Terry Drinkwine Outdoors!

Heading north this past Saturday we didn’t encounter 100 cars. One hundred might seem like a large number, but not when you realize it’s a four hour trip covering 250 miles and usually has slowdowns due to traffic especially in Oakland County.

Grayling was a straight through shot with only one stop to get gas. I was reminded that Corvid19 was the reason for the sparse activity in Grayling when I discovered the gas station we stopped at closed their bathroom to the public. No big deal for a man, but… The last hour to the cabin was uneventful with even less traffic than on I-75.

We’ve been here for a day and still haven’t seen a person other than at the grocery store. I’m reminded of the early days when we first came to this place before every square inch of property with waterfront was sold and Orchard Lake type homes were build and called cottages – my cabin isn’t one of them.

I watched the sun come up over the hills across the lake like I’ve done for many years before, but today it looked to me like it used to years ago when I had to hoard time to make the trip. Three deer came into sight in front of the cabin slowly meandered past to head for the swamp north of the cabin. Gus saw them too and was interested, so I waited a while before taking him for his morning walk. Up north he gets to run loose, no leash. Unlike Seamus who used to take himself for a run down the lake when he thought I was out of sight, Gus looks for me when he gets too far ahead.

I received a call from work and told part-time was eliminated. That’s me.

Snow is mostly gone around the cabin but still in spots where it accumulated the heaviest over the winter. Later Gus and I will try to get into the woods along the Jordan River. I need to get Gus into some grouse cover, and it appears we’ll have plenty of time this year to hunt bonasa umbellas.  The hunting will begin though, while fishing for brookies in the Jordan this spring, listening for the drumming of  grouse, making a mental not of where it came from so Gus and I can return in October …and that’s a good thing.

THD