My 1st Moose Hunt

At the age of 28 I got my 1st invitation to join a party to go Moose Hunting. Man was I thrilled and excited about going on such a hunt. I had plenty of time to brush-up on my survival skills, using a map & compass and to get into better shape. Not having to be told Mother Nature is not forgiving to any fools who enter into her northern wilderness domain unprepared.

Finally the day arrived and a 12-hr drive was initiated .After the 12-hr drive on highways it was another 50Mi drive on logging roads to get to our campsite location. Once there we took about 3-hrs to quickly setup a basic camp residence for sleeping as night was quickly approaching.

Day-2 was used to complete our camp setup by erecting a kitchen tent and cutting wood for our campfire. The older gentleman named Edgar was a quiz with a chainsaw and downed a nice dead birch tree. It didn’t take him long to cut it up and here I was introduced to splitting with an axe. I was surprised there was more to splitting wood than just driving an axe downward. Once I caught on the chore wasn’t so bad and had a week’s supply done by the very end of the day. Yeah I was tired but felt good afterwards and also had a mean appetite that night. The day ended sitting by the campfire nursing a cup of coffee after supper. Then off to bed to exercise a lesson learned the night before. It gets real frosty at night and if you want to climb into warm clothing in the morning you better tuck some clothing into a warm sleeping bag.

Day-3 was preparation day for the hunt where all 4 of us would split up covering a different sector. Also what trail markers were to be used in case someone had to be found for whatever reason. That afternoon was spent relaxing and making sure our equipment was ready to go the next day.

Highlight of the Hunt
Well days went by with no moose sighting and not hearing any shots fired from other camps. About the 4th day we were getting a little frustrated that resulted in a quiet evening until supper time. Edgar who had a stove setup on the side of his trailer was cooking when a little head appeared at his feet. One of the guys told Edgar not to make a sudden move because it was a kitten skunk. When Edgar looked down a second little head appeared but he just kept on doing what he was doing. He simply made the comment that kitten skunks can’t spray. After a few minutes the kittens headed over to a bush area where we kept our garbage in bags for the end of the hunt removal.

Once the kittens were out of sight a real debate began about whether or not kitten skunks can spray. When the debate was going strong expressing different opinions on the subject the camp all of a sudden went dead quiet. Mother arrived out of nowhere and was strolling right through our camp looking for her kittens. Boy everybody was frozen still with eyes locked on Mother’s behind to see what direction it was pointed along with the position of her tail.

Well mother found her kittens and gave them hell from the racket we heard. The kittens came running through our camp site followed by mother. Again everybody froze for mother and carefully watch her behind for any warning sign that might appear. Once mother was out of slight a comment was made,” now that’s intense girl watching”. We all busted up laughing.

Okay the rest of the hunt was uneventful and we returned home empty handed. I guess you could literally say “we got skunked”.
One nice event though was seeing the Aurora Borealis one night. It’s something to see pictures of it but another to experience it.

Ed