Posted by: Crazy Horse in MyBlog on Dec 4, 2009
While some Outfitters/Guides in Canada and other parts of the world, use airplanes, horses, ATV's and other methods to get their clients into the areas where the game is, the outfitter I booked with and his guides believed that there was only one way to hunt, and that was by walking many miles and seeing lots of country.
I The outfitter arranged to pick me up at the cabins where Lora and Tina and I were staying on the day we were to go in to camp.
To get back into the camp, the outfitter used J5 track machines, for any of those that served in the military during the "Cold War" and during the old "Dew Line" days, another name for these machines, is "Weasles".
Basically they are / were a small bull dozer type vehicle, with rubber cleated tracks, and the motor was / is located directly behind the driver, above the line of the tracks.
They could go thru bogs, with 3 foot of water in them with little or no trouble.
from our jumping off point on a logging road to camp, we walked behind or road these machines as they pulled trailers containing our gear, the 5 plus miles into camp.
The trip in was quite interesting, as we went thru areas of tall and thick evergreens and then into areas similar to tundra.
Before leaving the jumping off point myself and a couple of the other hunters had been informed that the outfitters son was picking up our hunting permits because they Game Department had not sent them out on time.
Newfoundland does almost everything at its own special speed and time.
We made it into camp with no difficulties, although deciding whether walking and following the J5 was preferrable to riding it did become a major point of discussion, to the point that when we could, we walked.
I got some what aquainted with my fellow hunters on the way in interesting folks, but, with one exception, no one I would want to share another camp with.
Apart from that, the first night in that camp was one that stands out in my memory, and always will.
The outfitters son showed up with our hunting permits shortly after dark.
Along with our permits, he brought in two 5 gallon buckets of fresh mussles.
The cook did justice with those tasty little morsels, and I made myself somewhat ill due to the amount of them I ate.
We turned in about 10 p.m. that night and got ready for our first day of hunting.
Next time, My first caribou and not hunting on Sundays.