Category: Camp News

We had two deer hanging around the camp.  I seen them on Dec. 17th with about 21″ on the ground.  I wondered why they were still hanging around.

Well the buck is gone  Coyotes got him down by the lake.  Probably this past Saturday. No snow on him and it snowed on Friday.  Must have been several of them as it looks like he put up a fight.  Blood and gore in a 20 ft square area right next to the trail going out on the ice.. He must have shed his horns cause I think he would have horned at least a couple of them.  I cant figure out which way they chased him.  Snow to deep to read the tracks. I found chunks of deer hair over by the old screen house where it looks like they chased him from and bit at him

The hind quarters, lungs, and liver  were gone.  I looked so I was thinking of saving some of the meat for you guys next season. Nice size buck.

Between the bears and coyotes its no wonder we cant find but a few deer here and there.  From now on it WAR.  You didlos better start pulling the trigger on these beasts. I hope the other one gets the hell out of there.

Polecat

Thursday:
The crew assembles at the local eatery-swill station to discuss Friday’s last assault of the hills. As always, nothing is decided, and won’t be until morning due to yet another round of a warmy-changy snow event. All drives back to camp to figure out what is what, and who will be driving the next day. 😉

Friday:
A compliment of Rangers is now present, and all receives their FAMHC badge due to most attending sanctioned events more than once. Piewhore shows once again, and receives his full fledged badge – no senior discounted badge this time! The gang stays somewhat local, hits one side of the Duckhole and returns on the other. Toucher tries a new approach to his area of interest, which apparently worked and has a round of “dances with deer” as he finds a mule who seems to be taunting him – only a few yards away in the spruce the mule is, just out of sight – laughing. Lots of scrapes and rubs are seen, but the makers of such are not. Even the big mean ‘ol bear isn’t engaging today. All returns to camp, and enjoys a mule steak sandwich with homemade fries, all washed down with copious amounts of suds.

Saturday:
The gang decide to hit the same hill as with Saturday. This time Chip gets to do the top route with Robba, and both have the same results as Toucher did on Friday. The mule seems to know what the intentions of the gang is, and repeats the dance – with the mule in the lead. Once again the mule evades the drivers up top, with all drivers low hitting their intended targets. Toucher is now in virgin territory, and likes what he sees, as this end of the mountain has never been touched by the Toucher. Scrape lines are found and followed, yet once again nothing observed. On the set up for part two, as the watchers are deploying they run into a intruding non-conforming watcher, which then resulted in a change in the proposed watchline. All are set, and the drive begins – about 10 minutes into the drive, Leaddog who was finally on a watch has yet another intruder walk up to him. After a discussion it was conveyed that this hunter has been hunting there for 50 years, and intruder number one was his son. Even more interesting is, is that this guy is the one who go the legendary 16 pointer a few years ago. Chip is rescued by Leaddog and is promptly rewarded, as promised! One last day……

Sunday:
So why go back and hunt the mule with the magic dancing shoes? Off to another hill, to perform the usual Sunday hunt. Toucher now mans LEADDOG’s watch, and Chip gets to do Toucher’s up top route. All goes well, with does finally being pushed about. No bucks in the mix this time, all performs their duties as they should. All returns back to camp, where cleaning and polishing is in order to prepare it for the upcoming snowmosexual season.

Synopsis:
All in all another good year of fun and antics.

Leaddog gets stumped by the mega-mule way up top, early on.
Leaddog gets thrown out of his watch on the bunny hill all season.
Chip shoots Leaddogs buck, from LEADDOG’s watch – which would have been number four in a row for Leaddog.
Chip gets all excited and now has Jungle Jim syndrome.
Jungle Jim learns what it means to be a driver, and almost quits!
Digger see his ‘ol pal again, “Marty the Martin”….
Toucher gets stumped by his mega-mule more than once, and stalked by the big mean ‘ol bear more than once as well.
Robba finds a rainbow collection of balloons…..
Piewhore finds the cell tower of tree-stands..
Dr. Pork makes his cameo appearance…
Spike eats almost all of Piewores pickled peppers…..
Lindy gets stuck on permanent drive duty.
Steven finds the Parked School Bus watch, and returns it to the map.
Round-about-Ron (aka the Polecat) spends extensive time in the roundabout fashion he does so well.
Justin and Jawz shows for a cameo appearance – no trees were harmed.
Probie gives up a crotch horn early on, waiting for a monster to appear. Probie never returns…nor did a monster.
Probie is, and always will be on probation!

