Fall has truly arrived in October. The garden is taken care of and it is time to harvest wild game. This is the month of the moose and the grouse.

Though we have a good population of Ruffed Grouse around, this area isn’t noted for consistent good grouse hunting. Last year and again this year I have been surprised by the number of grouse around. I think that grouse is the tastiest of all the wild game I have eaten, and I try to get a few each season. For each of the first few days in October this year Pat and I enjoyed grouse for breakfast or lunch. In some areas I could flush as many as a dozen grouse in a minute or two. It was a good year for Spruce Grouse also, and in October I had two separate sightings in the Carry Ponds area in one day. During our moose rut weekend the group came upon a small flock of Spruce Grouse near Black Brook Bog. These birds were so cooperative that we were able to set up the scope and follow them along as they scratched gravel and hopped up into the trees. I’m not sure if their population is up or we have simply been lucky, but I hope it continues.

I guided Jessica and Gary Davis hunting moose in October. Jessica was lucky enough to win a permit in the lottery, and Gary was her sub. Last year Gary was the lucky one, so I had the pleasure of their company for two seasons. Gary’s Dad, Dick Davis, and his wife, Sheri, came along also. This was one of the most frustrating hunts I have guided with enough moose sightings to keep us optimistic, but very little interest in our calls. We stumbled upon a gathering of moose in a little bog at the base of a steep cut over ridge, and for a few minutes one morning we had some intense excitement. The tracks indicated that there was a lot of activity in the bog with multiple bulls around the edges and a dominant bull with cows defending the bog. A cow began squealing in answer to our call, and in the distance the big bull responded to her. For the next 45 minutes we were listening to this bull grunting, scraping his antlers on brush and walking in water. He would approach to the point of clearing cover directly in front of us and then would turn away only to do it again a few minutes later. After doing this three times, he simply turned away and left without ever showing a glimpse, let alone a chance to shoot. Though we saw some smaller bulls and a cow or two over the next couple of days we never did see that big guy. Jessica had a good chance for a smaller bull the next day, but while we were trying to decide whether he was big enough, he decided to get out of sight. We weren’t able to hunt the entire week due to travel arrangements and did not get a moose. It was very disappointing, but we did have more sightings than other hunters we met along the roads. Several had spent a week scouting ahead and after several days had not seen a moose yet. I haven’t had many adventures in the outdoors that could match the adrenaline rush of listening to that big bull walking toward us and the Davis’s are a pleasure to spend time with.

I had a paddling adventure on the Dead River with a group called Distant Journeys. The group was hiking from hut to hut on the Huts and Trails system and they wanted to paddle to Grand Falls. I put canoes in the river and met Pam Twadell and her group of seasoned travelers where the trail comes out on Long Falls Dam Road near the “Big Eddy”. It was a beautiful fall day, but the wind blew up river and paddling was not easy. I tried to tempt them to allow me to tow them all with the outboard, but they were determined to paddle the distance as planned. We had a truly great day, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to spend more time with such an interesting group.

                                         “Gang Warily”,
                                              Greg and Pat