Deer Camp

On Saturday we will be heading up to deer camp, the old school deer camp, the camp that actually involves a tent and camping, the deer camp that has a family history of four generations. And yes the deer camp where we actually go out and hunt.

Deer camp may not be for everyone and it has a different meaning for some, but for my family it is a family tradition that started way back with my Great Grandpa. The thing about our deer camp is that it is in the North West side of the Upper Peninsula and it is in a tent. I have heard the stories of the guys waiting in line for the fairy to get to the U.P. before the bridge was there. I have also heard a ton of stories about a ton of snow and a ton of deer and a ton of B.S., but for the last 20 plus years I have been making and telling my own stories.

When I started going way back when, I went with my Grandpa, Dad, cousins and a couple of Great Uncles. I did not have the pleasure of going up with my Great Grandpa but by the stories told he was a fun man to go with. The last time my grandpa went was about 6 or 7 years ago, when he was 84 or 85 years old. That particular year it was me, my dad Dave, Grandpa Swann, Uncle Harold, Mark and TJ. Mark and Harold went for another year or two after that but now it’s just my dad, TJ, and me. I could go on for hours about all the stories from just the years I have been going but that is for another day.

My Gramps passed away earlier this year at the young age of 91, but he left us with some letters he had been writing for years. Most were about my Grandma but one was about hunting. My cousin Shawn and I read some of these letters at his funeral and I got to read the one about hunting. Gramps says “people don’t know what hunting is about…going to the big ranches having someone put in the spot and you get to pick the biggest buck to shoot is not hunting. Even down in southern Michigan it’s not hunting…. Go up into the big woods of the U.P. and stay in a tent, sleep on the ground in the hay and actually have to hunt for the deer is hunting.” And I will agree with him 100%. But for me it is not just about the deer.

For me it is the drive up, the setting up the tent and cutting the wood and then spending hours out in the middle of nowhere. There are other hunters up there but we don’t see them very often in the woods. You could go for miles and see some amazing things, like a beaver dam that stretches some 200 yard, or a big old porcupine, or a wood pecker that is about a foot tall, etc. We do kill some deer some times, even though I am in a long drought right now but at least I have killed deer up there, which is more then I can so for my Dad. He has been going for 40 plus years and never killed a deer, not for lack of effort but for the lack of luck. Maybe this will be his year.

Whether we bring any deer back or not this trip is something that I hope I can make for many more years. It is my opinion that until you go up and set up camp and walk the big woods on your own, you have not been deer hunting in a true deer camp. Anyway you go I will say good luck to all the hunters this year and be safe.