Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Diary of a deer camp

and don't forget how beautiful the bar is at "The Willows"!

The UP of MI has/had some great camps. We need some Michiganders to jump in here and tell us about their camps.

I grew up on those stories of the olden times in Potter Co. PA, listening to the kin folks. Deer were scarce in the old days and if a track was struck and someone had the time, they followed it. Sometimes over night, if they had packed a tarp along for shelter, blankets and sandwiches.

Many of those older tales took place not long after WWI, for a time frame reference. Some of the family lore was even older than that. And most involved hunters coming up from the city, with the kinfolks serving as guides or at least lending a hand in hunts for a few dollars. Similar details like hunters coming up on trains, then someone local picking them up in horse drawn wagons or buggies.

Puts things into perspective on the amount of effort required back then, just to hunt in the rural north central mountains of PA and I suspect, in many other states, prior to reliable automobiles and good roads.

One of my favorite family stories involved my paternal grandfather and his brother, both born in the 1880s. Never knew that grandfather, he died many years before I was born.

Predated WWI and involved them live-trapping a bear (no easy feat and I suspect, highly illegal), hauling it on the back of a wagon in a wooden cage, then letting it loose for some city boys to shoot at, who had paid for the endeavor upon getting a look at the caged bear.

One year while hauling the bear out predawn to where they intended to release it, the bear got to causing a ruckus on the back of the wagon, spooked the horses to the point they ran and the wagon flipped, throwing all onto the ground.

Gramps got hurt, wagon got busted up, the bear escaped and they wound up having to refund the city boys' money. IIRC, that finally ended the annual caged bear efforts on the part of gramps and his bro?

Ah the Willows. For some reason the guys in that camp now call it "One Eyes".

Another tale involved the willows and a fellow that happens to live about 4 houses down from me. He didn't hunt, but often would go to camp for a couple days.

Anyway, after a couple days some of the crew decided to go down off the mountain and visit the Whillows. The place was jumping and the bar maid was a well endowed lady. They were almost out and the top buttons were unhitched.

One of the guys mentioned that he would surely like to see her hooters and Andy said no problem and asked her to lean over the bar. She did, and he had his knife in hand and reached up and sliced her bra and out they flopped.

Alcohol was definitely a contributing factor, but she took it all in stride. Nobody got the boot and the party went on.

Head up 66N and you will pass some classic Pa Deer Bars:

Volwinkles
Vinces
The Bucktail
Kellys Hotel
The Bird Cage in Kane. Now gone.

Shot a Bear up there many years back and after spending 5 or 6 hours getting him out we stopped at Kellys for a celebration drink. Problem was I couldn't buy one, in that what seemed half the town insisted they buy one for me.

That was during the time when around 300 Bears a year were taken in Pa. Now it is 3000 plus.

Where are the camps from other states? Permanent or tent, there has to be some great experiences out there that others would like to hear.

Jeff (Gophergunner)...

Dale K. told me about you starting this thread... so I looked it up and found it. I copied the net address and sent it to Harry via email with the suggestion he also start a similar diary (as you suggested) for his cozy camp up on the mountain near Parker Dam in the Moshannon State Forest north-east of DuBois and east of Penfield.

As soon as I finish this post, I'm gonna go back and read all the posts on this thread. I sincerely hope your "heart issues" will be solved and you eventually are able to get back to your Dad's old camp and enjoy it with your son.

It was good chatting with you via email...


Strength & Honor... Yer "bud"...

Ron T.

I really should put these stories to print some time. It's a really good read.

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Yep... it was a "good read"... and you definitely have a talent for writing the stories in an interesting way, too, Jeff.


Ron

Some pics of my 1st yr of my deer cabin. We use it for fishing , and to get away. Used top snowmobile too. My 1st grouse at the cabin, my 1st deer there and us building it. We framed it in a weekend.

Nice pics. Looks like a good sized cabin. That's a big deer too.

The picture of the wall raising, makes me want to build another camp. When i along with two cousins, built ours, it was a fun filled time. Even the hospital trip following "The Air Nailer Accident" When i managed to attach my finger to the wall. It was enjoyable shooting from the hip and building it however you wanted, no plans, time frame, ect, ect. Beg, borrow, and trade, for the items that you needed for the next weekend. Our camp is far from perfect, but the stories, and memories are priceless.

