2024 Bear Hunt Day 2 - Stuck In The Middle

After a very hot and humid summer, it was almost nice to wake up to an almost cold room (without using air conditioning).  Outdoor temperatures were near 50, so not exactly cold by bear hunting standards.  Vance had asked that we not get to camp before 2:00.  I wasn't sure that was possible, but having a slow morning wasn't bad.  Still, too much time can be ... too much.

After I couldn't stand it anymore, I packed up all my stuff and hit the road.  I was early, so I took my time.  It was about an hour to the border and I breezed through.  Including gun paperwork, I could have gotten out of there in about three minutes, but it took four since the printer wasn't working.  I was in Canada!

I made my way north toward camp, stopping for coffee first, then fuel closer to camp.  Lac du Bonnet was really smoky.  I was worried there were forest fires in the area, but apparently the smoke was from almost a thousand miles away in Saskatchewan.  I worked my way towards camp.  There was no one parked at my cabin, so I parked there before going to the store.  I talked with Maureen for a few minutes and saw Julia as she was running around getting things ready.  I knew my cabin wouldn't be ready for a while.  After being in the trucklette for so long, I was happy to walk all the way to the power dam.  On the way back, I saw Vance and I jumped in the truck to tag along while he baited land-site baits.

We caught up as we went stand to stand.  All of them had been hit well.

We went to Rice Lake and took the side-by-side for some of them.  On the way back, the side-by-side slid off the firm (and I use that term loosely) ground and into the bog.  We were stuck - as in stuck stuck...

We tried a few things to get moving before Vance slammed a pick-axe he had along for beaver dams into the ground.  I gunned the side-by-side and worked the winch while he held the winch cable to the axe.  We did this several times until finally we got unstuck.  I gunned it to higher ground while Vance yelled, "Go Go Go."  Except he was actually yelling "Woah Woah Woah."  Thankfully the axe didn't damage the side-by-side and the cable didn't get caught in anything.  We were back in motion and I got my Junior Guide Badge.

Baiting the stands was fun.  There was some monster bear poop by one of them and full of blueberries - probably nearing the last for the season.

Beavers had dammed up several areas and Vance partially dismantled them; it seemed futile.  Beavers are quite the engineers.  I can't help but admire them at some level.

Once back in camp I had a few minutes to unpack and start to organize my stuff. It felt really good to be back at bear camp. I have had a few days off and small adventures over the last several months, but I was really looking forward to a week of hunting and fishing.

I went down to the lodge and other people filtered in.  I will be lucky if I remember even most of their names before the week is over.  Dinner was a Thanksgiving feast before calling it an early night.