I missed my daughter Nell’s first grouse hunting trip up north due to injuries from the car accident. Then I missed the second trip as well, not being healed enough from the surgery to manage it. This year, I have been working my butt off to get into good enough shape to do the trip. 
I did not, however, find myself in any of my photos. <grin>
We started the trip, on Tuesday afternoon, in The Meadowlands south of Hibbing Minnesota, west of the town of Cotton, walking a sharptail management area. The chilly but dry and sunny extended forecast for the week was a bit on the inaccurate side of things. It was raining/sleeting/snowing with 30+ mph winds. We did not put up any sharptails, but those walks we did on Tuesday really calloused us for the rest of the trip. So long as the wind was not blowing the next couple of days, we felt like we were comfortable in comparison.
It was a good thing that we brought warm clothes, and a couple of changes of them as well.
Piper was happy to be looking for birds. She was better at finding them than we were at shooting them.
It was my first opportunity to hunt grouse with my brother Matt’s new dog Gunner. He is a fun, happy, enthusiastic dog and I look forward to walking woods and fields with him in the future.
Second day dawned cold, but not raining, much, and no wind. That was a welcome thing to us all.
Does not mean the woods were not wet. But the absence of wind allowed you to just enjoy the beauty of it all.
Just as a last picture, north of Chisolm, at the end of an old road, we found what appears to be a dreamcatcher, made of deer bones. Thought it warranted a photo. Don’t know who made it, but no one has molested or vandalized it, while it appears to have been there for a while.
This trip was a milestone for me after the trials of the last few years, spending time staring at the wall, ceiling, or surfing the internet while wishing I could do things my body would not yet let me do. Granted, I could not do as much, or all of, the things I used to do, but if the walking area was clear, and I did not have to step over too much, or pull my legs through brush or grasses, I did ok. I only had to actually stop and take a break from the trip a few times, and after resting for 30 minutes or so I could walk again. The kids stayed happy through all of it and did not complain and are excited about doing it again next year.
As am I.