Friday:

Leaddog, Steven, Robba (with Jr and Jawz), Chip and the Piewhore gets together for yet another fine day chasing mules across the Happy hunting Grounds. The FAMHC disperses, with the Polecat staying back at camp – once again – to do whatever he does there. In an effort to not get burned out on day one, all hunts “local” with a push through Piney Knob to the Duck Hole, and then on to BM/LM to finish the day off. All executes the plan to precision, and not one tail is seen – once again. We’re getting good at this! A fine meal consisting of mule-burgers and home made fries is consumed by those who hunted and the those who didn’t…..

Saturday:

Waking to yet another threat of rain as told by Triple Lying Doppler Radar, a big push of the Camp Knob area is on order, with a return on the other side of the creek – the F-troop U-turn hunt! All was going well, until Leaddog sees something that “wasn’t-suppoda-be-there” standing in front of him, way up on the side of the hill. This apparition did not look like any of the gang, there’s a intruder in the mix! After a lengthy interrogation of said intruder, he reveals that he’s part of Dell’s crew who’s camped out in a tent not too far away. They’ve been in there almost as long as Ftroop, so they’re essentially “tolerated” – and why not, they’re freezing their collective asses off in a tent while we sweat it out in a 85 degree camp! Maybe we’ll can some heat and bring it to them…

Back to the hill – part one results in a nice walk, finally agreeing on where the “School Bus Watch” is actually located, the crew now reassembles to perform the u-turn and off they go! All hits the hill hard on part two, with two does asking Digger for directions at the end of the drive. All performs this plan as with Fridays, with the same results.

Sunday:

Wind, and snow is now on order so the gang hits the Bunny Hill as with last week. The Toucher has subleased Leaddog’s watch, due to Chip now being a dedicated driver based on his blatant theft of Leaddog’s buck from last week. We won’t get into the details, because now the torture is worth every step! Chip attempts to perform the Toucher’s route up top, with Leaddog, Polecat and Robba driving below. A definition of the “TOP” of the mountain is rehashed, as Chip’s foot prints are now being followed by Leaddog. Chip readjusts his footing and finds the top, and all resume the drive. Robba pushes a lone mule in the opposite direction – as always – with no other mules being seen. The drive is completed, most are frozen and returns to camp, with only Toucher and Leaddog remaining in the arctic-like tundra to investigate and inspect the escape route where mules constantly go through on their departure from the gang.

Next week is all we got left boys!

What could go wrong!

The changing of the Keg!

Mr. December

Mr. November

Den MaMa’s ducks in a row

Click on the video to watch on Flickr

Thursday:
Toucher represents the new FAMHC subcommittee “Pro Thursday” by showing up solo to battle “Beasts O’ Mighty”. Unfortunately, no beasts were battled or even seen. A walk up to his watch and on towards the 10 point watch area results in a good stretching of the legs and mind. Even the big bad mean ol’ bear won’t engage at this point. Polecat shows up, gets camp in order and both meet Leaddog for dinner and to plan the next three days of fun.

Friday:
Robba joins the crew for Friday fun, and even the Piewhore shows up a bit later to earn his senior citizen discounted maintenance membership in the FAMHC. All hit a local hill, now referred to as “BM and LM”, or the “big one” and the “little one” to confuse any eavesdroppers who may be listening, and reading this post! Bears are once again pushed about, what’s up with these darn bears? They must know that Leaddog won’t (or was told to) not to take any more of these wood-pigs, and that Toucher may have a “thing goin’ on” with said critter. A push is made all the way towards camp, a u-turn is made and all hunt back and to the waiting Pie-whore, who was surprised to have four Rangers appear out of nowhere in an effort to push a mule to him. Piewhore was found sitting under a tree stand that looked like an ATT cell tower…

Saturday:
With a full complement of rangers and good weather on hand, the crew decides to hit the back country in yet another effort to connect with what is now referred to as “Leaddogs Deer”…! Crews disperse from three different directions to confuse the mule of interest, tracks were seen, some old rubs and yup more bear sign. Leaddog creeps into the area of the multitude of rubs, walking against the direction of a lone mule track. This mule was just there, as the snow created the “etch a sketch” condition where all tracks were new, or less than 24 hours old. These tracks went by every rub from last week without the mule hitting one of the rubs…. He’s got other things on his mind! The crew pushes to the AOI, with nothing crossing paths. Another annual visit to the Spilt-Rock camp results in another year being scraped on the surface. All meets and egresses out the escape route – where while merrily walking in single file like the seven dwarfs, the gang stumbles on a deer in the trail who quickly evacuates said area. What does deer laughter sound like..…just ask the crew?!

