The Hunt That Almost Wasn’t

By Carol Carver, Field Staff,
North Carolina

We started going to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan several years ago. Grouse in Michigan are on a seven year cycle – seven with the population going up and seven with it going down.

This year we were especially excited about going. We had acquired a German Shorthair Pointer puppy that would be ten months old for our annual trip in October. We knew this would be a critical period in his training and just the numbers of birds he would encounter was a plus. Our ground work and back yard training was complete and now he just needed the field training on wild birds.

The best laid plans do not always work out like we want. In April, I broke the plate in my knee as well as tearing tendons on both sides. I spent most of the summer with crutches and a brace, not to mention all the hours of physical therapy- and this was before surgery! July finally found me in surgery to repair the tendons and then we started all over with physical therapy.

Ruger

As October loomed ever closer, we kept going back and forth about canceling our hunt. One day I thought I could make it but the next day I wasn’t so sure. My gait was still not good and I just wasn’t sure I was up to the walking required to grouse hunt. We put off our decision until the last possible minute and decided to go ahead and try it. The plan was to stop frequently on the long trip to Bruce Crossing. Once we got there, if we found I couldn’t take the walking, we would do several short hunts a day and spend the rest of the day checking out new sites for future hunts.

Sadie

It was a great week all the way around. Maybe we enjoyed this hunt more because it almost didn’t happen……….or maybe we enjoyed it more because of Ruger’s enthusiasm. There is something about following a young dog. You get a fresh perspective through each new experience they have.

Whatever the reason, this hunt that almost wasn’t turned out to be one of the best ever!!