Another story from the history of our camp:

Back in the late 40's when the guys started hunting in Central Pa. there was an oil well and pump up on our mountain. It was one of those great big one lunger engines with a long stroke and a huge flywheel that ran off the crude it was pumping. It was a popular spot for the guys to hunt up to, as it was manned by a mechanic who always had a pot of coffee on, and was friendly to all the hunters. Dad said he'd hunt his way up there, and if he hadn't shot a deer by the time he got there, he'd have lunch with the guy, and then still hunt back to camp. I walked up to it one time, and sadly it was all gone except the remains of the shed and a little oil stove. The engine had been pulled, and the well shaft was sitting there uncapped. You could look down the shaft with a light and see water in the shaft, and smell that Pennsylvania crude oil. Times sure have changed.

Several of these are familiar. Sure miss getting down that way.

24x24 cabin with a loft. That deer was a freak of some sort. When I hung in in the garage it stretched from the 8' ceiling to the floor. Very long legs. My first big eoods buck and first bow buck, 1989.

Yup. We have a camp up ear fryburg, pa. Been keeping a log since 1979. Some funny stuff. It's a hoot to take to the outhouse with you and read a few of the old stories. I actually attempted to type the whole thing (well, there's 5 log books now); it's a lot of work trying to decipher everyone's writing.

I didn't have the opportunity to really start deer hunting until I was a freshman in high school. One of my school chum's mother still had their family place in the hill country. We simply stayed in the old rock ranch house. He still lives there in the house and we are still close friends. The old house was moved from down in the Colorado river valley in the 30's when lake Travis was being built.

My dad's dad was a fairly notorious poacher during the depression in south Texas. But it was to put food on the table thing there in the "Blackjacks".. He didn't even own a rifle. They were pretty damn poor. But they always had a garden and a hog. He would borrow a 30-30 from a neighbor when grandma told him they needed meat. He would generally hunt on a moon light night up in a blackjack oak and shoot a deer when it came to eat acorns.

The game warden would put up an obligatory effort to catch him. Band my grandmother would laugh as she told me that warden usually did show up Sunday afternoon about grocery time. My grandmother was a local legend when it came to baked goods. Pies,doughnuts, etc. Naturally he whole process of cat and mouse would repeat itself in a week or two. But that warden knew that grandpa as well as others in the area were only trying to keep from starving. They never made game hogs of themselves. They took only what they needed.

I know many dirt poor Pennsylvania hillbillies that do the same thing, and still go through the same tap dance with the game wardens.

Yeah! Grandma stated the warden would show up and eat a lunch of deer. Same deer he was trying to catch grandpa with the evening before.

My buddy I mentioned above who I hunted with up at the old family place, well his mom told us a similar story from their old place. Seems his grandpa had shot a doe one evening and had it hanging down in an old shed by the county road. It was prolly 2:30 in the morning and he was skinning it when a car drove up. Naturally the old man thought it was the warden. Turned out it was his son who had just won the car in a crap game at Ft. Hood! This was like 1943. So he sees the light in the shed starts walking toward it. Light goes out. Grandpa comes walking out. Uncle Gordon asked "what ya doing?" Grandpa answers "oh nuthin!" LOL !!! Just walking around at 2:30 a. m. !

That was uncle Gordon's last trip home. He was killed in the Po valley by German artillery.

Just found this thread. I hunted out of a camp in Centre County, Poe Paddy area. 1960s. 30 guys in camp, 25 man drives for 3 days. Nothing to see 50 deer per day and nothing bigger than 6" spikes. Usually 3-4 poker games going on at the big dinner table every evening, lots of whiskey, but everyone was clear-eyed and ready to hunt at 6am when the first drive left camp.

BTW, is this Willows you mention the bar/restaurant at the bottom of Wykoff Run? Spent a lot of time in that area in the '80s thru '07 when I retired. Worked for PennDOT and we had an operator training site in Piper, near the top of Wykoff. Had many meals and a few beers in that establishment.

Ron