Each year just after the November gun deer season ends and we start getting or seasonal snowfall I take a trip up north to run and scout properties for hunting snowshoe hares. I check old places to see if there is a huntable population. As I talked with coworkers about making the trip I asked a young man named Tong Evans if he had ever hunted hares before? He told me no, so I asked if he would like to ride along and informed him that it would be a long day and a lot of miles. Tony said he is always up for a new experience and so we made plans to go on our next day off.
I wet Tony's appetite with stories of past hunts and tales about some of the good ole dogs that have left lasting memories.
The morning came with a fresh rush of anticipation as we made our way north. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to the spot I wanted to check. When we arrived there was still a dark haze on the swamp because the sun hadn't crested the horizon yet. I told Tony that I would pull the dogs out to let them relieve themselves for a few minutes because of the long ride. When the dogs were done doing what male dogs do to every tree within thirty yards and most trees twice I put them back into the dog box. I just wanted to check out how much snowshoe sign there was down in the middle of the swamp. This place has a little cabin for guests and a bigger cabin for family gatherings. There is an old trail that cuts through the middle of a real thick cedar swamp between the two cabins and that's where I wanted to check for hare tracks first.
Walking past the little cabin I came across bobcat tracks first then a set of porcupine tracks, then a little further down the edge of the swamp more bobcat tracks. As we turned to walk down a little hill on the old trail, we finally came across our first snowshoe track. We walked the whole trail down and back and I estimated eight different snowshoe tacks and one more bobcat track.
On our way back by the little cabin I decided to walk behind it to check a spot where a thick stand of balsam fur and cedar trees were. To my surprise, looking down in the fresh snow was a big fresh black bear track. I called Tony over to see the bear track, I started to follow it and Tony asked what was I going to do? I said I wanted to find the bear and poke it with a stick! He said "but the guns are still in the truck". "Yes?" I said, still following tracks. Once again Tony asked what was I going to do? I said "I want a better look at the bear, I want to poke it with a stick." I could tell Tony was more than a little nervous about following the bear. His next statement was "But what if it gets mad?" I told him not to worry that the bear was probably real sleepy, besides if the bear got mad that all I had to do was to push him down and out run him! Well we didn't find the bear but I bet Tony has a story to tell his kids someday.
We left the bear tracks and walked back to the truck and headed down to the road, to my next stop.
After driving nearly twenty-five miles we locked the big Dodge into four-wheel drive and headed off road a half mile to our next stop. Once there, we put our hunting duds on and loaded shot guns. I opened the dog box doors and out come Demon and Iceman ready to explore the swamp with us.
I don't think the dogs went much over two minutes before they had a hare up and running. I told Tony that we didn't want to shoot more than two hares in this swamp; there is no need to be a game hog.
The hare kept making small circles through some really thick balsam fur trees, the snow was six to eight inches deep, where as the swamp we just came from only had about an inch. The dogs did a fine job working the hare despite the fact that the snow was being knocked off all the branches into their faces and into the hare tracks. Tony and I stood on the edge of the swamp listening to Demon and Iceman running the hare and several times we caught fleeting glimpse of the snowshoe from where we were standing.
I told Tony that I was going to make my way into the swamp to take a look around and that he was welcome to go with me. He decided to stay out on the edge; I don't think he wanted to run into any more bear tracks. Anyway, Tony stayed where we saw the hare go through a few times earlier.
As I made my way along looking around for hare sign, I could hear the dogs and when they sounded as if they were coming my way I would stop looking for snowshoe sign and start looking for the hare that the dogs were running. Doing this, I spotted the hare moving through the chest high fur tree three times but it never offered me a good shot. I heard the dogs heading towards Tony's direction then Boom! Boom! Tony was using one of my Remington shotguns and so jokingly after the two shots I yelled out across the swamp "You had better of shot two hares!" I walked back out of the swamp, over to Tony and the dogs. Tony had a great big grin on his face as I once again joked that he had better of shot two hares. Imagine my surprise, when he held up both hares. Tony said that he shot the one the dogs were running when he caught movement to his left and another hare jumped up on top of a small mound looking at him so he shot that one also.
I wanted to check out five more swamps, so after taking a picture of Tony and his two snowshoes we loaded up Demon and Iceman and headed north in hopes of finding a good hare population at each of our stops.
The next spot we checked was a great place to hunt two years ago, but as we drove down the trail not one set of hare tracks. Something made them move, I think the cover just got to thin. So I went a mile in all directions and low and behold I found them! So a lesson here is if you lost your rabbit or hare population start looking for the next available cover even if it's a mile away. Sometimes it's not just a low population cycle; look for better cover and a better food source.
We had a real good time hunting and scouting on this trip. It was Tony's first snowshoe hunt and a first time seeing bobcat, bear, and porcupine tracks for him also. He said he would go snowshoe hare hunting with me again but he didn't think he would like to bear hunt with me, if all I was going to carry was a stick… Ha!
Hunt'Em Hard!
“Snowman”
Rick Snow
