Last September during our annual expedition, it was suggested that we come back up in December for the Muzzle loading season. Don and Brian came up and saw a lot of does, but no bucks. For several different reasons; all of them concerning having no money at all, Doug and I didn’t make it. We continued to talk about it during the winter, and when my retirement benifit finally arrived, there wasn’t any reason not to go. By the end of February, I had myself a nice four wheel drive pick-up and enough money to cover the gas.
Eckerman in the winter is a whole different world. I’d imagined there would be a lot of snow, and that it might be colder than here, but I was still a little suprised. The idea was that we’d do some ice fishing and a little rabbit hunting, so Don, Brian, Doug and I brought along all the necessary equipment to get the job done. Well, not ALL the equipment; none of us brought a helocopter or any beagles with 5′ legs. We did bring our .22s and a couple snow shovels. Don had arranged to have his place plowed out so we could at least get near the cabin, so that was nice. The guys took turns shoveling snow that was 4 1/2 feet deep from where the plow stopped, about 10′ from the cabin, to the front door, and from the front door to the new outhouse. I can’t provide any pictures on this blog, so you’ll have to imagine 54″ of snow sitting atop the cabin and that shat house. As soon as they got a path cut to the cabin, I headed in there with all the heating devices that we brought with us.
There’s a wood stove Don uses to keep the cabin warm, but he had told me earlier that it was either going to be 110 degrees or -5, depending on the amount of wood for the stove. For the outhouse, Doug brought along an extension cord, and I brought one of those little propane heaters. So not only was the shitter warm, we could read the skin magazines too! The seat now, was a bit of a problem. There’s water in the bottom of that hole, and it never freezes so there was hoarfrost all over the ring. There was some discussion as to who was gonna be the first but with a little time it finally thawed out. Back in the cabin and due to my condition, I wouldn’t last 30 minutes under either of those extreme’s so Doug and I brought along a little supplement heating. By the time the guys had a trail cut to the ‘loo, it was about 65 degrees in there. One of us went back out for the water jugs but when they brought them in they were ice cubes. It took us a half hour to melt enough ice to get a pot of coffee on. After we’d warmed up, or cooled off (depending on whether you shoveled or not) we all went out to have a look around. The sun was out with very little wind so I was able to go out and take some pictures. We had been told that “the place was alive with rabbits….hunnerts of ‘em” so Doug took a walk into the bush looking for tracks. We’d brought up a bunch of apples hopeing that we could draw in thirty or forty and have some fun shooting, but all Doug found was a way back. The snow was just too deep and too fluffy for any critters to get around on. After 20 minutes of that we all went back in the cabin and started jabbejawing. Jeez, some of the conversations four guys can have with nothing else to do is amazing. I’m assuming most of what was discussed was true, but I’m going to have to invoke the “What goes on across the bridge, stays across the bridge” rule here and take a pass on the contents. I can divulge though that after an hour of it, my ribs hurt from laughing. Since we’d all figured on shooting a lot of bunnies, we all brought along a LOT of ammo, so we decided to go burn some up.
Doug was brave and strong enough to carry a couple beverage can’s about 50′ from where the snowbanks were and we started shooting. Don had started it all by shooting at snow tufts that were wedged in the different crooks of the trees, and they make pretty good targets. It’s easy to tell when we hit one, ’cause there would be an explosion of snow. The can’s wern’t that easy. Doug had jammed them on different branch’s and by the time some of them fell, they had more holes than a French whorehouse. We all took turns shooting until the sun started to set, and headed back into the cabin. For a little added entertainment, I brought along a tape player and the tapes of the last two trips.
I’d seen the tapes a couple of times because it helped me get through some pretty nasty times, but it’s always fun to look back and remember. There won’t be any public viewing of the tapes, it’s just for the guys who make it across the bridge. Some of the stuff on there is pretty graphic, to say the least! The guys enjoyed it, and Sunday morning we were all ready to come back. No, that’s not quite right. We wern’t ready to come back, we just had too.
