UP deer camp.

[Alleyyooper]

We took a vacation In the Up in 1990 in the early spring. We were taking the Kids to all the normal tourist traps, like Castle Rock, Soo Locks and such. We camped all alone on the shore of Lake Superior one night just west of Brimley. We enjoyed the walks on the beach and being all alone in this camp ground that in just a couple of months would be crowded with people. We decided that in the morning we would break camp and go to Paradise for breakfast.  Like many UP restaurant’s they had fliers in a rack with all kinds of stuff for trolls to do and see.  While waiting for breakfast I decided to look at what all they had that was close to the area we would like to see in the short time we had. I saw a flier for property on Lake Superior for sale at what I thought was a reasonable price. My Brother and I had spent many a vacation day in that area of the UP and I liked it and most of the local people so it struck a cord. I took the flier back to the table and told my Kare that here was a place to retire where I could do all the stuff I liked, hunting fishing and snowmobiling.  She said that If we were going to buy land on a lake in the UP it was going to be one she could swim in in June and September.
   I figured that was the end of that story and we would find that special place to retire when I did retire.  But we still had that I want my own place to deer hunt problem to deal with. That desire had started in December of 1990 when I returned from deer hunting at my dad’s. I was really unhappy with how the later part of the season there had gone.  I had people who just didn’t want to listen to persons who had hunted there for nearly 30 years on how the deer travel and the routes they take and stay PUT.I kept having people invade what I considered my shooting lanes. Trying to sneak thru the very spot I had picked many years ago as my spot, just as Robb had picked the spot by the cedar swamp and the narrow alley the deer traveled thru.
The summer came and then came Labor Day week end which seemed so quickly. Kare said we would go look for Property on Lake Michigan or some of the bays Like the De Noc’s.  We started In Wisconsin on th4e Door Peninsula On Saturday Morning. Taxes there seemed to be about the same as Michigan as the property prices seemed to be also. Problem was the restrictions that seemed to be on all the property on the lake and many parcels were just to small. Saturday afternoon found us back in Escanaba Michigan with our list of property for sale along the hiway to Marinette Wisconsin. On the phone with realtors got us a narrowed down list to just a couple of places. Those places didn’t pan out Sunday morning so we headed east past Gladstone past Rapid River to the Stonington Peninsula. We found the perfect place on Hunts point. Met the owners who said to call one them on Monday  to get a price for the property we decided we wanted, they had just close the deal on the whole parcel Friday. Turned out we were too late to get anything other than a get rich quick run around from those people.  I started bowing out of week end over time every other week to go to the UP and search for Property. I was really getting tired of all the reasons Kare didn’t want this place or that one. The week end the Yogo Jumped off the bridge we went up to look at a parcel we had looked at before that was 56 acres on the garden side of Big Bay De Noc. The realtor In Manistique had called me on Friday and said they had sold 11 acres of that place.  We looked at it Saturday afternoon. I was tired of eating at the Big boy in Manistique I told Kare so lets go to Jacks in Rapid River.  Driving down US 2 to get there I see a side road going down the west side of the bay. I tell Kare we haven’t been down that road yet, so we do a U turn and go down that road. We get down to a place near the bay and there is a 4x8 sign For sale by owner 1/2 mile of frontage.  I tried calling the number before we ate at Jacks, I tried again when we got back to the motel, and then Sunday morning with no results not even an answering machine to leave our number. We went to the property for a little while Sunday morning to try and figure out just what the property lines were. We both liked what we were seeing. Hard woods cedar swamp a beach with sallow water for some ways out. I finally got the owner on Monday Morning. We talked a deal,  we closed on Nov 3d 1990. I wasn’t ready to hunt it that year but was the next. That is a story in its self.

   Al

[Alleyyooper]

We closed the deal for our UP deer camp Nov 3d 1990. The former owner wanted to meet us at the property on the morning of the  4th to show up the property lines the lawyer at the closing said. Paul got there about 10:00 Am, he was 86 years old and a spry old fellow. He offered to walk me thru the cedar swamp to make sure I knew the boundary marks we in there. I declined that walk not due to his age but due to how I was dressed in low shoes and slacks rather than Jeans. After he was satisfied we were happy with the place and knew the boundary’s he left. Kare and I walked around a point on the south west end of the property full of hard woods Maples and oaks for a while discussing where we would build the house and where I would put my work shop ( the cabin for starters.) . Finally we had to go so we could get home to pick the kids up from grandma and grandpa’s Just as we got to the east property line a flock of snow geese came soaring over the road on their way to land in the bay.
The property was 37 acres and had a black top road running thru it so some was on the bay side of the road and some on the inland side of the road. It is nearly surrounded by federal land. One 10 acre chunk has a corner against our line and there is a 40 acre piece that touches out line on the north thru the cedar swamp.
I deer hunted at my dad’s in 1990 for the last time. I had a fellow at work who was going to go to the UP with me for my first season in 1991. I was getting excided the closer Nov 15th 1991 got. I also had a fear of that huge area with no roads and getting lost somehow. I’ve never had any thing like it to hunt in my life. I had 2 ½ miles square as the biggest area. I didn’t even know any one else who hunted an area like that to talk to. So 3 days before we were to leave the fellow at work backed out. Said he found out there were no doe permits for that area. I went home getting there as Kare was getting ready to go to work. I followed her around talking about going alone and not really wanting to.  When she left I went to bed and had a fit full sleep. This took place before our day or internet searches and such.  Kare called me before I left for work and said she had got some time off from her boss so she could go with me. She doesn’t hunt but would be there if I didn’t get back to camp after dark to honk the truck horn and get a search party if I still didn’t return.
I should point out we had bought a 22 foot travel trailer to use as our housing while there. I would come in at lunch time and Kare would ask how many deer I had seen then laugh when I would say none. Kare would tell me she had  x amount laying in the low spot to the east of the trailer all morning. As the years went by I learned if you saw 10 deer a day you had seen a bunch. Average was 4 to 5 a day. After 4 days Kare got to hacking and had a fever so I took her home and to the doctor for meds. I returned to the Up alone for the rest of the season my fear cured. I had tag soup that year.

