Chasing the Wiley Thunder Chicken!

Daylight in the swamp

Self portrait

Friends in the hunt

Thunder Chicken (Ruffed Grouse)

My Grandfathers "Boomstick"  Browning A5 Belgian, 1940's era

Here are a few quick shots from my weekend up in the Bigfork, MN area at the family cabin.  I have hunted up in this area since I was a kid.  The cabin has been in the family since the early 1930's and someday when I get a chance I will post some shots of that place in general.  It is like a museum of family history from generation to generation.  Truly a treasure.  I started riding my bike to hunt the forest roads in the Chippewa National Forest a few years ago.  I have come to the conclusion that hunting for me is all about exploration, tradition and remembrance.  While I cruise through the forest I see places that my grandfather used to hunt, some of it truly unchanged, some of it completely changed.  When I return to the cabin I see old photos of the 1940's and 50's of the exact places I had just been.  I gives me solace to realize that there is such deep family history there, that some things in the this world have been somewhat consistent.  When I do run into a Grouse it is usually a funky tap dance of reaction, usually the Grouse wins but some nights I eat pretty well, especially this season.  This trip while riding one of the endless forest roads up there I did an out and back.  On my return I was watching my tire tracks when I noticed a disturbed area with a lot of Wolf Tracks, turns out that two or three wolves had been tracking me for most of the ride then bolted when I turned around.  Their tracks mimicked mine for nearly three miles....