Catching the Good Life in the Canadian Wilderness

Good Morning Moose hunters, soon the Hillsport bush will have you there in search of Bullwinkle. It is our hope that you have a fantastic time, the weather, food, drink and stories are great, you enjoy the wilderness, perhaps see some Moose, Grouse and other critters along the way.

We wish you all the Best of Luck in your escapades, wish we were there to share the stories, but not to be as we work to keep Covid at bay.

Be safe, take care and have fun everyone! Hope to see you in 2021. Time will tell.

Hi everyone. It is with deep sadness that I am posting that we have lost one of our fellow Moose hunters, Tom Boucher. Tom passed away earlier today after a lengthy illness.

Tom was part of the Seagull Crew which were one of the first to ever come to Happy Camp and Moose hunt. Tom always had a smile on his face, a fresh biscuit for Magoo and truly a class act and Tom was more of a friend than a customer, so sad to see him go.

Perhaps Tom is sitting along Thomas Lake Road watching for the Great Eternal Bull Moose, shoot straight Tom!

To Tom’s family, especially Brian, please remember you are in our hearts and prayers, and the light will always be on for you at Happy Camp or wherever I am!

Below is Tom with the crew, Tom is the hunter in the far right, behind the long bearded fellow known as Seagull, one of Tom’s buddies!

So as 2020 Moose hunt is upon us, I would hope Happy Camp Moose hunters would raise a glass in honor of Tom. Thanks Tom for a lot of good times and God’s Speed.

Hi everyone, it is the end of August and Fall is just around the corner! Here on the northern Prairie of North Dakota, this morning Magoo and I awoke to a balmy 38 degrees. To Happy Campers whom don’t know, this is about 2 Celcius!

September is coming in quickly and with that more thoughts of hunting come around. We sorely missed all of the Bear hunt, but perhaps 2021 will be a banner year. If any of you have thoughts of giving this a try, shoot me a message or phone me. Soon the moose hunt will begin. It has been way too long for me to catch up with all the old hunters and some new, but you all are simply the best. I do hear that Seagull is doing ok and that brought back eating the Moose Tongue and his famous Spaghetti! If Dan, Paul or the Bouche’s remember, his sauce was second to none! Take care Seagull.

As we are on the prairie, I do need to update all of you that Magoo seems to being on the mend after her surgeries. She is walking pretty good, running some and getting ready for the hunt, she deserves a long, great hunt after the last few years on her knees. The other morning while walking on the prairie, a small flock of Honkers flew over, and to see Magoo’s head spin, watch and follow them as they went by, simply priceless. As they flew off in the distance, Magoo look back like saying, “What the hell man, shoot them, I need feathers in my mouth, what is wrong with you!”

Not much else to tell except we miss Happy Camp, the lakes, wilderness and all of you! As the sun is shining here, I can imagine the beach, waves crashing into the shore of White Otter and in the distance the train making its hoot through the woods.

Enjoy your hunt everyone, be safe, take care and we hope to to see you once again in 2021!

Good Morning Happy Camp Bear Hunters, the day has come and passed for our 2020 Bear Hunt! Sadly this will mark the first time in 10 years we are not out in the BMA after Bears. It certainly is a huge change, we have tried everything to divert the thoughts of the hunt, but none have worked! We know that Donna is missing the Bear hunt and all of you too as she made a slideshow with clips from the BMA, brings back many memories of the years. Hopefully 2021 will start new memories with all of you and that can not come soon enough!

Last night on opening night, I watched the sun go down and waited for the nighthawks to appear, but none have come. August 15th is their first day for the migration, has been for years, and they are not around, what is up with that? As for other items, leaves are starting to show signs of fall coming around. Last week I took Mom up to her land near Saxon and signs of Fall have arrived there. While it was really hot, almost 90, it was nice to smell the forest, but not like Happy Camp!

With fall upon us, Magoo is getting ready to hunt and chase birds. Although her recovery has been long and extensive, I hope she can romp and play like a few years ago. She did have to meet a new vet in the northwoods as she had some ear issues, but that seems to be all taken care of. Along with that, we are starting to see Algae Bloom and if you see that do not let your dogs go into as it can be lethal.

Enjoy what you can away from Bear Camp hunters and look forward to 2021 when we will start new memories! Take care and Be Safe!

Good Morning and Happy Bear Hunt 2020 Happy Campers! It is surprising that although the hunt has been postponed for the year, the heat, humidity and Deer Flies have still found their way to where the Bear and Mast Baiter are at!

