Anointed Archer, Robslifts, their better halfs and I went up on a scouting trip for the upcoming deer hunt in Atlanta,MI. By the looks of things it's brewing up to be a great occasion!
I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to share camp with. All of Gods creation was perfect as always. Clear skies and comforatable temps made it a relaxing occasion. We ate great feasts, along with some wicked hot habanero peppers that came from my mother in laws garden and awesome Red Stag doe. I'm still stuffed!
During the day we spent driving along orv trails in search of well worn deer trails, elk sign, panoramic landscapes and views of other creaures that inhabit the area as well. We seen the biggest coyote I had ever laid eyes on, courting grouse, huge elk and deer tracks. We spotted quite a few groups of deer browsing with one group that consisted of a couple nice bucks and were even blessed enough to hear an elk bugle. We walked through the thickest vegetaion (ask Jeff about my directional skills,LOL!), climbed near vertical slopes and crossed some impressive bedding areas. Bear,deer and elk scat were all around us and reminded me that we were not alone.
The nights were nice and cool with shooting stars dashing across the sky and howling coyotes well into the wee hours of the morning. I kept the night critters away from camp with vicious snoring that unfourtunatly kept fellow camp mates awake too. :( (bring ear plugs)
Anyone coming on this trip in October should not be disappointed! With eveything that was around us, at all moments of the trip, will overload ones senses and bring peace to the everyday bustle of life.
colors are starting
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view of a sink hole
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looking out of a sink hole
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Most of the posse. Jeffs wife guarded over the top of the sink hole.
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Rob and I found this at the bottom of one of the sink holes, that had no man made way of getting in and out other than climbing up and down an insanely tall and steep incline. Anyone know what this is?
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Possible camp spot
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Tasty grouse!
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Dueling cameras
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Bows and breakfast, my favorite things!
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Elk sign!
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Deer bedding area
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Just outside of the bedding area. The ferns were up to my chest!
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View from my treestand overlooking the bedding area.
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Behind my treestand. These woods had been forested some time ago.
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I beleive this was an old elk rub from last year. If not it's one heck of a deer!!!
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We came across this very impressive deer track. I beleive it's from a buck. My hand is 7 1/2 inches long and 4 inches wide. I would love to see what made this!!! Thanks for looking!
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Great pictures Arwin... You know, it made me think, I live here in Mi. as you do and we pretty much take this kind of hunting land for granted.. We are sure fortunate to have this type of public land protedted for us to enjoy.. Look at the diverse animal population we have to hunt... I find myself wishing for a hunt in Tx., or down South for pigs, or out West for Elk. Many folks have to rent land to hunt and thats just a shame.. Thanks for the fine pictures, Jim
Lookin good guys,,Nice pics too,, :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Arwin, Any hogs in MI??
Bert
bert there are hogs in michigan but to my knowledge they are not in that area and that would be a huge hog if it was..
arwin I will post pics very soon.
Nice pics Arwin! Looks just like around here.
WAAAAY Cool Guys, Thanks for the first pics this looks promising. :thumbsup:
allright arwin is the story teller but here is us on our drive up there before losing the lights on our trailer and lost cruise control making the drive a lot longer for all of us
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Room for travel trailers?
well we got there and we did some midnight shooting and went to bed about 1 am we got up in the morning and I made breakfast for the guys and gals thanks for the wild hog sausage arwin still tastin it right now..
we then went scouting for most of the day and saw about a forty pound coyote got ants in my pants talked to a elk for a minute or two ( I am praciticing with my new elk mouth call and got one to talk so I was pretty happy with that.)
we walked in to some pretty thick stuff that was just full of sign
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arwin in the middle of a couple year old clear cut
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here is a huge bed that could have fit at least ten deer or 4-5 elk we found elk and deer poop everywhere in this area and so many game trails you could not count
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here is arwin coming out of teh thicket with his stand on his back (he could barely walk after that lol)
as for ron there is plenty of room up there for any size trailer you wanted to bring up there hope to see ya up there.. we had room up there for at least a 40 ft camper trailer next to us this weekend
here is a good picture of an elk track that is a couple of hours old..
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the sink holes in this area were awesome but very tiring (arwin and I climbed down two of them and back up) the first one was so steep about 70-75 degrees straight up it was intense and in the bottom there was a bunch of game trails and incuding some 2-3 foot wide bear trails man was it thick down there there is a pic of scat that I think was bear that arwin posted if anybody knows please tell us
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here is another pic of the sinkhole man are they beautiful
there are five sinkholes all in line with eachother we only got to see three of them and only climbed down two of them.
here is a pic of a little friend we found on the way back to the car
about two and a half feet long!!!
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Looked like canine poop to me. Not much there if it was people poop.
Killdeer~a connoisseur :thumbsup:
it definately wasnt canine did not look like yote poop not enough hair in it and definately not a dogs pooh just because it was almost 200 feet straight down and 200 ft back up
SNAKE!! :scared:
Saw it...right off.
:bigsmyl:
great pic's
BTW is that a shrew on the table?
yes a shrew a northern mist and a bob lee hunter
kool, them some nice bows there....
"I just thought my pants were moving!"
:scared: :smileystooges:
LOL! Only if I had a picture of that moment!
Rob your pics turned out great! We still have to see what Jeff got on his. I really think everyone will have a super time up there. :clapper:
Looks awesome guys!!
