A turning point

This week marks a turning point in the season. Large game hunting with rifles begins on Saturday across the eastern half of the Rainy River District and the Kenora, Dryden area. As I cut the grass and raked leaves this past weekend, I watched as many trailers headed east.
I also watched as many vehicles had their boats loaded on trailers heading to garages and yards. The lake season has ended.
It almost is a ritual. The weekend before hunting season opens, the hunt camp is readied. Trailers are pulled to the location and then blocked. Tarps are hung between trees. Firewood is gathered for the campfire. Some hunters bring their heavy-duty tents and erect them with their built in wood stoves to keep themselves warm at night.
Others have booked camps cottages at camps in the area and will begin arriving at their destinations, with food supplies, four wheelers and hunting gear. Bright orange fluorescent camo will be the fashion in the woods for the next two months.
Making the last trip to the cabin this weekend, I couldn’t help but notice that the brilliant leaves that I enjoyed last weekend now have left the forest floor a golden colour, just as my yard had received a new carpeting of golds and reds from the birches and maple in my yard.
Where I couldn’t see far into the bush from the cabin, the brush was now clear and you could see much farther. It will make hunting easier this coming weekend. Without rain for most of the week, the forest floor had dried and there was a crunch underfoot from the dried twigs and leaves. It will be brittle underfoot for the hunters this weekend.
The sun is expected to shine through the course of this week and the temperatures are expected to rise into the mid to high teens. The outdoors will be enjoyed.
For many, this is a family outing covering many generations. Moms, dads, children, and grandparents make the opening of the hunting season a family affair. With Thanksgiving, meals are planned well in advance of the weekend and take on the feel of the real traditional Thanksgiving meal.
Most people who go hunting, go for the enjoyment of the outdoors and the companionship of their fellow hunters. Hunting now is more about that social time around dusk and sunrise, as meals are prepared and eaten. A beverage is enjoyed and stories are shared around open air camp fires without bugs and flies. The radiant heat is reflected off faces. The silence of the night is broken only by the friendly banter and the crackle of the pine burning.
At this time of year, the sky is bright and the brilliance of the stars lights the surrounding area.
By ten at night, the more serious hunters will be packed into their sleeping bags, oblivious to the night with their clocks set for a rise shortly after five in the morning. Somewhat bleary eyed, they’ll enjoy a quick breakfast and then be on their way to be stationed at their post by sun-up to begin their hunt.
The less serious will talk later into the evening, catch an occasional shooting star, and wake at a much later hour. A late breakfast and short hunt will make their day. Back early to camp, unless they get unlucky and shoot an animal, the ritual of social camping will return.
Serious, casual, family hunters can look forward to this Thanksgiving year, sharing in the outdoors and the spirit of the wilderness that has attracted people to this area of the world for eons.
–Jim Cumming,
Publisher