April 26, 1999 - Monday An Unusual Feeling Broken overcast. Not too cold. A breeze and humidity make the chill. Went up alone and retrieved the gear from Steve Site 1 & 2. At Steve Site 1: No bother of items on ground or in bucket. Looked like something had been in the baiting site and looking around, some of the apples looked kicked away. I wonder why the deer hadn't gotten them. The moss was disturbed and there were some indistinguishable prints. Dumped the bucket. Stuff was getting ripe and it stunk. At least the water had mostly drained out of the holes. Blinkers were still blinking. Up were the big area of disturbed ground was no tracks of any kind. Only one pic on the camera counter, so probably just me. I was wearing my 357 and the red backpack, so a little loaded with the bucket. Went down toward the river via the easy way and ended up on the bank and had to work my way back up. While it was only 30' plus, the steepness and the brush made it work, especially since I was holding the stinking bucket away from me. I didn't want any of the fish oil on me or it would be no heat on the way back. At Steve Site 2: Took my time on the climb up. Warm under the trees. Took a little effort to find. Always before, Steve had guided the way. Good lesson on marking locations in my mind. Easy take down. Good, small stuff. Only one pic fired on that camera too. Walked along the overgrown logging road over to the head of the ravine and started walking uphill. The trees in the area hadn't been logged, but that was definitely an old road that had been punched in for some reason. Felt like someone was watching me. Feeling just came suddenly. It wasn't threatening, just like something had detected me and was tossing me some kind of thought. It was just like three weeks ago. As I moved along, an occasional branch would snap off to the north side. I started coming to a halt fast and then I would hear more of the snaps. They were about 50 plus yards away in the brushy area. Must not see or hear things that aren't real. There was no wind movement under the trees. Went on up and circled back when I got to the upper road. After I started back down, didn't hear any more of the snaps. Came down across the south side and along the creek to the main road. Very pretty. Didn't look at any blow down holes, except when they were right there. The area that I had penetrated to where I could look up Granite Peaks showed a big flat and a ravine higher up. Looked like the lower end of the area where we cut some good firewood back in the 80's. Drove down to 6370 road. Could still only go up it about 1 ½ miles due to snow. It was spitting snow up there, misting down lower. Trees had frost on them at the higher altitudes. Still cold up there. Was quite cold when got back from walk, but didn't realize it until I got in the truck. Fired several rounds through the 357 at a barrow pit. Good revolver. Like to shoot it. Long drive home. Was south to probably less than 10 air miles north of Detroit. This was the second time down that far and didn't realize it because didn't check the map last week. Had the top map along this week and was checking it. I was overlooking The Bull of the Woods Wilderness. Roads: 224, 46, 63, 6370 Steve called. Wanted to know if got cameras & I-R operators back and if any snaps. He has been thinking about the summer season and thinks audio is important. Lots of foliage and animals spread out. Wants to go up Wednesday if I can to do some early summer scouting and discuss tactics. All website content is © Copyright 2000, Joseph Hector Beelart, Jr. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Pages created and maintained by