Hunting with Mike

Since I’m on the subject of Colorado I thought I would share with you my prowess when it comes to outdoors photos. I mean a guy with the name of Mike Ansel certainly should have some of the same characteristics as a guy by the name of Ansel Adams! Especially seeing how I “think” like the quarry I’m pursuing! Here’s my story, and I wish I didn’t have to “stick” to it!

While in Colorado, on vacation, we were driving through Rocky Mountain National Park, when I saw a nice mule deer buck about 150 yards off the road. I pulled our car over, and tried to take some pictures with my telephoto lens Minolta. The deer was standing in a small valley, and I told my wife and kids I was going to use my “hunters stealth” and sneak up on this unsuspecting deer. It was just too far away for good close-ups, and I knew my family would be impressed by my stalking abilities.

At the time there were only two other cars parked along the road, and none of them had the primordial hunters instincts like myself (city slickers!) I exited the car hunched over, so I wouldn’t give my outline away! There was plenty of sagebrush for concealment, but it meant low crawling for about 100 yards. It was rough going, as the ground was hard, rocky, and full of prickers. None of this was going to stop me from getting “the shot” of a lifetime, and showing off for family and spectators alike. An opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day, so a few cuts and scrapes were worth it!

I couldn’t believe how smoothly this was going, as the deer had no idea “Daniel Boone” was lurking in the bushes. When the deer looked my way I would “freeze,” until he turned, and then I’d crawl a few more paces. Finally I found myself within 20 yards of this trophy mule deer, as pride welled up within me, for accomplishing such a feat! I was poised to start snapping pictures (like Ansel Adams,) when I heard a commotion behind me! I turned my head, and couldn’t believe my eyes! There standing directly behind me was a group of Japanese tourist, plus a few others, camera shutters going to beat the band. They were making more noise than a barn full of chickens, as they focused their cameras and laughed. I’m sure much of that laughter was directed at the “fool” that crawled 100 yards over treacherous terrain, while they walked just yards behind me.

You talk about feeling like a “moron!” I decided to stand up like everyone else, and tried to blend into the scenery, as I snapped a few shots of my own. I honestly believe we might of been able to “pet” that less than wild old deer, but I wasn’t going to do it. I’d already impressed my family enough for one day! Ansel Adams would of been proud of me-”Not!”

Mike

That’s “Big Bob” on the left, along with Dick Robinson, Gary (Ninja Turtle) Wilson, and Jim Smith. This was base camp for five days in the Rocky Mountain National Park. You can’t really tell by the picture, but we hauled in everything including “Jimmy’s” guitar! To say we had a good time, would be an understatement! Oh we had our share of rain and even had hail one day, but that didn’t dampen our adventuresome spirits. There was always a new area to explore, and you get to know one another on a different level when camping at 10,000 feet.

There was an abundance of trout for the taking. Native cutthroat, browns, golden, and brookies were on the menu morning, noon, and evening. Gary is an outdoor culinary genius, and he brought along a cupboard full of condiments. We never got tired of his butter fried, lemon dripping, perfectly seasoned, tender but crispy trout! We did have Gary’s special pancakes a morning or two, and even fixed hamburgs one evening, but fish was the food of choice.

Bob turned out to be the one of the easiest-going guys I ever met, and having him around added stability to our fishing crew. I remember coming back into camp in the late morning, and there sat Bob with his Bible on his lap, as he meditated on “The Word!” Fishing was important, but nothing was more important, to Bob, than spending time with his Creator, as we enjoyed His gift of creation surrounding us. In silence Bob taught me the importance of prioritizing our lives, no matter where we find ourselves.This is our great chef Gary Wilson, and two pans of trout fixed for a crew of hungry mountain men.

