Hunting with Mike

This past week, while we were in Marquette setting out bear baits, Darryl happened to mention one of our old “blinds” we dubbed “the outhouse.”  Last season he hunted close by, and discovered the old “potty” was still standing.

Back around 1974 we stumbled upon this old homestead in the middle of nowhere.  There was nothing standing except for this old outhouse.  The trees had grown up around the junk on the ground, and all that was left from the little house was a few foundation stones.  A creek full of bear tracks was nearby, and I got the bright idea to use the outhouse as a ground blind.  I figured the bear in the area were used to human odor due to the contents just below the rotting floor boards of this little shanty.  One of the first things we needed to do was put some new lumber over the old boards, so nobody would make the “plunge that doesn’t refresh!”  There was no door on our “blind”, but I didn’t think that was a big deal, because we were going to set our bait about 40 yards in front of the outhouse window.  Most outhouses don’t have a window across from the door, but this double seater did.

Once we got situated with the outhouse, we set the bait, and within two days it was getting hit hard.  By the size of the tracks a large bear was one of several using the site.  I had a friend with me on this hunt, and I was going to let him have first crack at this bear.  On our first evening out I saw something black moving off in the distant brush, and I cautioned Jim to get ready.  Anticipation was running high, as we watched the black form move through the tangle of underbrush.  To our dismay a huge skunk stepped into view and started nibbling on our bait pile. I was hoping he wouldn’t stay around long, and after several minutes he ambled off to our right.  We both breathed a sigh of relief, as we didn’t want mister stinky around the area.

As I said this outhouse was a two-seater, so Jim had one side and I had the other, while we watched out the window. Every now and then I would look through the door opening  behind us just to make sure a bear didn’t sneak in from the rear.  I got the shock of my life when I glanced in that direction only to see Mr. Skunk heading straight for the door opening.  I whispered to Jim “don’t move!”  He thought I saw a bear, and was more than a little anxious as he “froze” on command!  The pole-cat stepped into the outhouse, just as Jim turned his head to see who our intruder was.  We both dared not breath, blink, or move a muscle, as Skunky-Deh- Pew rubbed against Jim’s leg and then mine!  After (what seemed like an eternity) he nonchalantly strolled back into the woods from whence he came. Whew!  We breathed a sigh of relief!

We did eventually take a bear from this stand, and there are other stories concerning this  blind “set up”, but I will save them for another time.

Mike

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 at 10:47 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.