The northern US has been littered with people, and the Deer Flies, well they are dig deep. I can not imagine how they hurt on a dog or bear’s nose! Speaking of Bear, we have Betsy whom has taken up company near here. She is a young, plump girl who so far has been respectful in eating and not wrecking any feeders.

Speaking of wrecking, I wish I could say the same for Hillsport. With the lack of bear baiting, there is a group of Bears wandering around. We were told that they tore into some fiber board, perhaps looking for glue to replace the sweets they are not getting? Our only hope is that they are taking care of business on the nasty people and leaving the nice people alone. So far, Bev and Roger are fine.

We so miss the far north and all of you, and now it is Bear time. It has been great to hear from some of you that you too miss us and Bear Camp, and that Bear Camp 2021 is clearly in our sights!

As we begin the countdown, we will get in search of Berries to eat and enjoy. They seem slim, but the girls are looking for them. Magoo seems to like them more than Sadie, I think that the Blackberries are not Blueberries and the seeds are not to her liking!

What are all you up to this Covid 2020? Please stay safe and healthy everyone, make good choices for yourself, take care and keep in touch!

Good morning Happy Campers from Sultry northern Wisconsin. As we pass the hump of Mid-July, we also have officially started State Stupid here in the US. As you know, the Corona is out of control in almost every state and there seems to be no end in sight. As it goes up, more people have not followed the simple guidelines to slow this, and the border will be closed.

PM Trudeau clearly stated a day ago that the border will remain closed until late August and then they will review it. But since all of Canada has about 300 cases per day, there is no way that they will let visitors from the south in the midst of Stage Stupid into their country.

So the best we can hope for is to have a miracle and have the border open for Labor day and then get up to Happy Camp for our Moose season, time will tell.

In the meantime, we are wearing masks, practicing social distancing and trying our best to keep busy in the northwoods. While it has been nice to retrace some steps from years gone by, the area has changed forever and not for my liking. As any Happy Camper knows, a few people who love nature are great, but having all kinds of people all over the place just doesn’t cut it for me, that is why Happy Camp is such a special place for me. For example, as we fished a weed edge the other day, I thought wow in the far north of Happy Camp, there would be fish sprinkled all thru the coontail and cabbage, but not in the northwoods, just few fish left which is sad, very sad but realistic because of the amount of pressure the lakes get as well as how technology allows almost any fisherman to locate and catch fish. I can not stress enough people, take a couple for a meal, and let the rest go to grow. Also, let the fish go quickly, the water temps at 80 are hard enough on the fish, net, unhook and let go forget the pictures, only take a mental snapshot! Fish are just too precious to worry about taking a photo of yourself with the fish and putting it out for social media.

Speaking of precious, a few bright sides of this mess are some nice sightings. To sart with, there are 5 Phoebe’s that are crammed into a nest built along the rocks at the front of the house. It is amazing how those little eggs have hatched and they mouths open waiting for bugs from momma.

We have a night visitor who shows up to eat some suet and birdseed. The Bloke is maybe 130 pounds, but has a nice white Spirit mark developing. I guess he is lounging down in the swamp near the mudhole that used to be a lake before irrigation tool the water away. As the berry crops are coming along, he will soon be devouring those with corn in the fields. But for now, as along as he keeps up his manners and does not wreck anything, he is welcome at our feeder. But our hope is that he gets here earlier, showing up at 1 a.m. is quite late, unless he is just closing down the bar?

Finally, as I wrote, near the wood edge an odd creature walked thru the edge. A Ferrell Cat(NO), a Lynx(NO), but a young Bobcat with muddy feet from coming out of the swamp. He walked along the wood edge, so beautiful and at the edge of the woods, he turned and went north, vanishing into the woods. Now that is a first for me, only seen pictures of them before! As I recollect on animals I have seen, just this week I have seen Bear, many Deer with Fawns, Geese, Eagles, Loons, Bobcat, Water Moccasin, and a huge Snapping Turtle on the south end of Little John the other night. Interesting how the turtle seemed to be swimming near the young Geese but the adults honked and it disappeared.

The bugs certainly seem to be much less here, but perhaps we have found a solution and hope to try it in 2021 at Happy Camp Ontario. As I think of bugs, I also miss the wilderness, freedom, our campers and all they bring to the area and the excitement I would be having this day as we greet new campers but also the adventure of Bear baiting and travels. We do hear that a bear is tearing up the barrels at Happy Camp, but there is nothing we can do but hope he doesn’t get a piece of plastic stuck in his mouth!!

The sun is out, heat and humidity are here as well as storms later today. Time to get rumbling for the day, take care and Please be Smart not Stupid!

