Turkey Tracks

   I’ve been out hunting the elusive turkey for the last 10 days. The turkeys didn’t cooperate at all. In over 40 hours in the field I didn’t hear 1 gobble. Very depressing, especially since last year 4 of us got a bird each. I tried every kind of call I know and nothing worked. We saw turkeys everywhere around us but nothing close. It was very frustrating but that’s why it’s called hunting and not shopping.


   The time spent in the woods was priceless however. All the little things really add up. From hearing a whip-or–will to seeing a rufous-sided towhee. At times the quiet is deafening. Very relaxing and good for recharging the batteries. The anticipation was high but the lack of gobbling was a big disappointment. I did see some birds in the field, they were very skittish, so there’s always hope for next year.

   Sitting in the woods with very little going on always makes my mind wander. I think of hunts long ago, some great some just bad. How family and friends are doing, what I’m missing at work. The eyelids start to sink and you go into a state of near sleep, sometimes a light sleep my just happen. Time seems to slow down and go by very slowly, like the house on the side of the road. God bless you Ernie, we’ll miss you.

   Traveling back from turkey camp I saw an empty eagle’s nest. Last year it was active at this time of year. Maybe it’s a late spring and that’s why the turkeys were tight lipped. I did see an eagle right over I-75 in Saginaw of all places. They’re really making a comeback from years ago, much like the Detroit River. You can’t believe the change from what I witnessed in the 60’s and 70’s. Brown effluent was coming from most manufacturing discharges right into the river.

   One of the more spectacular sights I saw back then was the quenching of coal into coke. Wyandotte Chemicals would heat the coal as high as they could without it burning and then dump water on it to produce coke. The coke burns much hotter because the impurities are driven out. I was very young at the time but it seems like yesterday because of the shock and awe of the operation. The sound was a series of loud explosions and the steam cloud that formed extended many hundreds of feet in the air. I think my uncle Pete new when they were going to do this because we were always half way across the river when it happened. That was ok by me. There were many operations that the steel mills and chemical plants did that were amazing to see. One that you can still witness is the dumping of off spec molten steel onto the ground at Great Lakes steel. You may see the sky light up at times in the summer from this process. From just 100 yards away it’s like watching fireworks.



Get outdoors downriver.