August is a great time to scout in Northern New Hampshire for Deer and Moose sign. I began my scouting trips last month and found plenty of Deer and Moose sign in one area.

Last Month’s trip produced a young bull in the early morning dew at roadside. On the August cover.

Yesterday I went all the way to Pittsburg, NH to see what I could find and then worked my way south.

As I headed north I photographed the closed resort “The Balsams” at Dixville Notch. It is a shame that the economy is so poor for so long and this place is so silent in its nestled beauty. 

As you might suspect the deer sign increased as I moved south but so did the Moose sign. I spent the night camping ($25/night) at Lake Francis State Park on my solo journey .http://www.nhstateparks.com/francis.html

The highlight of my night there was a visit by a Raccoon who sniffed my tent and made mouth/ nose sniffing sounds that were so rapid that it could not have been a bear.  At 2 AM I shouted  “Beat-it”! . And he did…My guess is that this Raccoon made the rounds to every campsite looking for scraps left by messy campers. I am not a messy camper as food was locked in my car. It is the rare bear visits that can really light up your night they say!

In the morning at 5:30 AM I got in my car, no coffee yet,  and hit the road to Moose Ally on Rt 3 with my Nikon D60 hoping to put a Bull in my Camera lens. http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product-Archive/Digital-SLR-Cameras/25438/D60.html

Strangely after two ten mile passes I did not see a single Moose. Even Moose Alley Trail was silent.

Nada, Zip! Are the Moose there? Of course they are.  Just not when I was driving at 20 mph. Morning at Lake Francis is glorious!

Oh, I listened to F&G radio on 1610 AM talk about the great Moose numbers for NH (Over 6000) the majority being above Concord NH. I have made this trip before to Moose ally and have always seen Moose. Hmm. Whats up with that? So I drove two logging roads and still nothing but Moose tracks. Moose must be somewhere? Just not roadside!

Back to camp for some breakfast I thought.  I had enough camp wood to cook over the fire. Breakfast over an open fire is something my family did for more than a half century and it brought back fond memories as a young boy.

I used one non stick all metal skillet for all my cooking starting with Coffee. Coffee made on a hot skillet is fast to heat up. Hot Colombian Roast Coffee..  Coffee in hand, I added butter to the skillet and cooked up two eggs over easy and put them aside while I cooked sausage, home fries and canned baked beans till they were bubbling hot and then added back the over easy eggs to the bubbling hot pan.  I could have had some venison but I was fresh out of it.This year, I hope.

I wanted to show you photo’s of Bull Moose but here is my breakfast feast over the fire instead. It was grand to be here just the same! Any day in the north woods is grand!

I used the clean, well maintained Shower facilities there at Lake Francis. Refreshed, I headed south for more scouting. I stopped at LL Cote Sports Center in Eroll, NH. I have been a customer of theirs for decades. It is just gigantic inside with everything imaginable for sportsman and women.  http://www.llcote.com/servlet/StoreFront

Heading further south I rounded a corner and there on the roadside was a Mackenzie Deer Target at the woods edge, you know, the ones that are so life like at archery shoots,  only it swapped ends as I approached, and ran into the woods.  A young handsome spike buck! Too fast for me to get a snap shot of his long neck and sweeping long spikes. Seeing is believing they say, so I marked the area and scouted. The deer sign was encouraging.

On the way south I came across these wind turbines that will forever be a part of this landscape and produce so little energy that it will take decades to break even, if ever.  Wait the photo captured them saying something as they turned. Y I K. I interpret that as a form of YUK!

I stopped at my nephews camp north of Berlin to check in on it, all was well. This camp was part of my family for 50 years. Shot my first deer there in 1967. Just a year later much of the heard was decimated by snow and winter-kill. We could walk on to the roof of camp back then. Guess Al Gore was still in diapers.

It was there that I learned to chop wood, and the value of a warm cabin in sub-freezing temperatures and the value of a good hunting friendships and getting up at 4:30 AM each day.

Back home now, my clothes are all smokey. A nice trip, a few Moose photos would have been better. When I got my moose three years ago. I scouted in my area for hundreds of field hours never seeing a Moose, just their tracks so stay at it. There is a Moose around the next bend in the road so be ready! ©