They were late in mowing things this year...



But the bird numbers have been phenomenal, so much so that I have recently forsworn road-birds and my modern 16.



A bit more of a challenge...



My faithful servant awaits.

A big thankyou to my bride for solving my minor IT problems here. My phone and my computer are talking again.

It's been darn warm here, so much so I've been in shorts and sandels these last two days. Didn't pack for such weather so I had to cut-off some sweatpants for shorts (thankfully I'd left some sandels here last June). 80 in October here is not normal.

Lloyd,
Luckily you have the lake to dip in!
Karl

Beautiful scenery!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

I need some help . . .

LOTW = ??

Many thanks.

Who cuts all of the trails ?

Lost In The Wilderness??

LOW-Lake of the Woods county, northern Minnesota. Named for the huge lake that borders the US and Canada.

The trails are typically mowed by locals under contract to the MN. DNR, and there are organizations like Ruffed Grouse Society that put volunteers on their own equipment to do some, as well.

Best,
Ted

Thank you Ted.

Thanks,it looks to be lovely countryside ,a lot of interested parties keeping it that way from what you say !

The trails up here are a big part of it for me. I grew up in the deciduous forests of northwestern Pennsylvania but moved out to Colorado for work after collage. For years, the hardest part of autumn was being someplace where it just wasn't much to celebrate. Up here on the Canadian border, it's a big deal every year. I get up in the morning, pack my lunch, stop and fuel up the truck, and then go get deep into the forest to walk the trails. Some are like cathedrals and some are nothing more than an overgrown yard (clearcuts up here produce that effect). All are necessary for the successional forests needed to propagate ruffed grouse.







There are grouse at the end of that rainbow...

Autumn glory!

Keep 'em coming, Lloyd! Many thanks for these wonderful photos of the North Woods.
JR

Lloyd;

Thanks for the beautiful photos.

Stephen Howell

Glad you folks are enjoying them. Ok...



Crossing the swamp to get to the deep woods.



getting there...



a good morning start.



first bird.



end of day and drinks on the deck...did I mention it's been warm?

The other component of activites up here...



my mother-in-law last night.



My cup runneth over.

One must be careful about what they wish for as it is wet, cool and windy today. The playground has become a sloppy-mess overnight and we're mostly locked inside the house. Days like this provide an opportunity however, to play catch-up on several deferred (but still-critically important) tasks that are looming, such as a dump-run, some aged-bird cleaning, some laundry, etc. One wiper arm on the old Ford truck has ceased operating (passenger side) so that needs attention as well. Never ending logistic challenges up here in RFD Minnesota. "Pay-to-play" means something completely different here. Did have some grouse in the yard last evening, which was fun for the ladies and guests. Nothing quite like last year (not aggressive, but not very fearful).



Last year's "pet". That bird had "attitude".

lloyd, thank you so much for this wonderful thread...

I'm green with envy. That really looks like a wonderful way to spend a month, and having your bride interested and participating is icing on the cake.

Do you ever run into other people out there? Other people hunting?

Jimmy: A classic old guy's refrain but...maybe even 10 years ago it was still quite wonderful, but it's all the time anymore and it's been particularly bad since COVID. Weekends are always busy and the MEA (Minnesota Education Association) weekend can be miserable. Its a big area thankfully and after 23-plus years I can usually avoid the worst of it but....I certainly do remember better times up here. I seldom go out on weekends now.

Reminton 40x: Having the better-half here dramatically improves the dining options. Last night when we got home from an afternoon in the woods, dinner was waiting. It consisted of roasted poblano peppers stuffed with shrimp and Manchego cheese, fresh squash from a local garden, and Spanish rice, all washed down with a nice chardonnay. Desert was a fresh-made apple crumble paired with Costco's super-rich vanilla ice cream. I waddled off to bed shortly thereafter. While we we out yesterday, she had also made spaghetti sauce (from scratch) from that local garden's big & luscious tomatoes as well as large & fluffy elk meatballs (for use at a later time). I'm not sure I can walk enough grouse trails to fully compensate...



But of course, I'll keep trying.

This ancient Lang (a converted-pinfire) is working out allright as a grouse gun. However... hunting "cocked" (essentially a gun with no safety) is a bit of a mental challenge, and accordingly I've stayed on only the well-groomed trails. I did chase a bird off the trail yesterday and somehow managed to avoid disaster but...it still does seem a little strange. That's probably a good thing.

This is a view of the train station in downtown Denver, right across from my office. I took this on my last day there before starting out on my long drive up to here.



