By Jean A. Taylor-Starr of Colorado. Originally published in Muzzle Blasts Magazine, 1990
The first annual muzzleloading moose hunt and Rendezvous in Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada was held amidst the vibrant October color of 1989. Based out of the small village of Sioux Narrows, Ontario and organized by Dean Crist, this was a new adventure for most of the participants.
The area we hunted is a striking mosaic of inland waterways, islands and quaint towns with a rural laid-back atmosphere. Sioux Narrows consists of several businesses including lodges with boat rentals and numerous docks for said boats, public, private and government.
Our first night was actually spent in town as there were four-foot waves on the lake and in the approaching twilight none of the three in our party wished to try to identify unfamiliar landmarks to a place none of us had ever been while travelling across a huge expanse of water. The next morning we loaded our rented boats, took our bearings and started off. Lake of the Woods is a large body of water and as many of us land-lubbers found, one must keep navigational charts and maps in constant reference to land/islands to successfully thread through the maze of islands and rocks.
After an initial one night 'Rendezvous' camp on Bell lsland for a briefing by Dean, a chance to get acquainted and dispersal of moose tags, the group of 38 hunters divided up into four camps with a limit of 10 hunters per camp. We chose pre-determined sites (set by the department ministers) on the northern perimeter of the Aulneau Peninsula for our hunting camps and left on Sunday for the campsites.
The site we had chosen was designated as 'Moose 2' and was reached by entering a narrow inlet opposite the south end of Bell Island on the Peninsula. The campsite was up a trail about 100 yards to a semi-cleared area where our group proceeded to put up various shelters. Carney Pace and I had two one-pole primitive shelters while our hunting partner Rick Conwell, had a pyramid tent. The others in our group had a tipi, wall tent and another one-pole. Two of us were from Colorado, one from Wyoming, two from Indiana, two from North Dakota and two from Michigan. Though there was one other woman in another camp, I was the only woman hunting, and although I had been moose hunting in Alberta several times, found this area to be quite different.
The terrain of Lake of the Woods and the Aulneau Peninsula area is of ancient glaciation and is now mostly water and ice-scoured land outcrops. The highest points we climbed were solid rock formation of about 20()..feet above lake level. Corning from a nearly 7000-foot elevation we found no problems adjusting to conditions, though we definitely noticed the increased humidity.
Full autumn is gorgeous in the bush as evidenced by the 'barns' (cottonwoods) golden yellow leaves, red of the hazelnuts, dark greens of pines and spruces and the gray of rocks with brightly colored lichens and mosses. Squirrels and birds were going noisily about their business of preparing for winter and even the beaver in their ponds seemed undisturbed by the hunters.
Monday, our first day of real hunting, was cloudy and rainy and proved to be our best hunting weather. lt was on that day that the two bulls which were the sum and total of success, were taken. The fellows from North Dakota, Kenny Heier and Harlan Heinrich, were from our 'Moose 2' camp and were lucky enough to be half of the success total. Harlan shot his moose with a .54 caliber half-stock Hawken using a patched round ball; the shot was clean and well-placed from about 80 yards and the moose fell near the end of a large marshy area. The other moose taken that day was a large bull shot by a hunter from the 'Moose 4' camp and was a sight to behold as it hung in camp.
Harlan and Kenny learned first hand how big a downed moose is when they set to field dressing it, but managed admirably in spite of the young bull's size. Having properly tagged and dressed it and carefully marked the kill site they then hiked back to their boat and motored to camp to get help hauling out the meat. Carney's backpacks came in very handy when he and the Indiana boys with Harlan and Kenny went back with flashlights and an abundance of optimistic energy to help. lt was well after dark when they returned with the meat and a healthy respect for moose haunches hauled over night-time bush trails. The antlers on Harlan's moose were not of tremendous bragging proportions except that he at least had them and a filled t.ag! Consequently, there was little "ribbing" as we ate roasted racks of fresh moose ribs the next night and slurped up every drop of moose stew!
First blood raised hopes as we all set out to hunt the following day. Unfortunately, the weather was improving which made camping more comfortable but was detrimental to moose hunting. As Dean explained it, the moose, being large black creatures, warmed too much in the autumn sun and being prepared physiologically for cold weather, preferred to hide in shady nooks and crannies during the warmth of the day. Consequently, some no doubt had boot prints on their backs as we tramped determinedly on through the bush.
The other factor contributing to our lack of hunting success was a southerly breeze which blew steadily every day from the depths of the peninsula toward our camps (south to north). The moose will tend to quarter into the wind which means they were moving ever farther away from the north end of the Aulneau Peninsula and our camps, toward the heavy bush of the interior. This made for longer treks deeper into unknown regions of the bush, which most of us were unwilling to do remembering the effort of packing meat out on foot.
In addition to hunting moose, some of us had bird licenses to hunt the abundant grouse (also known as spruce hens, fool hens and chickens), fishing licenses for the pike and lake trout, deer and bear tags. The Aulneau Peninsula has a plentiful supply of game and nearly all tags would normally have been filled under different conditions. One camp with several bear hunters chased a bruin around in the bush but never quite got to a good shooting point.
After admitting our defeat in the lack of meat to take home we decided to break camp and head back to civilization. Our camp had been 'home' for nearly a week and the Canadian bush had lost its frightening unfamiliarity by our intimate association with it (there were those who found it extremely easy to "get lost in its beauty", no names mentioned!) We'd made new friends with similar interests (i.e. muzzleloading and primitive camping) and we agreed in 'Moose 2' camp that the experience and opportunity to hunt moose in Canada with a muzzleloader was definitely worth the effort.
Returning to the friendly folks in Sioux Narrows we regrouped and prepared for the trip home. Most of us spent a fair amount of money on goods and services in the area which may help persuade the provincial ministers to allow an annual muzzleloading moose hunt in the area.
A special word of thanks to Dean Crist and his cohorts who organized this hunt, met with officials on numerous occasions, explained the differing laws to us and kept in constant contact with the various camps. He really 'made waves' motoring across the lake between his home, town and hunting camps and gave unfailing moral support to everyone. Next year, we're bringing home some meat; I asked my muzzleloader!