Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Grouse camp.

Just got back from five days Grouse hunting and fishing up in the Panhandle National Forest.
I had never been in that country but I was hoping to get in a little fishing on the St. Joe along with some bird hunting. Well,,,, after driving up and spending most of the first day discovering how little public access there was and that the few places a commoner could get to had a Montanifornian standing on every rock I hauled ass over to historic Marble Creek a friend had told me about.
Got lucky and found one of the best campsites I've seen virtually abandoned. There were only three sites with two up by the head and one a couple hundred yards away at the end of the road. Of the four nights I was there only one other camper showed up and stayed one night. Only time I even saw em was when I waved on my way out hunting the next morning. Perfect!!!



Beautiful stream about 100yrds behind camp. Close enough to water the dogs and do a little fly casting ("casting" not "catching") but far enough away that mosquitoes weren't a problem.



The bird hunting was pretty good. Got four Grouse in the three days I hunted which is pretty good for a geezer with geezer dogs in these steep mountains IMO. Even had Grouse right in Camp when We got back one afternoon but the Cur dog spotted em and flushed em away before I could get the gun out. Surprisingly,, that's the second time I've had Grouse in my camp over the years. Must be my cooking.
I took a detour on the way back to camp one afternoon to check out a Botanical Garden a couple miles off the main road and since I had a bird on board I had harvested earlier I took the opportunity for a photo op with one of the old growth Cedars. Crappy pic (as usual) but you can see the width of the base of the tree and the size of the nice plump Grouse. Quite a bit bigger birds than ours down in the Clearwater.


Here's a better pic of the bird. Like I said "nice plump rascals".


All in all a great trip and I have to give it to the Panhandle Forrest Service for the way they keep the place up. The Clearwater dist. could learn a thing or two if you know what I mean.
If I live long enough I hope to go back a few days before the opener next year and spend some time hiking that Botanical Garden (the place is almost spiritual,, could easily be a thread of it's own) as well as some more of the historical logging landmarks like the dam system they built in the 20's to transport timber in the spring run off. Almost a lock system if you will.
Anyway,,, here's another pic that doesn't do those majestic old Cedars justice. Anyone finding themselves in that area I highly recommend you check out Marble Creek.
Thanks for looking.
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