Hanging with Pete

The home base on the Sipe property

 Last Wednesday Pete invited me to his family's compound east if Marcell, MN just north of Grand Rapids. Along with us was Pete's brother Tim, he reminds me of my brother, Steve.  He has talked about getting me up to the land that his dad and uncle owns, 200+ acres that border the Chippewa National Forest. It's quite the place, nothing fancy as you can see the main lodge on the land, however it is quite nice in it's own way.  Dating back to the 1940's, Pete's grandfather bought the land and today it is in the hands of Pete's dad and Uncle.  The land is basically in the middle of nowhere as one hears nothing but the wind at night, quite peaceful.  It's quite a hike off the main roads as one travels dirt forest roads to their land.  The landscape is full of huge old growth Red and White  Pines that stand tall and are impressive.  As well the area has been slowly logged off so it's an interesting mix of these large pines, quite a bit of Poplar Trees with a smattering of birch and oak trees.  Pete tells the story of his uncle that in the past would bring acorns with him and he would drop them in the woods as he walked, stepping them into the ground as he went along.  You can see the results all around as the woods have a lot of smaller oak trees growing.  The cabin in the picture is a single room building with a metal roof, old style shingle siding, with 4 bunks inside, a propane range for cooking, a barrel stove for heat, and and old style sand point through the floor with a hand pump by a sink that needed to have the plugs reinstalled and the pump primed.  Because the water used in the sink is pretty clean, the sink's drain empties on the ground outside the cabin.  There is electricity available for lighting and in both Pete and my case powering our Cpap machines.  No television, it was nice.  A simple picnic table served as our main seating area for eating and relaxing.  As you see there was a small amount of snow in the area with ice forming along the lake shore.  Pete and Tim gave me the grand tour of the surrounding lakes, forest roads and points of interest.  Along with the tour was commentary on the CCC projects in the area, the WW2 German Prisoner of war camps where German prisoners were transported back to camps in the US to work in the mines, cutting wood in the forests, or working the farms.  Many of these prisoners ended up staying in the US after the war.   

View from the shoreline.

One thing I found unique was the entire lake called Heinen Lake was completely within the property.  Although not a big lake it is fed by a river that runs through a number of lakes on it's way to join the Big Fork River in the city of Bigfork.  Apparently the lake's outlet seldom freezes over the winter so they leave their docks in.  Between the lakes one experiences a lot of beaver activity which constantly changes to water levels as the lake was quite high for this time of year. Claiming there is a nice 20+ hole in the lake, the fish seem to be hard to find in the winter.  There is another lake that borders the property that is better for fish in the winter and I am looking forward to possible trying my luck sometime this winter, maybe later in February or March. Because the forest roads are not plowed in the winter, generally the mode of transportation into the land is via a snowmobile.  Hopefully I will have my sled running by then and get the chance to chase those nice crappies Pete and Tim were talking about.  We did end up putting a ladder stand together for Pete then selecting a nice tree in a stategic location.  There seemed to be quite a few deer around however a few deer can make a lot of tracks.  Tim had a trail cam by his stand and we brought it back to camp to look at what has been walking by.  A couple of does, a fox, and a very nice 8 point buck staring right into the camera.  Pete claims that over the years one usually finds the area is dominated by one nice buck and usually a smaller spike buck and a few does.  There used to be a wolf pack on the property however both state that it is not a factor.  There is only a few doe permits allowed so it's mostly buck hunting.  I guess we will see what next week brings.

As far as my hunting, Jack, Ben, and I will be hunting our old stands on Rich's old property owned by Brett.  We haven't hunted the area in the last few years because it's been so wet however this year Brett had a couple of guys clearing out the drainage ditch that runs through the center of the property.  Apparently this had significantly drained the water, enough that one can walk or take an ATV and not get wet or stuck.  This well be nice as it make it easier to get to our stands.  Unfortunately I need to leave on Saturday night to attend a family event in Wisconsin, but that's okay, Jack and I can hunt all next week as he is also retired.  The weather has been nice with highs in the mid 60's helping to allow getting done at the last minute.  I should be able to get all those things that the early snowfall a couple of weeks ago stopped progress.