Mike

Just received a letter from two friends that I hardly get to see anymore.  Bob and Pat Windel moved to Gypsum Colorado recently, from Minnesota.  Bob is a school superintendent, and at one time was stationed in Montana.  You can bet that he gets the respect of his peers, and all who are associated with him.  You see Bob could of played pro-football out of college, but he opted to follow his heart, and pursued a career in school administration.  Four professional teams were interested in this big, agile, quick, lineman, but to this day he will tell you he made the right choice.  Bob loves his job, and is good at what he does.

Bob also likes to hunt and fish.  Many moons ago, when we could run up mountains, we backpacked into the Rockies for a fishing expedition.  Bob was big 6-foot 3, and as strong as an ox.  There were five of us on this trip, and the first thing we did was divide up the supplies. When my backpack hit around 70 pounds I told Gary (Bob’s brother-in-law,)”that’s it I can’t handle anymore!”  Jim and Dick loaded up approximately the same amount, which left about 230 pounds for Gary and Bob!  Actually Gary had the same 70 pounds that we had, but he insisted on carrying his huge”trusty” 30 pound cast iron skillet; thus 100 pounds.  During the hike that skillet played an important part in a dilemma Gary would find himself in.  (I wrote a blog about this very funny predicament many months ago.)  Anyway Bob “saddles” up the 130 pounds, and takes the lead on the trailhead.  Mind you this is our first day at 9000 thousand feet, and were going up to 10,000!  It doesn’t take 15 minutes, and Big Bob is out of sight.  The trail is well marked, so it didn’t bother us to be”spread out” on our little trek.  We had no idea how”fast” Bob traversed the terrain, or how “slow” we crawled it, but I was shocked when I reached camp.  Bob was standing there with a big grin on his face, as I surveyed my surroundings.  Bob’s tent was up, his trench dug, and he was in the process of lashing together a table!  “How the heck did that big guy pull this off,” I wondered to myself!  From that day forward I decided Bob was going to be “My Hero!”  I soon found out that Bob was a big “Teddy Bear” and had a compassionate gentle way about him.  You couldn’t help, but like the guy.

There’s a lot more to this story, which I will continue in the next few blogs.  Stay tuned!

Mike

Where were these birds during the fall turkey season?  Especially the one with the 12″ beard!  As many times as I hunted my 200 acres I saw only two birds, and they were 150 yards away.  The leaves were off the trees, and snow made visibility great, so you would think the birds would show themselves every now and then.  Where do they disappear to?

I have a pretty good idea since I paid a visit to the farmer I lease from.  The turkeys were congregating around his barn where there seemed to be plenty for them to eat.  He said they had pretty much been hanging out in the same area, and roosting in the closest clump of pines!  They would stay around his barns most of the day, and not pay to much attention to the livestock moving round about them.  He even said he could get within 20 yards of them before they started to spook.  Those birds aren’t as dumb as some would have you believe.  Of course this area is off limits to hunting, as the farmer has a stable of race horses to protect.  Ah well at least I know there is a flock nearby that will put in a pretty good winter!

Mike

This is my son-in-law Tony standing in front of my brother-in-law Pat’s cabin. This is my favorite place to vacation with the family, and the deer hunting is improving. I’ve taken a couple deer from the area, shot a turkey with a bow here, and done some fabulous fishing in the Big Manistee River. We are only a couple hundred yards from the Little Manistee, where we canoe, kayak, tube, and fish! We also have a place where we can go and swing off a rope into the river. The ladies love shopping in Manistee, and we have a little known public beach that is great for the kids. I’ve seen huge flocks of turkey, coyotes, bobcats, and eagles around this lovely place. There is a fire-pit out front where we roast marshmallows and watch the brilliant display of stars on cloudless evenings.

Inside there are two bedrooms downstairs, and a huge loft upstairs with seven beds. There is a beautiful stone fireplace for those chilly fall evenings, and most furnishings are custom made (one of a kind.) The living and kitchen area are ceramic tile, and the whole interior is done in wood, with huge hand hewn beams in the living area. There is a nice little back porch, and a separate storage/bathroom out back for your slimy fishing buddies! Your not far from Ludington, the dunes, or Traverse City. Great steelhead fishing, golfing, and skiing are a short drive away.