Good morning Happy Campers! As always, we hope you are healthy, being safe and enjoying the summer, where ever you are! For us, we are in the sultry heat and finally last night rain came. But alas, we should reach 90 for the next 3 days at least. Our hope is that this will break and be the end of the heat.

As you know the Covid rages on in the US and with no end in sight the window of opportunity is getting dimmer by the day. But we shall see what unfolds in the future!

Last night I spoke to Rooster and Elaine from Manitouwadge. Rooster is slowly on the mend and we did speak for a little bit. As he continues to recover, if anyone is in his area, they certainly would appreciate some fresh walleye fillets or just a stop by to say hi and chat outside as he does not get many visitors. With the Covid, they have stopped any home therapy and they are on their own, so anyone stopping by would be greatly appreciated.

The wilderness is certainly missed by all of us on a daily basis. To hear the silence and only hear the breezes cut thru the trees, the faint call of a Loon from a nearby lake or the drip of water off a paddle from the canoe, they all bring much needed sanity and comfort that only comes from the far north for the Happy Camp Crew! So until we see you all again, take care, be safe and keep in touch!

Good Morning and Happy July 4th! As you know we will not be celebrating our freedoms as the Corona has its grips on all of us very firmly! We do hope that all of you are doing your best to stay safe, be responsible and stay healthy!

A few bright spots, it is hotter than hell in the US, when you wake up to temperatures in the 70’s and humidity over 90%, you know you are in for a tough day! I can’t remember a spell of heat like this since who knows when. Seems like there is really no end in sight for it, but we could use a shot of rain as things are starting to dry out.

Magoo is coming on slowly, she is now trotting and going into the water for a bit. The horseflies are terrible but the Mosquitos are not so bad, but then again we aren’t in the bush as we hear they are again terrible up there!

So for now we will get by and look for some fresh items we have not had in over 10 years! Strawberries, Sweet Corn, Blackberries and more, these items sure will be tasty fresh when they come available!

Happy Independence Day everyone, take care and keep in touch!

Happy Canada Day all! Although we are in the states, we did celebrate by cutting brush at the crack of dawn before the blistering heat and humidity came up. As of right now, it is 31 C and the humidity is 93%. Heat wave with no end in sight, but such is life eh!

Some chap from Ontario sent us a cool link, feel free to check it out and enjoy!

Have a great Canada day everyone, kiss a sweet Blueberry for us and take care!

Good Morning and Happy Summer Happy Campers! While it is not quite summer yet, it is on the brink and tomorrow we will be in full force. I wish we could be saying this from Happy Camp, but that will be farther down the road and the Pandemic continues and most likely for quite some time?

In the last few days, I have had nice chats with a few of you about life. Those chats are usually the most interesting. There seems to always be twists and turns in every conversation. As with most, we usually solve all the worlds problems, seems that they aren’t that difficult to solve if you communicate, listen and are fleixble(haha)! Hopefully we can get up to Happy Camp and get these into action with our fishers and hunters possibly later in 2020?

The outdoor world should still be quiet, the Denny’s report from Manitouwadge the Grouse are starting to flit around, no clutches yet, but soon. They better get their butts in gear, because I hear tell that the bugs are fierce, vicious and hungry. But those nasty bugs are no match for a bunch of Grouse chicks pecking and jabbing all over the place!

Back here in the US, life still goes on with Magoo and I. We have finished our school and now we wait to see what is going to happen with the fall. It will be a short summer here in northern North Dakota. The weather has been crazy, only certain thing seems to be the wind. For example, this week we had frost the day after it reached well into the 90’s. But the wind blows from the east almost every day. So fishing has been interesting, not so much from the boat. We did catch some nice Pike and a few walleye, but the fishing highlight of the week was catching a dandy Rainbow on a Hula Popper! That was incredible, try a top water on your favorite trout lake when they are surface feeding, WOW!

Speaking of WOW, Magoo continues to improve, each day swimming helps her. She is staring to retrieve off the leash and likes to explore at the lakes. Last night she was on guard most of the time as ducks were zooming around while we pecked thru the rushes at Carpenter Lake. She really likes that as when she wants something to nibble on, she sticks her head over the side of the boat and snips off a bullrush and chews on that, kind of her way of chewing Cud!

So with that, we think of our summer plans, which are definitely not what we intended, but we wear our masks when around people, social distance and hope to have the border freedom’s back soon, maybe in time to go and pick some Blueberries, we shall see.

Until then, Strawberries should be ripe soon so we shall find some of those and do the best we can. We hope all are doing the best you can too! Take care and stay safe Happy Campers!