Sunday:
Welly, welly, well. How ‘bout that! The crew wakes to polar blizzard like conditions, when all thinks it’s time to clean camp and go home it was decided that “we must hunt!”. A quick hit of the Bunny Hill is in order, because that’ll get it done rather quickly, hopefully. Winds blowing 40mph made the treetops sway like….well…like Stosh did! A crew heads around the hill to drive, with four to watch. Steven in his, Digger up top, Piewhore down below guarding the escape route and Chip once again taking over LEADDOGS watch like the OWS crowd taking over Wall St. After much bitching and whining the drive starts – Toucher up top, Leaddog next, Polecat below and Robba playing cleanup down below. Robba declares that he finds sign like-a-hell below, and soon after three shots are heard from the notch, in the vicinity of LEADDOGS watch, where the Chipster was occupying. A radio query was initiated and when asked if it was Digger, a “not me” was the reply. Then, all of a sudden Chip declares that he’s got a hit and “hurry everyone, hurry” to help Chip. What happened? Where did it go? Where do we go? WTF? Then Chip calls out “Brown is Down”….Leaddog payed Chip VERY, VERY nice compliments on his skill and woodsmanship in the bagging of the mule. Something like “you better have missed and “I hope you choke on the meat” I believe was the call! There’s more, but only the Toucher knows! All kidding aside, Chip bags a nice seven pointer chasing a doe, which was only 50 feet from….LEADDOGS watch. Good job Chip – now get ready for adventure like you’ve never seen before, bring extra compasses, clothes and get a second pair of boots, you’re gonna’ need them!

Leaddog after Chip shoots buck!

Chip after he shoots buck!

F-Troop Scores!

Nice Rack!

Chip’s 7pt 134lb buck!

Thursday:
Yup – Thursday! A subcommittee of the FAMHC, bands together to form the new entity: Professional Thursday! Ages ago, the gang would join for a week of hunting during election week. Since this has long since passed, a new club has been chartered. Three arrives early to hunt on the “off day”, Polecat stays at camp to meet the dish TV guys, which incidentally finally worked out, and Toucher and Leaddog hit the woods for adventure. Toucher goes to his watch, then declares that he’s going to Piney Knob later in the day, to meet Leaddog from up high on Liz. Leaddog heads up top, to the area where many rubs were seen last year, and the making of new ones last week. Upon arrival at the AOI, no less than ten rubs were now present, with a large scrape and licking branch as well. While collecting a photo, Leaddog notices that he has cell service way out there….what follows beats the crap out of asking for meatloaf recipes as in the past. The photo is sent to Digger, who’s working 75 miles away. When Digger actually receives the text and replies, Leaddog gets an idea – since plans have now changed on his egress from the back country. The Toucher is awaiting Leaddog’s arrival from Liz, but a new route is considered. How to alert Toucher that plans have changed….IDEA! Leaddog texts Digger, to call camp, to tell Polecat to radio to Toucher that plans have changed. IT WORKS! Toucher is now free to roam the woods! Meanwhile, back in the woods Leaddog pussyfoots less than 100 yards from the rubs following what appears to be fresh mule tracks. While taking 0.5 seconds to look where to place the next few steps, he jumps a very large bodied mule who’s apparently making said tracks. The mule stops behind a small stand of spruce, and with one step from Leaddog it quietly but quickly disappears onto the Thumb. That may have been the beast we’re looking for…..

Friday:
The FAMHC reconvenes, with now Polecat, Digger and Chip getting the required CHU’s for membership.
All converge on a local hill, in the 30mph winds with below zero windchill, and snow. Polecat kicks two out of beds on the warm side of the hill, with nothing being sent to Toucher. What a miserable day in the woods on the cold sides of the hills it was – but hunt we must! A last push of the Duck Hole results in nothing seen, heard or even could be lied about.

Saturday:
A full compliment of Rangers are present, and off we go up the valley towards the Meadows and back again over Liz. Lots of sign is observed, feeding everywhere. Not one mule is seen, where are they now? Has the multitude of Bears present made the girls jumpy, and creating havoc amongst the crew?
All returns finally to camp, where steaks and adult beverages are consumed.

Sunday:
As always, the Bunny hill is the Sunday target. Robba leaves to do fatherly duties, and all disperse as usual. Leaddog somehow gets shanghaied once again and is now a driver up top, who pushes a doe out between Toucher and himself. Does run into the notch, almost leaving a hoof print on the sitting Digger forehead! Chips sees does as well from LEADDOGS WATCH. Not a bad spot there, eh Chip!?
Part two results in the Toucher/Leaddog wrecking crew pushing mules to the others, with one mule escaping to the right, right to where Piewhore likes to sit sometimes. A big track was left as a reminder who it may have been….Piewhore swears to sit there next time – the same spot where he took a nice buck a few years back! Should-a-would-a-could-of.