The reason I’m giving you all this detail is my brother-in-law is selling the place! If I could afford it, believe me I’d jump on it! It is top-notch and immaculate as a place can be. The price is just under $170,000 thousand and worth it. It’s located on River Road, just after you go over 9-mile bridge off of Udell Hills road out of Wellston. If interested drop me an e-mail. We are going to truly miss this wonderful retreat.  I almost forgot-you are in the snow belt area, and the snowmobiling is some of the best in the state!

Mike

Did a huge “monster” whitetail make this rub, or was it done by a big old elk? I seriously can’t answer that question for sure. This rub, and many more similar ones, was made in Kentucky. That’s right; I said Ken-Tuck! I was fortunate enough to be asked to hunt Randy Mills family property, located within the confines of 4000 private coal mine acres. His mother has the last private parcel (100 acres), left within the fenced and patrolled hunting mecca, owned by a coal magnets descendent’s!

Now getting back to this “whopper” of a rub! I’m 90% sure it was made by a world class whitetail. I can’t totally rule out elk, as there are a few running around Kentucky. It would be possible for this property to hold elk, without too many people knowing about it. I haven’t researched this possibility to any extent, but someone out there may know if Hopkins county Kentucky has any elk. The main reason I think a big whitetail, or two, may be involved, is that the two years I hunted the place I personally saw four (4) bucks that would all go over 150! The second year I hunted, one of the guys took a 17 pointer that scored in the 170’s! Randy was aware there were rumors of 200 inch deer running around this hunters heaven, and we saw many huge rubs and scrapes to get our hearts thumping.

This particular rub was part of a rub/scrape line that looked like a freight train had been through the woods. In all my considerable time outdoors I have never seen anything to compare with the way these trees were raked over! That’s why I’m not 100% convinced it was a trophy class buck.

You may wonder why we never saw the rub maker, but unbeknown to us we built our camp-site within thirty yards of the rub. We certainly hunted the perimeter of the area (100 acres), but 4000 acres leaves a lot of room to hide in. Maybe some of you experts out there can give me some input on this matter, as every time I look at that picture I “drool!”

Mike

This week was the opener of the late goose season, and my brother Darryl called a few days ago to see if I could make it out with him and my brother Randy.  I didn’t have a license, and when I inquired as to the cost I was kind of in shock.  I think I was going to need at least three different stamps/licenses, and I couldn’t justify it for one day of laying on my back in a corn field.  If I would of bought one earlier in the year, where I could of gotten some use out of it, I would of went.

Anyway I called him the other day to see how they did, and he said they should of limited out, but only dropped four of the giant Canadians!  Both brothers have a Cabela’s duck/goose ground blind, which sure beats laying on the cold ground.  He put out three or four dozen decoys, and said geese started flying around 10:00 A.M. and didn’t quit till around 4:30 in the afternoon.  Of course he rubbed it in a little by saying a third gun would of helped add to the tally!  Maybe when they come out with some kind of little heater in those blinds I’ll get more excited about it.

Anyway they took some nice pictures, but I haven’t got my hands on them yet.  When I do I’ll post them.  Tomorrow I’m going to check out a spot to do some fox/coyote hunting, as soon as we get some snow back on the ground.  You guys up north should have plenty of snow cover to hunt down some varmints, along with a few rabbits.

Just a note about my stray cat situation!  Ever since I wrote the blog about them; they have disappeared.  Maybe someone else took action-I hope!

Mike

The semi- official numbers have been tallied for the 2007 gun season, and it appears the deer harvest is down by 5 percent. The D.N.R. has estimated that 249,000 whitetails were harvested over the Nov. gun season with 63 percent being antlered, and 37 percent being antlerless. This information is gathered from deer processing lockers, hunters, check stations, sold licenses, and D.N.R. personnel. The final figure will be released in July, after a mail survey of 50,000 hunters has been tallied.

