watched the Outdoor Channel. They had some good shows on, actually. We worked up the ambition to head over to the Refuge and take a little walk. By this time it was about 4:00pm. We parked on the road off the Salto Field and walked in a bit and cut north on some heavy trails. There was good sign up until the field off the East 3 Corner. However, we decided to press on up to the border. I just felt like there would be some bedding up north. There was some cool spots, but the deer sign wasn't very promising. Overall we learned that there still is about 8 inches too much snow in the woods. We walked up to the Canadian border and headed west until we hit the bulldozed trail and headed back south and east. Once we got to the East 3 Corner field again, we tried to head back where we came from, but to use different trails. Still no luck. Lots of beds, but no 60" antlers. Haha.

By this point, we're both dog-tired. At first I just wanted to drive around the sanctuary to see if there were any deer out in the field. Then I started thinking about the mysterious circle west of the West 3 Corner. I was curious to figure out what type of trees there were. On GoogleEarth, there was an obvious tree change out there and it looked (by all educated guesses) to be a great bedding area. Well it was a popple ridge and it was really cool to say the least, but there wasn't much for winter sign. There were plenty of old rubs, but only a few stragglers' tracks and faint beds. We decided to head out before it got dark. My jeans were soaked, my legs were sore and tired, and Steph was a trooper. To be honest, she was incredibly upbeat and I was impressed to say the least, that she kept up. We put on about 8 miles (7.29 using the 'ruler' on GoogleEarth) through shin-deep, wet, wet snow. I know that if I was suckin' air, she had to be hurtin'.

After being out nearly all day, we didn't find any antlers. On our drive back to the cabin we did see a few deer out in the fields so that was nice.

I'll be out of town for the next two weekends, so we'll see when the next time I write is.

Hopefully it will have an undertone of success.

The Skunk

On thursday (20th), Stephanie came over and we went up to The Hill. We quick walked into Canada and back, then drove out to the landing. So you know, I'm going to use a lot of inclusive language in this blog. I apologize in advance, but then again, tough. So we walked from the landing to what I'm going to call the second landing. From there we put on lots of miles, circling south and west and back up to the little hill. I wanted to go back through some area mom and I covered in mid January. Last time we were there, the deer sign was amazing. I figured maybe the majority of bucks just hadn't dropped yet. When I went back there, I still had no luck. It was really odd because of the amount of deer sign.
Anyways, we went north of the little hill (actually northeast) until we hit the west edge of the clearcut north of the second landing. The first hike we put on 3.89 miles. When we cut through to the east of where I found the shed, we tried to veer a bit to the north of what we did last time. We cut through to the two slashes. Then hit the snowmobile trail, and headed back to the jeep.
No antlers.
It was still good to get out. Gotta make sure the Trophy Rocks are still in decent shape, and get one more out there. Another couple weeks and I'll get out there with the chain saw and start prepping for next fall.

Last Minute

So we were sitting around the house wondering what to do, when mom says, "well i'm going."

That's all she has to say for me to know she's going to The Hill to look for sheds. She's hardcore.

So Stephanie and I decide to go up with her. Why not?

We park the blazer and take off walking. It's gorgeous out. It's like 35 degrees, sun's shining, and all the antlers should be out for the pickin'. We devised a plan and covered quite a bit of ground. Although, it was mostly cedars with scattered openings or moreso changes to birch. Even if you stuck to the deer trails, it was a good workout. Finally I poked out on the west end onto an old logging trail. Steph was to my left (south) and I had no intention to follow the trail to the north. However, I decided to gaze up the trail. After quickly looking north, I looked back at steph and then froze. Something wasn't right with the stillframe I just took of the trail to the north. I did a double-take and had to figure out what I thought I saw to the north. It couldn't be. In the bush?

A hanger? Without even realizing it, I began walking in the direction of the U.H.O. in denial the whole way. It looked gray. At this point, I know it's an antler, but was it an old one? It was right on the trail suspended in a small willow shrub. It couldn't be from last year, mom and I walked this very trail on February 2nd. Sure enough it was a freshie.

As a got closer, I couldn't believe my eyes. It felt so good to find a shed at The Hill. It had been a long time. Years for me. Without touching it, I turned around to head back to Steph. I stopped on the trail waiting for her to come back out. When she did, I calmly said, "I found one."

"Shut up.", she said. She had never been out looking for sheds. At least not like this. So this was clutch.

We didn't touch it. We both went and just admired it. We took a few pictures, but we only had phones on us. Mom had the good camera. So, we left the antler and went looking for mom. Whistiling as loud as I can, mom was as good as gone. We ended up making a huge loop. Almost back to where we started and then headed back to the shed. We picked it up and walked the half-mile back to the blazer.

We finally found mom and told her the news. The three of us went back to the scene to try to locate the match. No such luck. We came across the remains of a carcass, but we couldn't find the head.

All in all it was a great day. It was a shot of hope for the home team. The shed scores 53 6/8", which would put him about 107 4/8" without a spread, and about 123 4/8" with a 16" inside spread, which I think is pretty fair. You can bet we'll be out looking for the other side next weekend.

The Genesis

This is the beginning of cataloging my time spent outdoors.
I'll try to write in here often. Whether people read it or not, it will help me learn more if I make notes. So stay tuned for some adventures and hopefully some pictures.