Deer Hunting, 2020 Back at Rich's

 

3 of the 4 deer bagged on Opening day

Well despite it getting more difficult to deer hunt each year, I decided to go again this year.  Hunting with my good friend Jack and his son Ben, a number of years we started hunting by his cabin on Platte Lake, west of Mille Lacs.  Soon we befriended a man named Rich Allen, who owned 160 acres about 3 miles southwest of Jack's cabin.  The land is mostly a peat swamp with some high ground east across the swamp as well as an wooded island that is slightly higher but not by much.  In the later years the water level had risen so high that it was almost impossible to get back to our hunting spots on the island.   Rich had passed away a number of years ago however his nephew Brett now has the land and he has always welcomed us to hunt.  Unfortunately we have chosen an easier path of hunting, another friend of Jack's, Loren has land about 15 miles from his cabin but for the most part it's dry and easy to walk.  This year Brett with the help of his son Trent and Jack's son Ben, they started clearing out all the overgrown brush that basically was holding back the water in the swamp.  After many weekends of work they were able to clear out the old drainage ditch enough to lower the water in the swamp by at least 6 inches.  Many years ago Jack had some solid aluminum catwalk pieces and gave them to rich to put across the ditch as a bridge.  Prior to clearing the ditch the water was about 2 inches above the deck.  When we walked over it on Friday to check out the stands the water was at least 6 inches under the bridge, however it was still pretty wet in the swamp as I soon found out that leaving my knee boots at home wasn't such a great idea!  Luckily Jack had some to use, I would have been wet without them.  One thing that Brett also did was allow me to use one of his plastic roto molded deer stands that he put up in strategic locations.  Admittedly it was very nice, a swivel chair, propane heater, nice windows, sitting up 10 feet off the ground supported by a number of treated 4 x 4's and a concrete anchor, it was very nice.  It was also nice of Brett to allow myself this luxury, maybe because I am getting old, never the less it was appreciated.  Either way it was nice to walk out to the stands on Friday to get familiar with the area again as it's been maybe 4 years or so since we hunted the swamp.  Friday night was our traditional Steak a la Kienitz night as appreciation to allowing us to hunt the land, we provide Friday night steak, baked potatoes, and fixing's.  It was always appreciated by Rich so we have kept the tradition going.  The first year we hunted with Rich, we brought a Flip Flop grill from Eleva.  Rich was so impressed he asked me to pick him up one, which after my mother got one for me, we had the next year.  Brett still has the grill as it does the steaks perfectly (although they were originally for chicken).

Plastic shelter on stilts!

We got up early, 5:00 AM on opening morning.  Being retired this isn't my normal routine however I did survive!  After a quick bite to eat we were headed to Brett's place to walk out to the stands.  It was quite dark yet the path was easy to follow.  Ben went south to a stand about 100 yards from Jack. Jack took the first stand on the edge of the wooded island, near where I would set up my old stand years ago.  Funny all those good trees were blown down and the feel of the area had changed quite a bit.  After wishing Jack good luck, my path took me about 150 yards north to the northeast point of the woods overlooking the edge of the swamp as well as the point.  It was unusually warm for this time of year with the high temperature predicted in the high 60's.  No need for heavy clothes so I removed my coat and sat down and got comfortable.  It was great!  With a nice south wind, it was just perfect as I stayed there till dark.  About 10:00 there were 2 shots very close.  Soon a call from Jack, Ben had a spike buck down and he went to get the special ATV to drag it back.  They were visible from my stand but it was just too comfortable to get my jacket and boots on to trudge my way over to see the deer, it would be there upon my return.  His buck is the one on the right in the first picture.  It was interesting as to the left of the stand was a pile of corn and 6 Mountain Dew bottles.  Legally one cannot hunt over a bait pile yet this was left over from bear hunting, in which it is legal to hunt.  Apparently the deer hadn't found the corn pile as it was still pretty intact.  Asking Brett what the Mountain Dew bottles were doing, he stated that bear love Mountain Dew and will rip open the tops and drink the entire half gallon, and there were 6 of them.  I didn't see any bear as the season closed a number of weeks ago and Brett had not cleaned it up.  Oh well, it was interesting about the Mountain Dew.  Because of my scheduled angiogram for next Monday which includes having a Covid Test on Thursday, I will be quarantined either way, if I am negative they don't want me to risk catching it between Thursday and the procedure on Monday, or if I am positive, it still means quarantine for 2 weeks........a lose lose deal so no more deer hunting this year!  The reason for all of this is my heart valve is slowly deteriorating.  This isn't an issue as I am schedule to have a TVAR type valve replacement which no longer requires open heart surgery. Previous test show not much change to the valve but one of my symptoms is getting out of breath easy.  A CT with Contrast showed some narrowing of the coronary arteries but not abnormal however a better test is the angiogram.   I think my issue is simply retirement and I am definitely out of shape.  After Monday we'll know more as my friend Mark Applen just had the same thing done and they put in 2 stents, which they might do to me.  Oh well.  Winter is coming and there's still a lot to do!