The view from my alternative universe here in No-where, Minnesota (taken during last week's heat-wave). Talk about two very different worlds...more like two different centuries. Starting to plan on the closing-down of things here, pulling the boat, sealing the windows, clearing out the refrigerators and freezers, putting that "pink" anti-freeze in the sinks and toilets, and powering it all down for the long-sleep. I've got a little time up here yet (and have two more guests arriving over the next ten days or so), but after that it's all done for another year. After a good year it is easier to go back to "reality" (but only just), and at-least this was a very good year. But...I'm also sensing a fragility in so-many of the "things" up here (this old house, the old Ford truck, the old Lund boat, & even... myself) that I've never had to deal with before. My back really bothers me now after a long day afield and my blasted eyesight is now becoming something of a challenge (cloudy residue in my shooting eye from my recent PVD episodes according to my opthamologist, and even the beginnings of cataracts in both eyes). Getting older really sucks... until you consider the alternatives. Oh well.

hopefully, one makes you appreciate the other and vice versa...

Who keeps those roads/trails bush-hogged, Lloyd? The State?
JR

This was explained, in detail, earlier in the post.

Best,
Ted

Lloyd, I totally understood the reason you posted the pictures of where you are right now, and the one of a scene from downtown Denver. After I have been on a hunting trip in the woods for even a couple days, I always feel a little "dirty" when I come back to what we call civilization.

I also enjoyed going to the hunting camp in the middle of the week as opposed to weekend trips, because there was seldom any noise from dirt bikes, chain saws, or 4-wheelers, and you had the woods to yourself. That's also a big reason I enjoy flintlock deer hunting most of all. Many days, I can hunt all day without even crossing another hunters' boot print in the snow. The mere thought of having a TV at camp makes me want to vomit. I still recall going hunting shortly after the 9-11 Terrorist attack, when the domestic airlines were shut down. It was different and memorable to look up into blue skies that had no jets or contrails.

Mr. Roberts, the State provides that service. Evidently, all the big northern forrests in Minnesota now do that (in one form or another).

Remembering details isn't my strong suit, Ted.
JR

The hits just keep coming here...





My dolphins are smiling!

Ted & I talked about this, do you remember "Devo" from back in the 80s? "Devo" was short for "de-evolution" and was the name the Mothersbaugh boys from Cleveland, Ohio came up with for their band. I think I even read that their sister came up with the wild designs for their cloths and headgear? Anyway, here's my version of "Devo" in the shotgun world...at least in the cab of my old Ford truck.

Excellent thread!

Interesting sunsets up here...









Drive into the light, right? That way, for me, is home. Just a few days left here.

That is big country. Everything, is an hour+ away, and you are at the gas station, daily. But, there is really nothing else like it, anywhere, and I am already looking forward to being there, again.

Best,
Ted

Wow, it must take several big ranging dogs to hunt those wide areas. Please post some photos of your dogs.

Kindest Regards;

Stephen Howell

The pictures of the farm fields are NOT where we hunt. There are sharptails in the area, but, I don’t know anyone who hunts them. I’ve never shot one in LOTW county. I wouldn’t say they are abundant. There are no pheasants in the area that I am aware of.

We hunt in the forest for Ruffed grouse, and woodcock. The fields are what we have to drive past to get to the state forest areas.

Hunting with pointing dogs on the forest trails is tough. The grouse spend a lot of time walking back and forth using the trail to get from one side to the other. My Setter pointed a few times at brush on one side of the trail, only to have the bird flush from the other side. I’ve also noticed the birds in that part of the world seem much more likely to run than the grouse I encounter in the southern half of the state. They don’t run like pheasants, but, they can and do get a move on.

I only hunt because I have a dog. While I’ve owned a dog that was perfectly capable of great work on pheasants and grouse, the current pooch struggles a bit with grouse, as did her predecessor. I typically pick an edge between a popple harvest and some sort of evergreen trees, locally, and just walk it until it peters out, with the dog working in a windshield wiper pattern. She tried the same up there, but, I’m guessing the grouse study movement on the trails because they can see it coming. We had some bumped birds, and some that just did not hold for a point, and, some beautiful points. She had a spectacular, and amusing point at a bird that ran under the car.

Long ago, I decided to just take what comes, and enjoy the day. I enjoyed them all.

Photo credit to Lloyd-my pooch and I coming out of the woods. Artsy, me thinks.



Best,
Ted

Ted; Nice photo thanks for posting it. Sunday I received a photo my friend Kym who is up at his cabin at Long Lake, Manitoba. The photo was of him preparing to shoot over his Brittany Spaniel. He says that there is a bumper crop of grouse this year, especially Spruce grouse.


Lloyd, please post some photos of your dog(s).

Kindest Regards;
Stephen Howell

Your entire post, sir, is shotgun poetry.