From the picture looks like Bull DO. As in Elk
Bull DO. Hair in it has no meaning cept they have been coming out of the summer coats. And I see the snake also Ron. Worry not there's not many rattler's up there, but a few!!
Brent
I'm having fun already Arwin!!
Great Pics! :thumbsup: Making my mouth water, can't wait to do some huntin. That itch is gettin to me :banghead:
Sorry it took so long for me to post but my home computer is sick and slow so I had to wait for today where I can use a real PC.
It was an awesome time and so much land to hunt, my wife and I stayed another day longer than Rob and Arwin and we went road hunting about 118 miles worth of road hunting and we seen more bucks crusing than I have seen altogehter down home here. Bad part is everytime we seen wildlife we had camera problems or just could not get to them fast enough.
We found several great camping areas for the gang, I would have to say Tomahawk Lake State Forest camp grounds would fit the bill the best as it is right next to a nice bathing lake as well as some open area for big pow wow type campfires :campfire: . Plus it seems to be in the middle of all the hotest deer sign.
The camp ground is $15.00 per day but you don't need a state park sticker. The bathrooms are very clean and the water is great, it will make a great base camp!
After Sept 26th the left over doe tags go on sale and it is first come first serve for this area so make sure you get them early. ALso we seen several flocks of turkey so you might want to try for a left over turkey tag as well.
This is going to be a great hunt and an awesome time! Let me see if I can find some pictures :D !
These are the only deer and turkey pictures we where able to get, sorry for the bad pictures just learning how to use these camera binoc's!
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Here is Arwin and Rob talking Elk talk!
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Arwin, Rob and Myself taking a break!
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Arwin, Jennifer and myself found an awesome run way however Rob was not that interested as he decided to fill his pants with red ants :biglaugh: !
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Here is a picture of where the great camp fire can be!
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This is the shower area!
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This is a picture of the typical camps sites minus the beautiful model, she's mine :goldtooth: !
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Here are some pictures of the many different types of terain you can choose to hunt!
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more!
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and even more!
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We will post the directions to camp as well as area maps so stay tuned! Following is a list of Trad Gangers interested in going to bow camp so if you see or talk to any of these guys have them tune in.
Photog
Jack Benson
Harmoan
Bear1336
Arwin
CMR
Tim Fishell
Ben Woodring
Steelhead
WhiteBuffalo
StickbowmanMi
PaPa Frank
Mich-mtnman
Hawken1911
Hood
Riceburner
Rick Butler
Last Arrow
Long_bow
mcowie
Drew
Ron LaClair
Drew
Roblifts
Jim Danorth
It'll take SEVERAL deer to feed a crew that big. :eek: :campfire:
It will be ok Ron, I'll bring potato chips :D and a little cheese to go with the wine. Who is bringing the industrial arrow back stop?
Brent
If I shoot one up there, better plan on helping me eat it!! Cause I don't plan on bring it back! Cept maybe some of the meat fit only to grind. Gotta love that summer sausage, even in the fall!
(It'll take SEVERAL deer to feed a crew that big. )
Especially if we are depending on Robslifts to supply the meat, last time he brought in a camp deer he carried it in his small game pouch :biglaugh:
lol no I use my deer drag everytime
Ouch, dang Rob, these guys are gonna be tough.
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Personal rotisiere size eh?
Brent
QuoteOriginally posted by AnointedArcher:
[QB] and even more!
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this is one of the hills that we are talking about see our heads they are only about 1.5 feet from the side of the hill!!!
It appears as thought we will be hunting from camp ? Or is there some hunting with in a good walk from the camp. maybe we could walk in on the ATV trails ? The only reason I ask is it appears that I will sleeping in the back of the truck (set up super comfy) and will have canopy for the remainder of my stuff. Can also bring the old honda to drag out Robs deer if needed.
Dave Rice-burner
Shrew boy
man you guys are great cant you leave a poor guy alone :smileystooges: yes there will be hunting within walking distance from camp!!!!!
But you won't need a Honda for Robs deer, actually just bring a match and make a small fire and I mean small fire, hold the deer over the flames for about 30 seconds per side add a couple buns and some ketchup and you can take the whole thing home in a couple bites :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
sure is tender though :bigsmyl: :bigsmyl: :bigsmyl:
Yes sir it sure did taste good :thumbsup:
Thanks for the fine scouting, reporting, and pictures guys. It looks good.
Paul
Nice Pics. Looks like a great area.
You can add me to the list. I plan on going.
Can someone post what the final plan is, dates, location of the camp,etc. I can't find the original post that had the info. I need to start planning. I hope my kids don't have a swim meet that weeekend. I won't get that schedule until next week - so I am waiting to confirm if I will be able to make it.
It looks like a wonderfull area. I have hunted east of there in the PIgion River area, how far away is that from camp? What is the travel time from Holland/Grand Rapids?
4-4.5 hrs from grand rapids october 13-14
Rob, you'd better set your sights on a lot bigger deer if Mi_BOWHUNTER is going....Mikes a pretty big boy. :biglaugh:
im still hopin i can go I leave for colorado elk hunting the tuesday after deer camp and I am trying to talk the fiance in going up there with me for the weekend and then spending time with her up there first
I make sure I shoot a bigger one this year also I hear you can put some venison away yourself RON
I prefer to think of myself as Festively Plump! :bigsmyl:
ok guys I started a new thread called Michigan Deer Camp -details/roll call, let the game begin!
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=049722