Brokeback Gunflint

     Another deer hunting season is over and for the 2nd year in a row there’s no deer in our freezer.  Not that I mind because I really don’t like the taste of venison even though people say it tastes just like chicken.  Wait, that’s not quite right, I guess when they talk about venison they say you can’t even tell the difference between beef and venison.  I don’t know how stupid they think I am but I can tell the difference between hamburger and venison, it’s like saying you can’t taste the difference between chocolate and vanilla; not gonna happen.  So dear friends(no pun intended), please don’t try to trick me by putting Bambi in the chili or spaghetti sauce or whatever it is you want to try to trick me into eating.  I know it’s deer meat but I’m too polite to tell you it tastes like " _____,"( sounds like "ship.")

     OK, back to the deer hunt.  I don’t mind that Mike didn’t shoot a deer, even though we have way too many deer up here that’s a whole another story.  It’s just that he and others like him tend to drag the season out.  Up here on the Gunflint Trail the season is open for three weekends and of course the days in between. 

     Some people get excited to shoot a deer and within the opening hour of the season they have their deer.  They clean it, put all of their hunting gear away and are done until the next year.  Mike is not some people.  His hunting season drags on and on and his gear stays out well beyond the seaon. 

     Call me crazy but I’m not sure he is even hunting.  Like a note in a tackle box that never gets opened Mike goes hunting without ever getting a deer.  Like I said, he’s not the only person on the Gunflint Trail who milks the deer hunting season for all it’s worth…