A Big Taste of The Wild

Not the cougar we saw, this is a stock photo

In the summer, I spend some time in northern Minnesota.  Grand Marais is the closest town. It was rated the “coolest small town in America.”   I have been coming up here since about 1974.  My grandfather was in the US Forest Service, and he built a cabin on a lake.  We bought and rehabbed the cabin next door.

17 ft away from the lake

A post shared by Jeff Carter (@pointsnfigures) on Sep 2, 2017 at 5:32pm PDT

One of the great things about our place is we have some of the fastest internet service in the country.  We have fiber right to our door.  That means I can do a lot of my job up here except meet with people in person.  If people want to meet and they come up here I will buy them a donut at World’s Best.

One of the neat things about where I am at is that I am smack dab in the middle of the woods.  It’s very remote.  One morning my wife and I woke up and a moose was swimming in the lake past our dock.  I sometimes sit on the dock and a beaver will swim by. We have had wolves and bears come by as well.

She likes it on the dock better

A post shared by Jeff Carter (@pointsnfigures) on Aug 19, 2017 at 5:35am PDT

Once my wife and I were inside and a little bear came by and helped himself to all the sunflower seeds on our feeder.  After a couple of tries scaring him away, he meandered off into the woods.  When we are berry picking, we are always alert.

All those creatures are basically terrified of humans.

Last night at 2:45AM, a mountain lion waltzed down the path from the road to our cabin.  My daughter’s dog heard him and woofed.  We woke up and I saw him patrolling our deck. My daughter saw him walking down the path.  I looked out the window and there he was. I could smell him.  He had a very unpleasant odor that burned the inside of my nostrils.  This morning, we could see where his paws hit the gravel going from our parking lot to the deck.

He isn’t small.  He looked to be around 4-5 feet long.  He had a long tail.

I yelled at him and he hopped off our deck down to another one that sits on the lake. He nosed around there and ate all the corn that we had put out for the bluejays and ducks.  We won’t be putting out any treats for the little critters around here anymore.

A few days ago a neighbor found a buried hind quarter of a deer on his property.  Only mountain lions and grizzly bears bury their prey and save it for later.  They will defend it too.

Males are migrating here from the Dakotas.  That’s an awfully long way to go.  Since 2004, there have been only a handful of confirmed sightings across the state.  I understand why they’d want to be here because of the resident deer population.  Having another apex predator here might upset the apple cart.  Our lake is a bit lower than usual because beaver activity is down.  I wonder if the lion ate a few beavers.

They are illegal to shoot since they are protected.  That puts me in a tough spot. I don’t think a cougar would attack me but I have heard of it happening in California.  My brother in law lives in the wine country and some joggers have been attacked over the years.  I know they’d love to get one of our dogs and by law I am supposed to let that happen.  We keep a shotgun up here but I am considering getting a sidearm as well.

The Road. This is a good portion

A post shared by Jeff Carter (@pointsnfigures) on Sep 2, 2017 at 5:24pm PDT

I don’t want to get into a whole 2nd Amendment thing but when you are in the middle of the woods by yourself in a place that is super hard to get to, having a weapon to defend yourself with is a necessity.

It’s very rare to see a cougar so I guess I should consider myself lucky.  With two dogs here I really don’t care if I have the pleasure of seeing him again.  But, my guess is we will.  Our Nest cameras will be operating 24/7 now.