Turkey Hunting 2010--Day 2

The night was anything but restful. Our alarm went off at midnight, I had set it to 4:15 but had turned on both alarms of the two-alarm clock.I noticed lightning of a far-away storm, foreboding the rain forecast for the next day. Indeed, when we struggled groggily out of bed at 4:15, it was raining. By the time we got into the car, rain had turned into a downpour, with occasional lightning. We decided to head for the woods anyway and wait there for a break in the weather. It turns out that the rain had been merely a strong but thankfully short shower. I preceded Jim to my blind, confident in my good rain gear. The morning was war and humid, more so than at any time I can remember. I was more wet from sweat walking the short stretch than from the rain.
I crawled into my blind and awaited day break, worrying about the next shower. But while there were occasional raindrops, there was no further deluge. Between dawn and 8:00 there was a lot of activity nearby, gobbling, calling, none very close. I do think I heard a hen clucking, too. I was unsuccessful calling in any of the toms or jakes, and after a while, everything settled down again. Around 9:30 or so, a movement caught my attention. A hen wandered in from the north, slowly ambling by. She clearly was a  little nervous about the blind, but stopped to pick some seeds or grubs or whatever turkeys eat, barely 25 feet away from where I was sitting, she didn't bring along any suitors and the turkeys remained silent.
However, I had quite a few visitors. The most startling was probably a fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) that suddenly appeared within easy reaching distant on a tree trunk to my immediate left. Like the turkey hen, it intently scrutinized me, apparently knowing that something wasn't quite right, but not concerned enough to run away. A wood pecker, as far as I could tell a yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) came to the tree under which my blind was set up. I caught a glance whenever he flew over to the deer stand just a few steps to my left and tapped his message on the metal rungs of its ladder.
When it started raining again in earnest I decided it was time to leave the woods. When I walked by Jim's location I found him gone already. I turns out that he never even heard a turkey, the frogs in the pond (mostly gray tree frogs, Hyla versicolor) drowned out any other noise in the forest. As an aside, two-three years ago, I was sitting  at W.A. Frost on St. Paul's (if not Minnesota's) finest patio enjoying in good company a nice after-dinner drink. All of a sudden something wet dropped in the middle of my balding head. "This can't be what I think it is" I mused and, against better judgement I reached to remove the offending item. I had barely touched this moist thing when it removed itself, to my shoulder. Definitely not the behavior one would expect from guano or from an overripe fruit of some kind. I was able to twist my head in the direction to take a good peep, and I am pretty sure it was H. versicolor, who, upon seeing my giant face practically nose to nose with him decided to make his next move which  landed him on our table, almost  in my beer.
We left for lunch at the Redwood Cafe. When we exited, black clouds were gathering again and we began fearing for the planned fishing outing. By the time we returned to the Crest Inn, the rain had turned into a torrent and as soon as we were inside, hail was drumming on the roof and against the windows. We decided to delay the fishing and instead took a nap.
When we awoke, it was almost 4:00 PM and we hurried to our favorite trout stream near Caledonia, Crooked Creek. The runoff from the rain had troubled the waters, but Jim was unperturbed. We hit the creek and started casting our flies. Hares ear nymphs were what did it for me, they were not excited, but I was able to catch a few fish.

We stayed until it got too dark to tie on a fly and headed for dinner at the Good Times. We saw Merrill and ___ at the bar and had a beer with them before we headed to our table, right under a gigantic moose head (see picture on the Good Times website). Jim was rather worried that the moose would drool in his food.
We turned in after dinner and thankfully had a uninterrupted and restful night.

Turkey Hunting 2010--Day 1

This year we did not seem as well prepared as in previous years. It seems like we wasted valuable time by coming out on Wednesday night and not taking advantage of an opportunity to hunt on Thurdsay morning. We met Merrill, our longtime contact and friend for breakfast at the Redwood Cafe and discussed some options to hunt on private land.Since he retired from farming a few years ago, Merrill sold most of his property, including the the areas where we used to hunt. He told us that he'd make a few calls and sure enough, whe we got in touch a few hours later he told us that we should go see Thor for a spot.
Thor is a real estate developer who fell in love with SE Minnesota during a hunting trip and moved here. From what I can tell, he bought some swaths of land and built several high-end homes. An avid outdoorsman, he believes in sharing his passion rather than keeping it to himself. Through the introduction by our friend Merrill, we came to benefit from Thor's generosity. He had already someone hunting at his hobby, or should I say gentleman's farm. So he sent us to a tract of land he owns near CR22 and Fort Ridgeley Rd.

Jim and I decided to spend some time in the woods this very afternoon. Thanks to Thor's good directions and a map drawn on a satellite photo, Jim and I had no trouble finding it. The terrain is a valley with steep hill sides, the very bottom of the valey still owned by the person who sold him the property. We started walking along the NW edge of the plot, the rim of the valley. Jim decided that he liked the one of the first locations we came across, a pond at forest's edge, which he hoped would attract thirsty birds. I continued, came across a similar location just a couple hundred meters further. Here, the pond was dry, not surprising since it was at the top edge of a deep hillside. When I investigated for suitablity of a blind location, I came nose-to-nose (or about 5 m) with a coyote (Canis latrans), right outside of her den.