   Al

[Alleyyooper]

With a year in the UP deer camp under my belt and a want for someone to go with me I called my cousin Rick and asked if he would like to hunt up there with me now that his boys were grown and doing their own thing. He asked where the place was at and said he would call me back some time in the near future. Kare and I went up there the Spring of 1992 and planted a bunch of white spruce and white pines along the road so when we got around to building a house and retiring there it would block the noise of the road not that there was that much but we just wanted it that way. While we were there I put a big sign up on the gate post with our last name so if Rick came to explore he would know it was our place. Just a day after I got home from that trip I broke out in a horrible rash all over my chest, legs and butt. The doctor asked if I had been bite by Lyme ticks. I lost count of the blood test and other test I had at 12.  This rash would resurface every time I went up there when it wasn’t deer season. After 5 or 6 years we decided it was Posin Ivy and I would somehow get into it. Never did figure out why I didn’t get into it during deer season.
Any way Rick called me up some time in July and said he would go and we made some plans. We both worked second shift he in Lansing and I in Lake Orion. My second shift was much later than his. He was usally home by 12:00 PM and I didn’t get home till after 2:00PM if I didn’t work over time. I would call him from home very early about 3:00PM and let him know I was on my way there to pick him up. I had my truck packed with food, water, genset, clothing, and hunting equipment the day before. I’d drive the Daughters car to work the evening of the 13th. Rick would have a pot of coffee on when I got there and fill up my travel mug as we loaded his stuff in plus some propane tanks. He was to drive as I slept some, but that never worked out. He would drive never the less just in case I wanted to catch a few winks. That first year the road (I 75) was fine till we got north of Gaylord. We got off on an exit ramp and locked the hubs up just in case. We made the west bound turn on to US 2 about 5:30 AM with very slick roads. The traffic was doing about 35 across there we figured out 2 ½ hours to Manistique at that rate. We were getting close to Nubinway when the traffic came to a total halt. We sat there for maybe 30 to 45 minutes before we could go again. We saw what was the worst wreck I have ever seen any place as we got closer to Nubinway. What had been a mini van looked like a tan fridge that had fell off some ones trailer. A Snyder semi off in the trees on the east bound side. Can goods clothing and other hunting stuff scattered for some distance and a pickup truck on its side part way in the west bound lane. We learned latter 7 guys died in that wreck.
We made it to Manistique sooner than expected as the road had gotten plowed and  sanded  outside of Nubinway. We fueled the truck up there then drove to tylenes at the top of the bay for breakfast and call home with a we made it message about 8:30 AM.  Just 10 minutes more and we were pulling into the drive way of our UP deer camp for our first of 14 seasons together.
Although we had deer hunted together for many years before when his boys were young we had never gotten a buck the same year together. We both got a buck the 4th day of the season that first year he a 6 point and I an 8 point just minutes apart time wise.  I can still see him coming across that hard wood lot and I calling to ask if he had got one and the hand plus one finger going up. I was just finishing field dressing mine. We both were using 243’s also, I poured a cup of coffee as he was and told my story then he told his and said he couldn’t find it. We were both using different hand loads. We finished the coffee then went to look for his deer I knew was down as he just didn’t miss. He used to come to dads where we would shoot rifles, he and my brother would start betting on who could hit the milk jug cap 175 yards out, Who could shoot off the ear of corn 300 hundred yards across the corn field and that sort of stuff. We got back to where he had been sitting on Federal land on a big hill by some huge Hemlocks. I walked about 10 yards in the directions he said the deer was and there it laid.
We loaded them in the truck to hang in the oak tree in front of the trailer. We still had two tags yet to fill. On the 6th day it rained , we got soaked. Not must room to hang wet hunting clothes in a 22 foot travel trailer but we did manage to dry them enough to hunt the last day Rick could stay. I hunted the last week of 1992 alone there. That was the way it went for 10 years.

   Al

[Zweefer]

Thanks for sharing such good memories!  Has the cabin been built?

[Alleyyooper]

Yup a nice 24x24 with loft built in 2001. I'll have to find picture I have around some place.

   Al