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'.