Actually hunter success this year was similar to last years, but the overall number of hunters, in the field, appears to be less than last year. That would account for the lower number of deer harvested in 2007.

The Upper Peninsula reported a 6 percent increase in harvest over last year, with an estimate of 36,000 deer taken. While the harvest increase was up in the Upper, it was down in the Lower by approximately the same 6 percent figure. Basically hunters reported seeing more deer statewide than last year. Obviously they didn’t ask “me” how many I saw!

Archery season will account about 25 percent of total statewide harvest, and muzzleloader will add another 10 percent. The special anterless season will add about 5 percent to the total harvest, of under last years total, of 450,000 deer.

Three mild winters in a row has certainly helped the deer herd grow, and it looks like we could see another mild winter this year. Who would of ever believed we would see temperatures in the mid-sixties on January 7th? Even the Upper Peninsula has been experiencing unusually warm weather of late. Who knows; maybe there will be enough deer around next year, even I could “tag” one.

Mike

The 30th. of December was a lot like all the other times I sat for hours on end, and didn’t see a thing.  I honestly cannot recall another hunting season where I saw nothing, nada, zilch, zero day after day.   Looking back, the first part of October, I saw more deer than any other time during the season.  By the time the rut rolled around, and through November and December, things fizzled out fast.

Of course there can be any number of explanations for the lack of deer sightings.  The first one I think of is that there just aren’t that many deer in the area I’m hunting!  I might believe that theory if it weren’t for the presence of numerous scrapes and rubs  around the property.   It’s also the same place I hunted last year, and I saw plenty of deer.   This leads me to my second summation!  Two days before opening of gun season I heard many shots being fired, in the very late evening light.  You’d be hard pressed to convince me that this activity was guns being sighted in!  Of course you always hear the rumors about so-and-so starting season early, and about the family who’s motto is “If it’s brown it’s down!”  I don’t want to believe this scenario, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility.  The fact that much of our sport depends on the “HONOR SYSTEM,” surly leaves room for cheaters and the dishonorable.  There are not enough conservation officers in the state to properly patrol public lands, let alone private property.  Now I am left with my third possibility.  Could it be the deer are still in the area, but are getting wiser by the year?  Are they going totally nocturnal on us (me?)  Is there so much pressure on them that they hold up in various pockets, and do not venture out for days or weeks?

As I’ve been contemplating on my season, I think the answer may be that all three scenario’s are at work in the equation.  I don’t especially like using the word “luck,” but being in the right place at the right time can make a huge difference on how you view your hunting season.  Maybe I was just out of sync - let’s hope so!

Mike

This is a picture I took after our last major snowstorm. My wife has several bird feeders around our back porch, and this one is for one of her favorite birds; the black capped chick-a-dee. Beside the chick-a-dee there are some wrens and nuthatches frequenting our back porch. It’s nice to sit in my lazy-boy, and enjoy the fluttering in and out, of these neat little winged friends. I’m not so sure we did them a favor though, as I watched a black cat lie in wait for dinner to come to the feeder. Before I knew what was going on, the cat made a lunge after a low flying songbird! He missed, but judging from his appearance he’s been eating on a regular basis. Not too many years ago I watched as our neighbors cat crept up on an unsuspecting robin. The robin saw the cat and was about 4-foot off the ground when the leaping cat’s talons dug in. Dinner was served! My guess is that more than one bird has succumbed to this stealthy black killing machine! This adult cat has two half grown kittens following her wherever she goes.

I don’t know where they came from, and I’m 99% sure they are strays, living under my back deck. The tracks in the snow indicate this to be true. The humane society will take them, but I have to catch them, and my experience with that scenario is not good! Neither my wife or I want to kill them, but we don’t want to be feeding them our fine-feathered-friends either! I don’t own a live trap, and I’m not real excited about spending 50-60 bucks to buy one. If you readers have any suggestions, send them along - the feathers are piling up.

Mike