Pigeon River Country: A Michigan Forest

16. Remote Places

16 Remote Places The writer John Mitchell says that in preparing his book, The Hunt, he found Doug Mummert to be one of the few hunters he had met who were directly involved with wild creatures in their natural habitat, who were sensitive to the circumstances of death, and who feel their methods are time-honored and respectful of their prey. Doug Mummert is one of two or three people who know the most remote areas of Pigeon River Country best. He regularly visits the forest two days each week hunting coyotes or tracking bear and training his dogs. He observes, in all kinds of weather, portions of the forest most people never experience. Here are some of his observations. You can only beat so much brush, and your feet will only stand so many miles on the snowshoes. But modern man’s methods—all you gotta do is turn that key and tow enough gas and keep her going in a circle. I think what I like about snowshoes is that I can penetrate country nobody else is in. Take the Black River Swamp—two miles wide and six miles long. The ‹rst time you go through that, it’s a monstrous big place. But the more you penetrate it the smaller it gets. You have this inbuilt fear of big country like that. Just like with night. [When you disturb a coyote, which sleeps during the day,] usually he’ll run his feeding pattern. And the bear does the same thing. If you follow him, you see the wildness of the country. Animals are very clever. I found where two coyotes killed two partridge at one time. A partridge is very alert. If there are two partridge sitting together and you kick one up, the other will automatically ›y. He’s alarmed by noises. I don’t quite understand their system, but [the two coyotes] approached these two partridge [which were 10 feet apart] and they got both of those partridges. I never could ‹gure out how they done that. 195 I would say that this area has qualities to hold wildlife, what I will term “sensitive animals:” elk, bear, coyote, and bobcat. They have thrived in this environment because of its inaccessibility to people. Doug discusses speci‹c locations, identi‹ed by their section numbers in Corwith Township (a section is one square mile). Section 11, Tubbs Creek: On Sunday, January 16 [1977], our group of coyote hunters jumped [moved from their beds] three mature coyotes. They had bedded down in the thick area of swamp after their regular night’s hunt for dead deer and rabbits. They selected this area because it was quiet. The male coyote that my hound ran that day circled most of the day, and at about four in the afternoon his escape route was to take to the deep snow in the slashing. His cunning and wild instincts saved his hide that day—due to the fact that he stayed in wild country with no roads. Section 10, Tin Shanty hardwoods: This is one of the larger tracts of hardwood in the Pigeon River Country. Elk and bear use the beechnuts and acorns from the beech and oak to put a layer of fat around their body for the four months of winter. This area is rich in this type of food. Section 35, Top of Tin Shanty Hill (east): This is a natural travel route of wild game. Coyotes I studied and hunted have come out of the Black River Swamp near the little unnamed lake north of House’s Lost Cabin, crossed the Tin Shanty Bridge Road by the hemlock trees, and on to cross the Sawdust Pile Road about one mile south of the Tin Shanty Bridge on their path to the Tubbs Creek area. I’m sure they use this route [because] it has very little people activity. Section 26, Tin Shanty Bridge: Where the tubes go under the road is the pathway on the Black River ice that animals use in the deep snow. The ice makes easier means of travel when an animal such as the bobcat wants to get from Black River Swamp to the Tubbs Creek Swamp. Coyotes, otter, beaver, bear, coon, muskrat, pileated woodpeckers also use this area. Section 28, Black River Swamp: No place in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is there such an uninterrupted piece of swamp. This is solitude to anyone that has snowshoed into her interior in the...