After a long and at times arduous season consisting of many many trips down the Southern Shore, the French hunting party was not having much luck this season. A heck of a lot of time, effort, walking, stalking and covering old & new ground had the crew on occasion within a glimpse of animals but fortune and favour had yet to bring a harvest to fruition.

Over the Christmas break I joined Mark & Andrew French for one last kick at the cat. I was truck sitting Dad's 2018 F-150 so I loaded up Project Foreman for the early morning drive down the shore. On this adventure Mark left the Argo home and instead loaded up his '13 Yamaha Grizzly and the family '08 Honda Fourtrax AT for Andrew.

Weather was quite crisp but quite still, clear sunny skies made for a fantastic day in the woods.

We planned a morning hunt in one of our usual areas, and came across tracks of a cow & calf in last night's fresh fallen snow. I set up the boys and followed the track through the woods, then cut out onto a bog hoping to cut them off further up This would depend on just how fresh the tracks were. Unfortunately I discovered in the cut over at the top of the bog that these tracks were hours old, the animals had already passed through and were headed deep into thick woods, and area with absolutely no access.

We covered a lot of ground for the mid day hunt but never came across another single fresh sign anywhere we travelled.

We stopped for lunch around noon in a dandy cutover with lots of dry firewood.

Mark got a fire going while I lit my Kelly Kettle, first using the hobo stove attachment to warm up beans, and later boiling the actual Kettle for tea.

On the open fire I fried up a feed of my homemade moose sausages, both Jalapeno/Smoked Cheddar and my latest creation Moose/Bacon. These are a 50/50 mix of fresh ground moose and my own Applewood smoked bacon run through the grinder!

To say it was a great feed would be an understatement!

After lunch we spent the afternoon riding and scouting along the Southern Shore Trailway over as far as Cape Broyle before heading back to the trucks. This trip brought to a close another Moose Hunting Season. It was a battle hard fought and at times down on luck, which despite all effort & preparation is still a large part of a successful harvest.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith