This years camp was a comedy of errors, (so what else is new?)
I figure the camp should have had six deer, of the eight or so seen during legal hunting light. I mention legal hunting light, because each night after dark behind the camp the deer come out to laugh at us. There were seven one night.
opening morning found our guys dogless, and so, for the first time, we tried calling in deer. Success! One of the lads bagged one buck opening day! says he called him right in, and could see him trying to figure out what was in the blind calling.
Luck was not to hold however. We did several drives, and these worked, if only to provide a venue for hunting excuses.
We introduced a young hunter this year, and he got to see a couple of deer, one he could easily have shot, but was confused in his understanding of Ontario hunting laws, (there were eight doe tags in camp, but he didn't have one) and didn't shoot because it was a doe.
The lad had never hunted, or even fired a big game rifle before, so he had quite an experience, and even wants to return.
Four moose were seen, one of those by the aforementioned teen.
We introduced trident to the "Top of the world" but I'll wait for his impressions of that.
We introduced two new "doggers" to the bush, carefully giving then places to dog off where it's near impossible to get lost. I will always remember "Bucky" walking at break neck speed through the bush, with his rifle on a sling, one hand out in front to deflect brush, the other holding his compass, his glasses pushed up on his head, cursing out something like " Useless piece of crap *uc*ing compass " This when he was fifty feet in front of me.
I pointed him in the right direction, but before he was out of sight he had turned and walked off in the wrong direction, doing two complete circles before he came out.
There was nothing wrong with his compass by the way.
I had a close encounter with a Barred owl, he swooped in and landed about fifty feet in front of me, in the middle of the afternoon, but in a dark area of the swamp. I thought that was really cool, until the bird took wing, and landed on a perch twenty feet out. The squirrels were silent for the rest of the afternoon.
Second week, found trident leaving just as notenough rolled in.
Hey, at least they met.
notenough donated a nice gun cabinet, and some comfy chairs to the camp, then came out to find me in the bush.
After I congratulated him on becoming a father just a few weeks ago, we moved to a new spot, and hunted 'till noon. It was ten below zero, so sitting for long periods was a bit tough, 'specially for notenough, who apparently didn't change before coming out, and was a bit under dressed.
nothing seen but tracks and scrapes, we headed back to camp. notenough was right behind me, and then, he wasn't. I pulled over, and he didn't appear, I turned around and went back.
He was in the middle of the logging road with a dead truck, and "bucky" had found him.
quickly deducing that either it had no fuel or no spark, we decided it was best to tow it to camp for further tests.
The tow was uneventful from my end except for a few heavy tugs on the tow strap. I think notenough might have a different view.
Turns out his in tank fuel pump is gone (again)
Call CAA for a tow ... well.... didn't work. Turns out the membership had been cancelled.
In the end, a local garage is going to fix the truck when the parts come in, and notenough is going back up to camp to get his truck. I drove him home to Toronto after camp.
A sad note.
One of the lads lost his mother during the hunt, and had to leave early to attend her funeral.