She took one quick look at me and darted down the hill side, vanishing into the thick growth. Charmed by this encounter I decided that this might not that good of a location to set up since I could not imagine that the fowl I was after would be keen on visiting the backyard of a predator's lair. So I continued, meandering in and out of the woods until I found a location where the woods made a corner. I set up my blind and spent a couple of hours listening to turkeys who did not seem have any inclination to make my acquaintance.

At 16:00 I met Jim, we needed to head back for our date with Merrill at the country club. We went over at 17:00 and partook in the customary Thursday Men's Night at the club. Merrill had bought some filet mignon, they were excellent.
Jim and I turned in around 21:00, with probably a little more alcohol than we should have. The last thing I remember hearing was the barking, yipping and laughter of a coyote family, very close, from the sound of it.

Midwest Mountaineering Paddling Event at Lake Nokomis

Oddly, the first times I paddled in Minnesota were on fast moving water, the Vermilion, at the very end of the Echo Trail and stretches of the St.Louis. This was in a 16 ft. Coleman with big float bags and knee straps, an old hockey helmet to protect my bean. Thanks to Bobby Jorissen and his buddy, I received an excellent introduction to paddling sports.

But since then, it has been mostly flat water, which is more forgiving. So it should be no surprise that ever since I started thinking about doing a river trip this year, instead of the traditional BWCA trip, I felt I needed to brush up on my canoeing skills. I was surprised to find how difficult it is to find any type of canoe skills class. I got lucky with Midwest Mountaineering, which, at its spring paddling event offered some clinics. I tried to sign up twice, the first time the guy I talked to thought I was a little early. The second time, the person on the other end of the phone line relented and started a sign-up sheet, entering James and me on the first line for Efficient Tandem Canoe Paddling, taught by none less than Mike Cichanowski, founder and owner of Wenonah Canoe. I had a chance to paddle a few of their models as rentals in the Boundary Waters and was always happy with their products and impressed with the light weight of their Kevlar canoes.

An hour is not a lot of time, especially if you have an expanse of water and canoe teams of varying skill levels. After telling us a little about himself, his company and his product, he told us the focus of the class: paddling straight, meaning stroke coordination between bow and stern paddler WITHOUT too many corrective moves like the J-stroke, and turning quickly and efficiently, using draw strokes coordinated between bow and stern men.

Mike circled from canoe to cane and gave admonitions on improper strokes and advice on how to do it right. James is an ace at the draw stroke but he has a hard time properly paddling. I think he'll have to when we need to need some whitewater on the Manigotagan.


Like with my recent swim class and x-country ski class, I found the effort quite worthwhile. It's ok to work from a manual or by trial and error but a little expert advice, drills and repetition do wonders.

Added bonuses:

• got to put on the Yakima rack on the new car (Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix). The Q-Clips work much better on the Vibe than they did on the Mazda5 (different Q-Clips are needed for the different cars!)
• got to try out the Gallyan Woodsman III/Bell Northwind. I found out that it not only looked like new but also performed like new. No leaks or anything like that. Furthermore, someone else had the Bell-branded Northwind, they almost were identical. Trim was a little nicer-looking on the Northwind, but performance-wise, I doubt there'd be a difference. 

Orienteering Setting Afton State Park

Today I visited Afton State Park to mark the control locations for the MNOC May 16 orienteering meet. (see also this post on my running blog). A good opportunity to check on how nature is coming along as our early spring is continuing. I traveled about 26 km/16 miles and covered a wide swath of the park.

I saw quite a few deer, a good sized male turkey, a turkey hen, a pileated woodpecker.

Anemones were blossoming all over the place, I saw Wood Anemone Anemone quinquefolia and Sharp-leaved Hepatica (Liverleaf), Hepatica acutiloba, both from the buttercup family. Less pleasant and rather disturbing was the prevalence of the invasive species common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) throughout the park. Unpleasant, but not disturbing were a few patches of prickly ash, Xanthoxylum americanum.

Mellie was along for about half of the outing, she is a great companion in the woods. All in all, a good time out!

In Like a Lamb out Like a ...

Spring has sprung with a vengeance. March came in like a lamb and left like one, too. I just got the gas/electrical bill for that month, last year’s average temp was 2C/36F while this year’s was 8C/46F. Now, almost halfway through the month of April most lakes have declared ice-out, a week earlier than any previous record. One example, Sawbill Lake at the edge of the Boundary Waters was ice-free on April 4. The typical date without ice for that lake is May 1.

Closer to home, I am enjoying a very early greening. Our lilac bushes, always the first to burst their buds, started around April 1 and are by now a solid green wall. The maple trees surrounding our house are in full bloom, and various perennials are practically jumping out of the ground. Lynn has been waiting for the first tulips to open their cups, they can’t be far now.

I can’t shake the feeling that we will pay for all this early-season warmth with a frigid entry into May, possibly when I am sitting in the woods waiting for turkeys. But maybe this is really it, an early start to spring.

Fishing Little Canon River

Thanks to our inattentiveness in signing up Colin in time for the ACT, I got a little fishing (and a good jog) in. The most difficult thing about today was finding a place where I could buy my license. I decided on the Little Canon River, along Goodhue County Rd. 14, because it was not to far from Randolph, where Colin was taking his test. I stopped on Sogn Valley Trail, right by the bridge across the creek. There were quite a few rises but I could not figure out what they were after. Still, a pleasant enough hour on the creek; good to be fishing again.


View Fly Fishing Little Canon River in a larger map