Lloyd hunts in the school of Zutz-dogless. We generally split up, or start at different ends of the same trail. He is very tolerant of my pooch (not to mention me, checks all the boxes of a great friend) at home, but, she is an exceptionally well behaved dog in the house, and spends the majority of her time in her kennel, pretty much just coming out for a pet, and hustling back in. Just the way she is.

I look forward to that time of the year the entire year, and have missed a few seasons. I’m going to work on that aspect of who I am, and it was Lloyd who got me thinking about making sure to take the time to do it-how many of these trips do we have left?

Best,
Ted

Mr. Howell: I do have a dog (a small, black, standard poodle) and she & I have chased game-farm pheasants many times, but...she has become more pet to my family than hunter these days. Dogs up here are a mixed bag at best. The forest is both immense and dense (and now loaded with ticks and wolves). The birds hang on the edge of these old roads and trails and run back into cover when threatened, only flying occasionally. I find myself slowly hunting down these old logging remnants, gun at the ready, waiting to see movement or to hear the sounds of an alarmed or departing bird. The shots are quick and fleeting with lots of walking in-between.

I plan to bring her up with me someday (next year maybe?) now that tick-medications have become effective & available for dogs and see how she responds to it all, but my expectations are limited (as she is not a pointer).

Dang Ted, the photo of you and Louie now reminds me of an old Winslow Homer landscape (especially after it's been cloned & copied several times to lose a little focus). Have that one reproduced in oil and you'd have an interesting wall-hanger.

Upon further review, I'd say it looks more like something Russel Chatham might do or even Eldridge Hardie?

I has a nice, end of day quality about it, and the sky has a dramatic vibe, which, fortunately, was not the case.

Good work.

Best,
Ted

That looks like the Lancaster Kirby Hoyt had a while back. I held it in my hands. Nice gun!

The hammergun came from Kirby early last Spring (although he still has it on his webpage for sale?). It's a very early Lang.

As the natives say here...Ya der hey!

The last glorious days of Autumn (snow here Wednesday and for several days after). I depart Sunday.

Up early for my last cup of coffee here. Trying to be on the road no later than 9AM. The final gun scrub was last night after a dinner of leftovers. When I was out behind the house, looking at the LP gas bottle yesterday afternoon (for level information to judge the need for the next refill), one of this year's "pets" was watching over my shoulder...

(OK, this was last year's bird. This year they weren't quite that bold).

I can finally say that I'm fully-sated this year, and now it's 1,150-miles back across the Great Plains to the concrete jungles of Denver (until the next adventure). If I've ever seen "cycle-highs" in grouse populations before, then this one was the highest of my lifetime. I do hope that it lasts for at least a little while.

Lloyd,
Looks like you had a great trip, safe trip home to you. A shame to leave such a good place, but next year! Nice picture of the resident pet!
Karl

For what it’s worth, the 4 of them that hung around the cabin this year, were the tamest grouse I’ve ever seen. They weren’t easily startled, and just flew far enough away to be out of reach. They strutted around like they paid the taxes on the place.

I’ve read about that phenomenon, but, first time I ever witnessed it was on this trip.

Safe travels, Lloyd.

Best,
Ted

Safe journey. Good memories. Thanks for taking us along.

wonderful thread...thanks again...means a lot to an old retired grouse hunter like me...so much...

What an awesome story. Thank you so much for sharing. And the photos were fantastic!!

Made it home last night. Glad you folks liked the show here. An interesting sidebar...



My buddy's gun, a 20 WR droplock, delivered in 2017. The only 20 droplock I've ever seen. Truly lovely.



5lbs14 w/29-inch tubes.

I think that deserves a WOW !!!!

Glad to see (given what he must have paid for it) that he’s not afraid to lay it down on wet ground!

I'm afraid that's my bad. He likely wouldn't have done such a thing. One must be careful about who you get to hold your gun for you (the grass wasn't all that wet).

Epilog-

2 days ago up at LOTW:





and here in Colorado:

2 days ago:



& this morning:



It's been a memorable autumn.

That is one pretty little WR.

Glad you're back home safe.

Lloyd,
A long time ago a friend of mine and I would load up our dogs and head to the same area we hunted this year, but, right between Christmas and New Years. The area is desolate, but, beautiful in the cold, and you can usually get an idea where the birds are by looking down at the snow on the ground. Hunting is hit or miss, sometimes you find a group of birds in the damndest location, sometimes you don’t see a thing. We did combine the hunting with ice fishing, usually on the half of upper Red Lake that is open to non band members, but, a time or two on Lake of the Woods. We had about as much fun as two young guys could have in that part of the world, in late December.
Not much of an ice fisherman these days, and that much grouse hunting in the cold and snow might kill me, today.

Good to hear you arrived safely.

Best,
Ted