This year saw an explosion of electronic gear that was used in our hunt camp. Well not an explosion but just a trailcam brought in by an addicted deer hunter. Jeff has the fever so to speak. He hunts public land in southeast Michigan to explain his passion. Come hunting season his facebook posts are mostly about deer hunting. So a week before the opener Jeff and my son Justin went up to place their treestands and scout around. Jeff put a trailcam near his treestand and left it their until his return the day before the opener.
He kept mumbling about crab claws well into the night and even during sleep. We don't know where the buck went because the memory ran out on the trailcam and he wasn't seen again. There were reports of a similar deer about a mile away but no one knows for sure. With the advent of all these electric devices a good gift for back-up battery energy would be a special stove.
From trailcams, to ipods, to gps's, to smart phones they all need power and at times the batteries fail. If you're a long way from camp and you need to get connected, to reply to something on facebook, this stove could be a life saver.
One of the constant battles you take up when you decide to become a hunter is dealing with the cold. The worst feeling of all is to have cold feet. With this device you can get your feet warm anytime and be able to turn it on and off with a remote.
If you received some odd gifts for Christmas and don't wish to regift consider returning the items for cash and get one of these aids to being outdoors. They're not cheap but if you can't use your $700 phone or feel your feet they become bargains.
You may have read about the mammoth spotted near Flatrock in a past article. The second part of Chase's program about early inhabitants of the area led us to the range again this time with bow and arrow in hand. The ancients relied on the atlatl probably until they decimated the mastodons in the area or some cataclismic event killed the beasts off. Evolution brought on the advent of the bow and arrow, high technology for the times. So off to the range we go again, this time the target is a large deer but it has many items adhered to it for added incentive to hit the target. Everyone got a chance to archer some treats from Chase.
Stella hit her target, a bag full of jerky. Nice shot Stella, hopefully Santa will come thru with a bow of your own.
The retired outdoor writer from the Toledo Blade wrote on his blog about a tradition he has for the winter solstice. Steve likes to build a bon fire on the night of the solstice and just imagine what it would be like without all of the comforts of home. No house, no funace, no phones, no car and so on and so on. What better way to spend a new winters evening, plus you could catch a glimpse of someone flying thru the sky.
This year was typical for deer hunting for our group as far as hunters and participation goes. It was a Thursday opener so not everyone could make it opening day but by the end of camp we had 10 hunters in our 1 room cabin.
This is a bare bones hunting camp but with all the comforts of home.
The weather on opening day was perfect, frost on the ground no wind and high anticipation. The xmas morning feelings were due to a trail cam pic taken a week earlier from a nephew that has the deer hunting fever bad.
This was a first for the camp, not the sight of a big deer but the trail cam. It had many pics of the big brute and also many pics of does and other animals. So the memory got filled in 2 days but surely the deer was still around. Alas no one spotted the big deer or many deer for that matter. After opening day the hunter man hours per day slipped below 10 and watching deer and deer hunting videos became the main interest in camp. Thanks Jeff for bringing the 46 inch view finder and sorry about your trail cam. Damn slob hunters.
We did see more deer coming home this year on vehicles than in years past but it seemed there were more atv's than deer coming home.
Archaeologists recently found one of the behemoths outside of Paris and the scientific community was abuzz. Now one was spotted just west of Flatrock in the Oakwoods Nature Center. It was speared 6 or 7 times to subdue it before we ran out of time and Chase finally put it down. The cardboard looked to be in good shape so maybe it can be used next year for atatl practice.
We take a lot of things for granted in our industrialized civilization and besides water we must have food to survive. If you're hungry you can go to a super market or any fast food chain. It was quite different a few millenia ago. Invention helped humans develope and survive in the harsh real world. The atlatl was one of those inventions allowing hunters to throw their spears farther and with more force. This allowed them to bring down a beast as large as the present day elephant. Now we have high powered rifles for deer.
The art of using an atlatl is difficult to come by as you can see. The atlatl becomes an extension of the users arm allowing more force to be applied. The point when you let go is very important and hard to estimate. Some are better than others and Brendan picked it up fairly easy. After the explorers had a few turns the parents tried it and Brendan's mom was able to put a killing shot on the big beast. Dad boasted that he could cook a bronto burger of the kill that even Fred Flintstone would enjoy. A good time was had by all, except for the mastodon.
If you're interested in experiencing the atlatl throw look up: http://www.michiganatlatl.org/
or visit the Oakwoods Nature Center and ask for Chase.
