|
08/22/2024 12:25AM |
|
09/09/2024 12:44PM |
T
|
08/19/2024 08:26PM |
Biggest threats were hordes of mosquitoes and black flies with many blood stains of mosquitoes killed on the tent wall.
Yes in Quetico on Emerald Lake on April 1 we were ice fishing, tent on ice, we had 6 wolves buzz by the tent, one coal black.
Oh yes a hoary marmot in the Beartooth mountains.
|
08/20/2024 12:04PM |
- cow moose on Malberg that came into camp and bit our tent and lifted it up and pulled two tent pegs out. Moose tracks all over by the tent that weren't there before we went out fishing. Have a photo of teeth marks on the tent to prove it. Must have had a calf nearby and didn't like us using this campsite.
- young bear came into camp on Malberg while we were cooking a fish meal. With 6 of us in camp we took some cool pics (bear bouncing on top of our overturned canoe) and then we chased it off.
- a ruffled grouse on her nest at campsite on Pan. She made her nest only feet from the fire grate.
- a big bear came into camp (again on Malberg) after my buddy and I had dropped it, left it down for my two boys who were going to get up and get some grub for breakfast. We went out fishing, yelled back to get up, they answered ok and we were off to fish. We weren't gone two minutes when they heard and then saw the bear swipe the food pack. The boys came and found us so we went back to camp, went into the woods and found the food pack. The bear ate all the "sweets" but thankfully left everything else.
- another grouse on Ensign that had a drumming log right above our campsite. That grouse would start drumming early in the morning and kept up most of the day. We were able to sneak up and get pics of the drumming.
|
08/20/2024 03:11PM |
Pinetree: "Well, I camped out west and the BWCA so I can say moose, bear just outside of camp, grizzly and black, mice which chewed a hole in the floor, a Pine Marten who climbed into the tent while a buddy was still sleeping. A bull buffalo almost decided to lay on my tent while I soloed in the back country of Yellowstone. Yes, a wolf came in camp in the daytime and stole a dozen eggs we didn't hang up while fishing. The next day we were in camp it come back in but took off when it seen us.
Biggest threats were hordes of mosquitoes and black flies with many blood stains of mosquitoes killed on the tent wall.
Yes in Quetico on Emerald Lake on April 1 we were ice fishing, tent on ice, we had 6 wolves buzz by the tent, one coal black.
Oh yes a hoary marmot in the Beartooth mountains."
Oh my gosh, I forgot about hoary marmots! I worked a summer out in the Tetons way back in the 80s. We worked 6 days/week. On day 6 we'd hike as far as possible into the mountains and camp, and the next day hike further, and back out. If we left our leather hiking boats sit outside the tent, the marmots would trash them.
|
08/21/2024 09:50AM |
|
08/20/2024 06:27PM |
2) Hares - had one climb under the fire grate once (maybe eating ash for the minerals?)
3) Grouse - walking down the biffy path
4) Mink - ran right next to me on a solo trip, then later brought out its babies to do some evening hunting
5) Fisher - A rabbit was being chased by a fisher on our most recent trip and they galloped right through our campsite while we were eating dinner...based on the rabbit cry shortly after, I think the fisher had a delicious dinner as well.
6) Turtles - we had one trip where every campsite had turtles entertaining us in some way, including a snapper walking up and down the rocks in between grid hunting in the shallow bay, painted turtle digging a nest in the middle of our site, and baby turtles peering up from a hole in the ground
7) Bear - Bruno, the Rose Lake bear, paid me a visit at dusk while I was finishing my dinner in 2022...I had a few choice words for him and he decided I was a nasty woman and he should move on
8) Chipmunks - doesn't every good campsite have a "chippy"? There have been some adorable ones and plenty of cheeky ones thanks to idiots who feed them, but they are always entertaining
9) Mice - I don't often have mice in camp but have a few memorable experiences with them over the years, most recently when one chewed a hole in the top of our tent to get at my husband's buff
10) Woodchuck (young) - hanging out nibbling grass in the campsite, totally unconcerned by our presence
|
08/22/2024 01:04PM |
red squirrel
chipmunk
garter snake
snowshoe hare
grouse
mice
fisher
mink
snapping turtle
Bears twice: once on Devil's Elbow on the site above the channel; and once on LIttle Trout Lake (east side.)
Nothing as exciting as a moose or wolf, like others have had.
