A fine day in the U.P. Sunny, breezy, fairly warm, but not hot.

I went out around 1:30 to look for grouse.
My wife came along to pick apples. She didn't get many this year
the area we go to had lots of bare trees. A couple years back we picked
many grocery bags full in a couple of hours.

I've been hunting the same area on opening day for many years.
There have been some changes lately, gates and no tresspassing signs, in
some spots. Still lots of open area.

After about a half hour of sneaking around I walked up on a young-of-the-
year grouse by a creek, and managed to kill it. It was a gray phase bird. The one I took last year in November was a rufous phase grouse.
Jumped a few more on the way out but didn't get off a shot.

We like to have wild game for Thanksgiving Dinner. So I have made
a start on that already this fall.
I've been planning to switch to bow and arrow deer hunting when that
season starts October 1, so getting some grouse early would be a
good idea this year.

I've spent many a day afield in Iron county behind a English Setter, carrying a 20 or 28 ga Browning O/U. Every step was a blessing and I will always be thankful for the days I have spent in Michigans UP.

I love the UP, Michigan as a whole. We are gifted with some spectacular geography.
Had seven deer come in my feeder this evening while I sat 300 yards away smoking a premium cigar and enjoying a rum and coke. Life is good.

I can't wait to retire up north someday and do exactly what ACP230 is doing. That's the life.

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SWHF #448

Can someone explain to this Texan how Michigan obtained that piece of land that is not connected to it?? And it is sitting on top of another state?
Oh, good luck with the bird hunting, we got a zillon dove flying around here on Bagram, I can't get the MP's to let me borrow their scattergun to shoot some!!

Why the Upper Peninsula is Not Part of Wisconsin | The Upper Peninsula

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SWHF #448

Thanks for the link, we only had to fight the Indians and Mexicans to get the Republic of Texas!! Now back to grouse hunting, how far south in the United States do they live? I remember hunting them in Alaska (I think that was what it was, they were locally called "stupid chickens" because they would not take off and fly when approached.

Forgot to mention that the gun used was my 20 gauge over and under.
An Italian gun with a few semi-fancy touches and a fair amount of
blue wear due to carrying after grouse, woodcock and varying hares.

The U.P. doesn't really sit over much of Wisconsin (AKA the land behind
the cheddar curtain). It mostly sits over Lake Michigan.

why wait to retire?

you can live mighty cheap up here, so even if you have to take a significant pay cut, you'd do all-right. In retrospect, I can't believe I stayed down near Detroit as long as I did.

Mr. Foorseth be quiet. If you don't all the trolls will be moving from below the bridge!

I usually have to force myself to remember that even though I'm a native of God's Country, the South (NC), that there really is some great places up there where the Yankees live.
Would love to see it.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

Please be advised that to move to the UP you have to be voted in by at least 50 born in the UP natives.

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Carpriver.

ACP, I hear you. The farm is just south of the bridge, and last weekend we were up to ready the place for winter.

The first morning there, I noticed the trees already turning. Grabbed a cup of coffee to take on a short walk out to the barn. Almost had to kick the flocks of turkeys out of the way, and in doing so ruined the red fox's stalk of one of them...it darted away.

I tend to walk as quiet as possible, and was rewarded with the chance to see the "normal" herd of deer in the back meadow, but this time they were joined by four elk. And FWIW...even if you know in your head that elk are big...it is a fact hugely reinforced when you see them standing next to white tails!

All that after spending the week at Sleeping Bear National Park the week before.

Summer's great in Michigan...but Fall is Michigan just showing off!

Len

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Qui me amat, amet et canem meum

In 2010 we had grouse for Thanksgiving at our cabin near Grand Marais. Fall is a beautiful time in the UP, but we can only get up for an occasional weekend due to work. We're retiring next June. A year from now, I'll be UP there doing instead of dreaming. Can't wait.

