Eelpout Festival

Walker and Leech Lake welcomed hundreds of visitors for its midwinter festival this weekend. It started early on Thursday and even heavier on Friday just a parade of hundreds of fish houses, 4-wheelers and snowmobiles being hauled into town for this big event. It was good to see Walker come alive with many people in the stores and on the sidewalks. With the great weather every one was in town. Our neighborhoods in the Oak Point area had more people then normal to enjoy the festivities. Next week the Pilot Independent will have a full report for all to read about. Check it out on the web at http://www.walkermn.com/ .

We had another week of great weather this past week. Nighttime temps were in the 0 to minus 5 degree range, but by mid-afternoon the temps would climb into the high 20's and 30's. We had three afternoons where we had temps above the freezing point. The bright sun is high in the sky with a powerful warming effect. Snowbanks are shrinking. On the blacktop the sun is melting the ice, I would guess that the usual 90% snow pack on the roads is closer to 20% now. However, we all know that March is our snowiest month of the year. The Oak Point Resort had their spearing houses safely back on shore. My neighbors and I are back walking on the blacktop road which is more interesting then on a treadmill. I am including a picture of my niece Megan who lives in Frederick, MD which is just outside of Washington, D.C. shovelling a path through the 40+ inches of snow that they got.

Another Deer Story

This story was told to me by Sharon my deer hunting neighbor here on Oak Point. This happened to her on another "Opener" a few years back. The weather was beautiful. She climbed into her deer stand about 5:15 A.M. All the leaves had finally fallen. The top leaves were dry and she easily brushed them to the ground. The rest were wet so she would waited until it was light to clean up her stand. She took out her book, put her cushion on the bucket, sat down andfell asleep.

A distant gun shot woke her. It was barely dawn and she became alert anyway. It was not really light enough to see yet. So she sat. Ready. Her senses were perked! By 7:30 A.M. she reached for her book. Not a deer came by. By 8:30 she put the book down, stood awhile peering into the forest all around her

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By 9:30 A.M. the wet leaves on the floor of her stand were almost dry. She bent over and began picking them off the floor one by one very quietly and dropping them threw the cracks of her deer stand to the ground below. She would quietly stand up periodically and look around. Nothing.

By 10:15 her stand way clean and the floor dry. She just happened to look through the camouflage on the west side of her stand, as if by some premonitions, and there thirty feet away was a 10 point buck. The buck was straining its neck to look up at her stand. What was she to do? Her 30-30 was hanging on a nail to her right. If she reached for it, the buck would see her.

They stared at each other through the camouflage. The buck was skittish but did not run. He kept her eye on the strange thing in the tree but did not move. She could tell it was hard for him to look up that way. About 5 minutes passed when a noise further west of her caused the buck to turn around and fact that noise. That was all that Sharon needed. She got the first deer of that season.