Mike
|
09/09/2024 10:05AM |
No bears in camp, but elsewhere. One year on Seagull the mice came through camp in waves in what looked like hundreds. All you could see was mice eyeballs all over the camp.
|
08/22/2024 07:36PM |
- Mice
- Racoons
- Chipmunks & Squirrels
- Snapping Turtle
- Beaver
Once I had wolves circling my campsite on the SHT. Not within the campsite proper, but did a full circle of the campsite howling... At midnight, was at my 3:00.... then went to 6:00.... 9:00 and woke up at 6 a.m. with it howling at my head (12:00). So scary, so cool in hindsight. They were curious.
But this weekend while camping at Lake Carlos State Park... kittens!
As I was getting ready to pull out of the campsite a guy stopped by (my windows were open) and said, "How did the cats do?" I laughed and said they're not ours... they just came out of the woods. Apparently someone else in their group brought their cat and was jealous we had let "ours" run loose, and they were so "well behaved staying in our camp".... hahaha.
|
09/09/2024 01:14PM |
|
08/20/2024 11:55PM |
Had bull moose walk through our site on gogebic , it was mating season and a lot of bull moose were after this 1 cow.
and on seagull a fisher came into camp to sample our hotdog buns ;)
|
08/22/2024 06:43PM |
Pine Marten circling around me chasing a hare on Long Island Lake
Bear in camp on Phoebe around 20+ years ago. Watched it swim to my island campsite on a solo trip.
Bear near campsite on Grace Lake in the middle of the night. Scared the heck out of my wife to be. Flashlight showed the glowing eyes of a BEAR! I suggested we just go back to bed and discuss it in the morning. It apparently worked, as our 20th anniversary is this November. I may have chucked a few rocks and banged something too.
Bull moose walked through my site on Phoebe around 30 years ago.
Wolves seen on the road to Kawishiwi Lake from Sawbill and halfway up the Gunflint Trail.
My son and I were camped on Hazel playing UNO one morning. A snapper crawled out of the lake coming towards us. We both agreed that the "Game was called due to turtle".
Tom
|
08/28/2024 02:55PM |
egknuti: "Other than the usual critters, I had one snapping turtle make a home in the fire grate."
This happened on Tin Can mike on our first trip.
|
08/25/2024 12:33AM |
MikeinMpls: "I have had the usual, in no particular order:
red squirrel
chipmunk
garter snake
snowshoe hare
grouse
mice
fisher
mink
snapping turtle
Bears twice: once on Devil's Elbow on the site above the channel; and once on LIttle Trout Lake (east side.)
Nothing as exciting as a moose or wolf, like others have had.
Mike
"
All the time you spend in the Horseshoe lake region and you havent seen a moose yet? I thought that was the best spot to see one. I could be wrong.
|
08/26/2024 04:07PM |
Grouse - once
Hares - often
Squirrels - often
Chipmunks - often
Pine marten - twice
Turtles - both snapping and painted
Snakes - Couple of times
Toads - just last week
Frogs - lots.
Woodpeckers
|
08/19/2024 07:22AM |
|
08/19/2024 07:33AM |
Huge hare last year, every night around 8 pm on ALice Lake. Seemed to have no fear of people. Biggest rabbit/hare I’ve ever seen.
Pine Marten back in the early 2000’s on Alice lake, took my dishwashing bag almost right out of my hands…this guy was obviously getting fed. Most nuisance food animal I’ve ever had. Cute guy though.
A red squirrel on Red Rock, we must of put the tent too close to his home…that thing made a racket. My young son Hunter named him squeaky squirrel. First time I’ve ever seen them hide mushrooms in pine trees. Caches all over the place. Besides the chatter at 5 AM :) was a fun creature to watch, son still talks bout him.
Argo Lake Island, called it mouse Island after a night on it. Once it got dark mice were everywhere. They ran up and down the tent, all around the tent, was unnerving…lasted about 20 minutes but thought we were being attacked.
Numerous snakes in the fire pit. The rocks are good for heating up in the sun and attracts them.
T
|
08/19/2024 11:52AM |
1. Chipmunk
2. Red Squirrel
3. Mouse
4. Rabbit
5. Snapping Turtle
6. Pine Marten
|
08/19/2024 12:21PM |
|
09/06/2024 10:39AM |
I've had the usual assortment. Couple of highlights:
1. 20ish years ago We had a bear come into camp on Brule about 30 minutes after we arrived. We were just relaxing by the water after a long day of traveling and he sauntered right into the middle of camp where we had put all our stuff to see what goodies we brought him. Took quite a bit to chance him off...yelling, banging, and finally chucking rocks at him. We then decided to get camp set up and was just starting on the task when we saw him peaking at us down the trail. Decision was made that this was not the site for us and we moved out to a nearby island site. The next morning we heard yelling and noise from the same camp, seems like someone else and moved in and was having there own introduction to Mr. Bear.
