First visitor to Canada

This past week I had one edict, the funny thing was that it was a request from more than one person. What is it you ask? What is this request that not only one person would request of me but two? Well it ended up being a quite simple request but there were a few touch and go moments. The request from both my wife and my sister-in-law………don’t kill my brother! That’s right, my brother Bob came up for the week. He was a great help with prepping the bear sites each day as well as lots other things around camp. He went with me each day as we visited each of the bear sites. He was sore and tired at the end of the days but had a lot of fun, by the end of the week he said he could feel a difference and was not getting nearly as sore at the end of the day.

 

It was a busy week for him to come up as bear season opened last Friday and we had 11 hunters in camp. If you were to ask Bob I think he would tell you there were about 5-6 times he was not sure he was going to make it through a given day. Whether it be from exhaustion, my driving on the logging roads or the close call we had with a pack of wolves.

Of the 11 hunters in camp this past week, 9 harvested bear, 1 missed and 1 had an opportunity but did not want his hunt to be over in the first 20 minutes and never got another opportunity the rest of the week. There were groups from West Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

The most intense moment of the week came when we went to recover a bear for one of the West Virginia boys. He had come in and said that he had gotten a nice bear and needed help getting it out. So Bob and I jumped in the 4 wheeler and headed out to help him get his bear! His stand was 10 miles down the road and about 4 miles down a logging road and by the time we got to his stand it was well after dark. When we arrived and turned off the 4 wheeler the first thing we heard was a wolf howl, it sounded close but not that close, maybe 100 yards. Soon after that another 2-3 howled much closer, maybe 50 yards. Then another howled and it sounded like it was right next to us! I asked the hunter which direction his bear was and he pointed in the direction of the last howl…..oh oh, that’s not good……Armed with flashlights we headed towards the sound of the howl. As we were walking I was thinking…….well, I know can outrun at least one of these guys if things turn ugly, the problem is that was my brother and I kinda promised to keep him alive this week. Fortunately, a few guys armed with flashlights is intimidating to the wolves and they vacated the area. Unfortunately, they had done a number on the bear in the short time the hunter was gone. They had eaten much of the stomach area, they had not gotten to the meat or the hide so we were able to recover the majority of the bear.

The group from Illinois had an intense moment as well when they went to recover a bear that one of them had harvested. Again, it was well after dark when they were looking for their bear. As they were walking together in the dark they heard a noise close to them and they scattered and screamed like little school girls in different directions! Once they got back together they had no idea which way the road was. They argued which direction to head in order to get back to the road. They determined that the road was to the west…..wrong… it was actually to the east…. After walking a while to the west they determined that they must have went the wrong way and turned around and headed east where they eventually hit the road. We had sent out a search party who found them on the road…..they all made it back to camp at 3am.

Barb is continuing to run each morning, she had her fastest mile (9:58) and fastest 5k (32:00) this week. She has also been going crazy in the kitchen making an awesome blueberry pie, some Morning Glory muffins and a huge batch of monster cookies that we got addicted to after an attorney at her old job had given us some a few months ago. She also continued with another one of her favorite pastimes, she loves to find the stupidest fishing lures and see if she can catch fish on them! Actually……she usually picks out what she thinks is the prettiest lures, buys them and tries them out. This week, it was a silly looking pink crank bait and she out-fished both Bob and I with it!

All in all it was a great week, it was great to see Bob and spend some time with him and he made it home to Minnesota no worse for the wear with a and gallon of blue berries and a limit of walleyes and northern pike. Not a lot of pictures this week but those who are interested in seeing pictures of the successful can click on this link to the Pasha Lake website.