I just got back from a three day hunt up in the Madawaska Highlands with my good friend Rick. We left early Friday morning and hunting in the area of
Rick's Hunt Camp.We stayed overnight on the north side of the Madawaska River in a rented cabin. It was quite rustic (no power or running water), but it did have a wood stove and propane for light and cooking. Very cozy! We used a small motor boat to cross the river to the hunting area.
Friday was a beautiful day with highs close to 14C. We hiked and hunted the areas to the west of the camp and them moved to the south and east of camp. It was a great day and I figured that we covered close to 12 km of country. Just after noon we saw a young doe (female
Whitetail Deer) up on the top of one of the hills. She is probably just over a year old. We saw several
Ruffed Grouse and got a few shots off..but lucky for the grouse we missed.
Later in the afternoon we found a
deer scrape created by a buck that was looking for does. Check out the picture below of the scrape. When you find scrapes then you know bucks are close by! This area is out of our normal hunting areas and was very remote. Great hiding spot for deer! Rick also found an large shed antler in this area.
Here is a picture of me in a stand of beech trees not to far from where we found the deer scrape.
While on top of one of the many hills in this area we saw an
Inukshuk on top of a large bolder. I am pretty sure this was placed here over the summer as I do not remember seeing it in the spring.
We headed back to the north side of the river just before dark. We were tired but satisfied as it was a great day.
It rained very hard Friday night and early Saturday morning. We woke up to a dark and dreary day so we fixed a relaxing breakfast and headed across the river about 10am. We (mostly Rick ;-) did some repairs around camp and then hunted a bit more and marked some trails.
Here is a picture of one of the many swamps in this area. Gortex boots are a must!
On one of these trails we came across a LARGE tree that the wind blew over. Here is a picture of Rick standing next to the root structure. Man, this must have made a LOUD noise when it fell over. Assuming of course that someone was there to hear it fall. ;-)
It started to rain hard around 4pm so we rested at the hunt camp for about an hour of so before heading back across the river.
Saturday evening Rick cooked up a nice meal of moose steak, potatoes and green beans. Yummy! If only I did not forget the red wine!
Sunday morning we woke up to a cold and clear day. I took a few pictures overlooking the water just before sunrise. What a beautiful spot! The
Loons were very loud this morning.
We hunted a few hours Sunday morning and while we did not see any more grouse, we did see lots of deer sign. Hopefully this means that the fall deer hunt starting in a few weeks will be a productive one!
We packed up and headed for home around mid-day. Although it would have been nice to bag a few grouse, we still had a great weekend in the bush and are now more excited than ever about the upcoming deer hunt.