2. in 2022 stayed on a site on Jasper and had a full covey of Grouse come into camp and perch in small tree. Sat and watched them for a good half hour before they moved along.
3. On my solo I just took I made friends with the resident red squirrely on Crab Lake. On the morning were I was slowly packing up I started hearing stuff hitting the ground and figured out it was pine cones. The squirrel was high in a tall red pine gathering the cones and letting them fall to the ground. I decided it was time to play catch with my buddy, and positioned under the tree watching for the falling cones. A solid half hour of entertainment! In hindsight maybe 4 days of just myself for company was necessary for me to find this so fascinating!
|
09/09/2024 04:48PM |
Ok, maybe I watched too many bad horror flicks back in the day, ever see Night of the Lepus…
That bunny did creep me out tho.
|
08/28/2024 02:21PM |
|
08/20/2024 07:07AM |
Flying squirrel on Ashigan and crab
2 foxes on Caribou
Mink on Vista
|
08/18/2024 10:08PM |
|
08/29/2024 07:54AM |
Quetico..McAlpine lake.. we had been reading in the tent at night. Time to do that last “ nature break” before turning out the light. We unzipped the tent and saw an army of green frogs all around the tent looking at us. We had to step over them just to get out. We assumed they were attracted by the green glow of the tent.
Same night… just before sunrise we listened as a bear came rustling through the brush behind our tent, walked past not more than 10 feet away and down to the water. As soon as we started unzipping the tent, it went crashing back into the woods.
Woodland Caribou..Aegean Lake. We camped on a peninsula. Early in the morning up for an “Nature break” (I’m seeing a pattern here) about 5am we open the tent and see 4 caribou…. Two females with 2 calves munching moss around the tent.
Woodland Caribou.. We had been camping on what appeared to be a red squirrel’s kingdom and he was irritated. He sat in a tree and chided us for a long while… until an owl swooped in and grabbed him
Carrying him off across the lake. We could hear him screaming all the way. It was cool …but creepy..
Isle Royale.. I was wandering around camp taking closeups of the flora when I looked up and was eye to eye with a wolf about 10 feet away. My camera in hand, I was too stunned to bring it up and take a picture. He turned and kept walking….
|
08/24/2024 08:59AM |
I’ve had Pine Marten, otters, wolf, bear, owls, eagles and turtles in camp before. Never a moose though, I would probably need a fresh set of under-britches if that were to happen.
Tony
|
08/25/2024 12:25PM |
okinaw55: "MikeinMpls: "I have had the usual, in no particular order:
red squirrel
chipmunk
garter snake
snowshoe hare
grouse
mice
fisher
mink
snapping turtle
Bears twice: once on Devil's Elbow on the site above the channel; and once on LIttle Trout Lake (east side.)
Nothing as exciting as a moose or wolf, like others have had.
Mike
"
All the time you spend in the Horseshoe lake region and you havent seen a moose yet? I thought that was the best spot to see one. I could be wrong. "
I've seen LOTS of moose. Horseshoe Lake region, Baker Lake/Temperence Flowage, vicinity of Snipe Lake, Bower Trout area, Granite River, Little Sag, Big Sag, Kiskadinna, and on and on and on...
...but I've never had a moose IN CAMP.
Mike
|
08/25/2024 10:54PM |
|
08/26/2024 10:48AM |
Deer
Otter
Fox
Pine Marten
Owl
|
09/10/2024 09:08AM |
I do have two favorites. First, a couple years ago in the spring on Knife a big snapper walked up the embankment and into my camp. My two labradors were somewhat bothered by that, but when I told them to sit down and just enjoy it, they did. We sat drinking coffee (or I did that is) and watched this turtle for almost an hour as she dug a whole, deposited her eggs, covered it so you could not see anything, and retreated to the lake.
My number one of all time though goes back quite a few years. I was on Amber lake on that nice beach site. If you have ever stayed there you may have noticed a substantial game trail going right through the camp then out onto the beach and then back into the woods. One morning just at dawn my partner put her had on my mouth to keep me from making any noise. She gestured that something was outside the tent. A moose cam into camp, walked right up to my blue timberline tent, and even bent over and sniffed it. We could see the shadow through the wall as it did so. We were scared it would get tangled in the guy lines or in the lines of our nearby tarp, but nothing happened. It took one big sniff, then backed away and walked on. When we went outside we found its two hoof prints right outside the tent, no more than 2-3 feet from where my head had been. That was a thrill.