Lived in the UP when my dad was stationed at Kincheloe AFB, never shoveled so much snow, but it is beautiful country. We used to chase ruffed grouse, I think I shot more trees then birds, them boys can bob and weave through the trees...

You're right, absolutely awesome in the fall colors, I still want to make a trip back one day.

Today I went out again. Same general area. Saw a lot of songbirds and no grouse at all.
It was warmer today and windy so maybe that made them jumpy.

Rain is forecast for Monday and Tuesday so I may make ammo instead
of hunting. I hope to squeeze in a short hunt one of those days.
I have several places calling my name.

Thought you couldn't feed them til 10/1?

Oldcorp-I too am a son of the South and I can tell you that the UP is one of the prettiest regions I have ever seen. About 5 years ago the wife and I did a "Round Lake Michigan" drive that started with a Cubs game in Chicago and ended in Holland MI with a few side trips to Lambeau field, Lake Superior Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinack. I was able on that trip to complete my quest of peeing in all 5 great lakes and took back some memories of a great place with some great people. I went in AUgust and the nighte were kinda chilly for a southern boy and that Lake Superior was COLD

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Forum consigliere

I have lived in the UP for 34 years,I retired from the Air Force at K.I. Sawyer. I had a house in the woods near the base, we had deer, and bear is the yard regularly, kids grew up playing in 10,000 acres of State Forest, fishing in trout streams and ponds. I now lived in the southern part of the UP in Kingsford, Still have deer and turkey in the yard, once in a while a moose will wander into town and cause a stir. Elk are big but a moose is huge. I have traveled all over the world and this great counrty but the UP is home. I love the 2 seasons we have here in the UP shoveling and swatting.

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Carpriver.

Taking a rain day today.
Goofing off here and elsewhere on the Net.
Then have to finish an article before making .38s.
Supposed to rain till Wednesday.

Michigan got it as sort of a "boobie" prize, as no one else wanted it. It's bug-infested in the summer (both months) and miserably cold and snowy in the winter, has no discernible economy, except state and federal governments, sustained by taxpayers in other areas with actual economic activity, and is still mostly populated by persons with peculiarly persistent Scandinavian accents, many of whom have taken up eating a Cornish dish, the meat and root-vegetable pie known as the "pasty". It is mostly overgrown with almost impenetrable second growth forests, where it is not too swampy for trees other than cedar and hemlock to thrive. It is largely unpopulated, has no cities, and only a handful of settlements rising to the level of "towns". These characteristics are among those found appealing by its residents and visitors...

jkc................. Your making me home sick! Can't make it to the UP this year because I (after 35 years of trying) drew a Michigan Elk permit and there is only so much play money.

I'm going back up in October for bow.
We have a small cabin in Baraga for the last 40 years. Now that i'm retired, I can get up there more.
Kind of strange, I can hunt some very nice deer in back of my current home, but will travel 600 plus miles to do the same in "da UP eh?"

Well I'm sorry, sort of, to have afflicted you with homesickness, but, also, a bit envious to learn that you've got one of the very few, lottery-awarded elk tags, which, I assume, is still limited to the Pigeon River country, where, as a little kid, I approached to within a few feet, and photographed, with my Brownie box camera, a big bull elk, which stared at me with what I then thought was malice, but which I now think was merely curiousity and apprehension.

I once spent a February night in the Pigeon River State Forest, on a cross-country ski adventure, when, snuggled into a goosedown sleeping bag, the temperature fell to 20 degrees below Farenheit, weather, which, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, I'll wish you will not have to put up.

Thank you for this post. As well much appreciated are the replies. Small game hunting is something I've always enjoyed. In our area there are not grouse, but there are plenty of rabbits and squirrels, etc. And during dove season one get's lots of shooting at one of the finest game birds ever to take wing. And... from time to time there are quail. Wonderful little things. Not to be ignored is the wonderful fellowship shared with friends simply spending time in the woods/fields. It is one of the great pleasures of life.

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Deep, too.

Russ