eckermanmichigan.com Blog

“Trina, write in the blog that it’s still raining…the animals are lining up two by two…and not by the bait pile.”

He sounds disappointed.

Okay, a little more focused now.

Dad says on Thursday, he saw a sow with cubs, but he wasn’t up for shooting babies, so he opted out of that one.  The weather was good but going to hell.

Friday, there was a bear in camp around 4am that got everyone up.  They went fishing and Doug caught a 20″ rainbow and Don caught two 12″ rainbows.  Dad caught one of those as well.

Saturday, they went hunting with no luck.  Dad heard bears on either side of him, but then got thundered out.  They went fishing, caught a buttload, only kept two.

Sorry, guys. Dad asked me to write updates and last night he called but I missed the phone vibrating, so the update is a bit late.  I haven’t yet heard from him tonight (phone is on the charger, so I probably missed the call again) so I’ll go ahead and give the update from yesterday

As of last night, Dad was a bear hunter, not a bear killer, and all was well.  I think the weather was okay, and he mentioned something about fishing.  Now, we’re about to have tornadoes pass through, so I’m going to go duck and cover with my guests in the bathroom.  You guys take care till tomorrow.  After that…

   Last day and then a wake up.

   After I drop Jan off at work today, I’ll go over my list one more time and then take everything I’ve packed down to the Laundry room. If it has quit raining by the time I pick her up, I’ll load as much as I can into the truck. I’d load it all, but I have to save room for their stuff that’s going to Arkansas with them. Doug’s going to be here when I get back from Traverse City and he can help me load the rest. As I understand it, (at 5am) Don’ll be in Charlevoix waiting for us at his house and we’ll be on our way. I’m going to make one more stop at the day old bakery, to load on as much bear bait as I’ve got room for. The three of us should be in camp by noon with the tent set up, and a fire going. Since I got a good nights sleep last night, I may be in good enough shape to hunt tomorrow afternoon. The weather guesser’s predict partly sunny skies tomorrow, but after that, a weeks worth of rain, so I’d better make good use of it. From what I hear, bear like to move in the rain so that’s not a problem for them, but still…. In years past, our best fishing has been done in the rain, so this could turn out to be a banner year.

   I’ll be calling my daughter nightly to give her the talley of what was killed or caught that day, and she’ll post it on here. I’m taking along my word processer this year, so it may not take as long to get the full story, with pictures, posted in ECKERMAN 7, as yet untitled. Wish me luck ya’ll and take care…

   Three and a wake-up. I shouldn’t count today, but since it’s only 5am, this one hasn’t really started yet. I’ve been waking up at 3:45 for the past week now, but I won’t have to do that much longer. I’m almost afraid that when Thursday morning gets here, I’ll sleep in until 7 and really screw things up. Nah, not much chance of that. Mark, Jan, and I all have alarm clocks so I doubt very much that anyone will be late. At 9 this morning, I’ll call Northwest Airlines to make sure everythings hunkey-dorey with those guys, and then again on Wednesday, just to make sure. This morning, Jan’s still sleeping, but she’s been going through the same malady that I have. It doesn’t seem to be bothering Mark much, but come Thursday, I’m sure he’ll be ready to go. Mark and I packed our cloths yesterday and since Jan doesn’t go to work until 4 today, she’ll do her’s too.

   The list of who’s going and who isn’t, changes almost daily but as long as I’m on the list of the “is’s”, I don’t see a problem with it. It would be really nice to see all the guys sitting around that campfire, like the old days, but times change. As near as I can tell, it’ll be Don, Doug, B.B., Brian (with Hunter) and myself in camp this year. None of them will be there the entire time I will, but those guys still work for a living. I don’t think there will be any periods when I’m alone, which is fine with me.

   Doug and I went up to Eckerman today to re-fill the bait pile and we got some good news and bad. The good news is I’ll probably get a bear. The group that owns the cabin next door had seven hunters staying there and all but one has filled their license. Two were killed on opening day and they’ve been having some pretty good luck ever since. They were also kind enough to give me some of their bait, and permission to “get it as I need it”. They have quite the collection of chocolate’s so I think it should work out pretty good. The bad news came in the form of a photo, two of them in fact. One of the guys has a camera that attach’s to a tree and is set off with a motion detector. In the photo’s is a bear that looks to be over 300#, just a munchin’ away at all these chocolate covered cherries, and ground up candy bars. Also on the photo is the time it was taken. 0130. It seems that if these bear live through it’s first two years, it learns that humans try and kill them when the sun is shining, but when it isn’t, we don’t. Just like the deer, the smart ones sleep through the day and do all of their feeding at night. So, if by chance, albeit a small one, that bruin comes to my bait pile, I have a chance at it. Chances are much larger though, for an ignorant one to come up, and that’s what I’ll end up shooting. Am I going to sit there for 11 days on the off chance that the big one walks up and let a smaller one go by?  Not likely. Of the 6 bears that were taken by these guys not one of them was over 150#, so they feel the same way I do. Maybe if all I was up there for was to shoot this bear, I might let a smaller one go by, but there are many lakes I want to fish, and numerous Oak stands just full of squirrels awaiting me.

   The bait pile was torn totally apart when we got there, but with all the rain’s they’ve had, there wern’t any prints evident. I loaded the pile with the usuall bread and buns, and added some coffee cakes, molassis, and a dash of vanilla extract. We also sprayed the area with the extract and when I return next Thursday, I suspect that everything it was sprayed on will be gone.

   The leaves are turning at a pretty fast rate now, so by next week it should be absolutly glorious.