We took Richard and Patricia up to Touchwood again to show off Campground Trail.
Weather was incredibly nice, about 8-10 degrees and sunny. Left base camp at 8.15 and went straight to Campground Trail; all 4 us with our own personal thermos. That’s the best part of riding the trail in October; hot coffee! (or tea, in Patricia and Sven’s case)
Richard got the first grouse of the day just a few km in; we startled up 4 of them! And got one. We found that ended up being the case most often, the grouse were ganging up together and we rarely just saw one alone. So it was good to have three hunters, one spotting and two shooting. Great to back each other up.
Saw a lone WT doe about 11.15 in the morning, and then another about an hour later. They spooked very quickly; by the time we spotted them they were already running. That makes me really want to be hiking the trail rather than driving it, but without snow to track them I am not sure how much more success we’d have hiking it anyway.
The grouse hunting was incredible all day long. We ended up with 14 chickens in all; both Richard and Sven tagged out. I, however, got the biggest one: Grousezilla. This guy was HUGE, easily the biggest chicken any of us had seen. He did not clean up very well; I ripped his legs right off and they were actually big enough that I kept them! Be good to roast up I’m sure. Actually, Sven and I found that messy cleaning happened to both us several times that day. The legs just ripped off and didn’t separate from the breast properly. Oh well, that’s what a good knife is for.
We scouted quite a bit further this time than we did last two times; we went through the Park Boundary (where you can’t hunt) and stopped for lunch at the T-Intersection. Which was 13.9 km in from the Trailhead.
We carried on through the park (by turning East at the T) and it is about 5km to the next boundary. We had to clear quite a bit of trail as it looks like no one has been through there with a chainsaw for quite some time. And the wood we were clearing! Big beautiful pines, nice and straight with no knots; this just broke Richard’s heart. It was such a waste of good firewood, but we aren’t allowed to take it out of a provincial park.
We made it 20.3 km in; found a corner stop to have a beer. Even as deep in the Wild as we were, a couple of quads came up from the opposite direction. Rather than have them pass us (and possibly take all the grouse on the way back) we all booked it out of there back the way we came. It was quite surprising to see other people out there that deep in the Wild, but that’s the bane of all public land hunters. We lost them at the park boundary; looked like they carried on back the way they had come. Which of course made us all very curious; just where had they come from? But that’s a trail for another day.
So we hunted all the way back; again finding several pockets of grouse ganged together. One, in fact, was a male grouse flirting up a storm all puffed up and looking incredibly handsome! I shot at him, missed, so shot his girlfriend instead. And all his other girlfriends flew away.
I must say, I absolutely adore the double barrel 20 gauge Dad gave us! It’s so handy when you come upon a cluster of grouse. We used #6 shot the whole time and it performed very well.
We ended up back at base camp around 8 pm; that was about 3 hours later than we would have preferred but when the hunting is that hot you can’t just leave it. We were all quite tired, but very pleased with ourselves and our hunt.
The only downside to the day was the fact that it cost us two knives; Richard left his on his quad and drove away, mine slipped out of my pocket somewhere. I am quite bereft over the loss of mine; this is the Kershaw that Sven gave me several years ago and I really loved that knife.
The only other game we saw on the way out was a rabbit right at the trail head. That’s right, a RABBIT. Believe it or not, that is the first one that Sven and I have seen out in the Wild! Of course we see them all over town, and we see their tracks all over the bush, but never had we seen one live. Guess we can’t say that anymore. He was all brown still, but his feet were turning white. Another sign of the winter to come.
So again we got back to base camp after dark, but with FOURTEEN GROUSE between us, we felt the time spent was well worth it! I think we have converted Richard to Touchwood Hunting Grounds for life.
Sunday we struck Grouse Gold again, stuck around Chump Lake area and got 10 more between us. We took the new trail that we cut around the gravel pit at the Junction, rode the highway until we went back in at Wash Machine Trail. There was a bit of a mizzle most of the day, and overcast. All of us were decked out in rain gear, so we managed to stay relatively dry.
We stopped along the way to fire off Richards 30-30, it’s been a while (as in, many years) since it has been shot so we figured we’d give it a work out. Performed well, but we had to squeeze the lever really hard to get it to fire. (Question for Dad)
In honor of Thanksgiving, we did a beer can chicken in the little smoker. No wood chips, we just cranked the heat to 350° and cooked it for about 2 hours. It turned out just great! It was a really nice holiday meal for the four of us.This may have been Patricia’s last weekend at camp this year, as it’s getting quite cold and they’ve got their camp pretty much closed up.
Sunday dawned wet again, and the rain turned to sleet by mid-morning. Patmore’s trailer sprung a leak, we think from the awning, and soaked one end of the couch. Sven and Richard did a bit of a patch job hoping it will hold.
With families waiting at home for turkey dinner, we all booked out of camp pretty early.
Happy Thanksgiving all! We have a lot to be thankful for.
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