It's already the end of August. Our freezer is full of blueberries and walleye. A tent platform is built. Two fire rings dot the land. Another few dozen freshly-planted red, white and jack pine trees rim the north and western property lines. Concrete blocks for the foundation of the tool shed are leveled and the property is slowly amassing the materials that will eventually be the structures we will some day call home. Our road is dry, ditched and awaiting its final lift of gravel. The driveway is not in a hurry and neither am I.
A view looking up the driveway.
We camp out on the land as often as schedules permit. I sleep better under the spruce. Whippoorwills echo their name under the soft darkness of a moonlit night. Their echo sometimes persists through the morning hours!
Northerners like myself seem to never fully acclimatize to the warmth of late summer. Subsequently most summertime productivity on northern homesteads occur in the early morning or evening hours. Walking down the driveway after a full morning of working on the shed foundation, I found myself a hundred paces from a shining, mature male black bear. He's probably the same bear that destroyed my tent. He sniffed me. I raised my arms and acted cocky to chase him off. Luna, the obedient dog that she is, sat at my feet. I clutched her collar as she intently watched the bear proceed to walk closer.
This isn't my first black bear encounter. Heck, I have always thought of them as the cuddly, fuzzy pillow compared to their grizzly counterparts. Nine times out of ten black bears run the second they realize there are humans around. This one didn't.
I continued to act tough as the curious bear ambled towards me. I'm the type of person who doesn't just sit back and let another animal take control of the situation. I bluffed the bear. Lunging forward I "fake charged" him. It's generally not the brightest thing to do with a bear but I had to assert my dominance. It was clear that he wasn't worried about me. It worked! My bluff startled him just enough to question my intentions and he spooked. The bear took off into the bush and up Osier Creek.
In retrospect I probably shouldn't have bluffed that dumb ol' bear but the risk paid off. I admit that I have been taking my time and scanning the woods in the clearings to make sure he's not around since the encounter. In the end, all that I can do is hope that he is smart enough stay clear of these parts. Otherwise the score might be settled in the fall...
The materials that built this tent platform all have their orgins within a stones throw from the site. The rock is local, the balsam beams were cut on location and the spruce deck boards come from a tree that was harvested and milled on the property.
The block foundation for the tool shed.
The block foundation for the tool shed.
There is simply no such thing as a typical day out here! The second my daily chores become monotonous, a bear, wolf or storm enters the picture to spice things up a little. It only makes life interesting. In the meanwhile, I work, take a stroll down the trail and scheme up the next step. Before I knew it, a brilliant summer on the North Shore of Lake Superior has rained it's days and is coming to an end with warm wind through Spruce Knob...
