MAR-A-2
THE JOINING OF MY NEW CHESAPEAKE CHAPTER OF THE SCI
AND ITS MAJOR FUNDRAISER MEETING IN ANNAPOLIS,
HOSTED BY KILLETTS AND HOSTING
SCHAEFERS
AND MY OWN SPECIAL “BYO BIG GAME GUIDE!”
March 1, 2003
What a great weekend visit! Christian Elwell arrived on Friday afternoon, only six hours after he had left from Ithaca, and not only made it down the roads which were not bad despite the scattered rain and snow, but also drove the four wheel drive Subaru up the driveway into the circle here at Derwood, while the Bronco remained down below the driveway. Just before he had arrived, the Sportsman’s Guide package had arrived with a bunch of equipment I had ordered the week before, and I was unpacking it of the kinds of stuff we would be using together on proposed future hunts. As I got up to go to the window, a big red fox trotted past my window and crossed on the snow. When Christina had come in, having been cooped up in the car, and I having been closed indoors working on hunting essays, we both decided to go out for a trek through the woods, which we started forthwith, finding ourselves the first footprints in the woods since my snow shoe tracks had been laid down two weeks ago at the start of all this unaccustomed Maryland winter. We bounced along at the snow covered rocks and logs over the stream and returned to swap pictures and stories.
When Janine and Christian had been here two years ago, I had thought that they should have a rather typical Chesapeake treat, so I had showed them how to crack and at steamed crabs—a first time and they loved it. So, that was our option number one. WE went to the nearby Steamin’ Blues and ordered the Chesapeake Special and cracked crabs and drank beer. WE told quite a few stories and got a head start on the plans for this next fall ( a moose hunt in the tented base camp with a jet boot to retrieve big moose to a comfortable base) and a special holiday two years from now, in May when we will go to the Eastern Panhandle of Alaska and rent the NFS Tongass NFS cabins on saltwater against the vast Tongass hemlock and old growth timber with pools and waterfalls in the land side, and a bounty of Dungeness crabs, mussels, shrimp, and bottom fishing, while using a motorized skiff to glass the woods for big black bears which abound. It would be great wilderness Alaskan adventure and an introduction to the beauties of a pristine and isolated wilderness without the hassles of backpacking in and also before the mosquito season. I look for this around May 2005.
Saturday morning, we ran a couple of errands, and then walked on the Needwood Bike trail through thick snow toward Lake Frank. It is obvious why I have not been there since the last run on the Friday that the snows began three weeks ago. It is passable only by our boots and a couple of cross country skiers. Three things were remarkable along the way. 1) A few deer were standing perfectly still knowing as they always have, that they are well camouflaged if they are motionless, “hiding” from us. That they are about as inapparent as big inner tubes bouncing through the all-white world of the deep snow is not apparent to them, so they are frozen in position and looking at us timidly ready to flee if they are spotted. 2) Big trees were completely girdled and a bunch of smaller trees were felled by a lot of fresh beaver kill. It seems these huge rodents are getting rather aggressive in taking down trees in the park. 3) There was an interesting tableau open the snow with a vignette for those who wished to read it. A fox track had gone to a large dead body in the snow, and the front end of a Canada goose had been consumed. WE had earlier seen a group of geese sitting on the snow inside the woods, in a position that would make it very difficult for them to takeoff if they were pursued, which may be why one of them had been picked off.
We looked over Lake Bernard Frank, and saw the neat system of pristine pars that were being developed about the time I had first come to the area, and now can run (back when I could run, in the MITP and training runs. We hustled back to Derwood to take in the fresh venison I had got in Maryland as steaks, and some venison sausage Christian had made, along with smoked cheddar, and homemade honey from his bees, and a bit of the apple cider of his own making. He also left a vacuum sealed cold smoked salmon. It is good to talk as we are having our indoor camping meals here at Derwood as we last had in the camp at Old Woman Lake in the Brooks Range.
THE BIG EVENT:
THE CHESAPEAKE CHAPTER OF THE SCI
FUNDRAISER DINNER IN ANNAPOLIS
I drove the Bronco over to the eighteenth century port of Annapolis, and there met the four Schaefers. Craig and Carol, and his father and mother, Carl and Joanne Schaefer who were all about to go to their first SCI meeting. We came in and circulated amid the silent auction and could see items that had been donated that were bid for with the number one is assigned on entry and registration. We saw a lot of items that were like outdoor clothing and a few of the decorative pieces of sculpture or art work. Then we had dinner, and I talked with the officers and group, particularly at our table, which had been arranged by Mary Killett, active in the Sables, the women’s’ auxiliary to the SCI. Both Bob and Mary Killet are SCI master measurers, and had visited when we had my sheep scored.. We met a number of neat folk, in the mixed group that is the SCI, many wearing suits and others wearing camo and Stetson hats.
A professional auctioneer and family business came out for the live auction. WE had a group of 57 items in the catalog we would bid on, and they were all items like hunts donated to the SCI by outfitters. Some were in the $15,000 value, and were bid up to almost that level or more, but others did not go to even an opening bid. One was a youth hunt in New Zealand with airfare, trophy fees and the board for parent and child ( or grandchild) with even the taxidermy thrown in, which was auctioned for $500 ( about a quarter of the air fare value.) Still other deals went begging since people did not seem eager to fly to Africa just now. The one I was interested in, if it had gone for a very low bid was a two hunter 15 day hunt in Namibia, with 2 kudu, 2 gemsbok, 2 cheetah, and even the taxidermy for them, a 16,300 $ value that could have fit on the end of the Malawi medical mission this year or next. If it had gone for a very low value, I told Craig I would split it with him, but if it went up, I would not want my schedule leveraged by the hunt dates. It only slowly got any interest, but it did sell for $5,200, and it was a good deal at that. But, I will at least know the drill in try9ing to psyche out the right thing to be looked for at the time of the next similar auction of the SCI hunts; Craig is buying a house and I am re-buying a house, so that they are both instances in which I think we should hunker down just now as well as get the known entity we have with Christian in Alaska. It was also good to introduce him around to several folk at SCI and get some interest in him from this chapter.
We talked more about the hunting, the ammo and rifles for each of the game we were looking to pursue, and a few equipment plans for the future, I will be going up to visit Christian quite possibly with Craig when I return from Malawi in May just before I go to China. This will be in New York State turkey season, and may be the last chance I have to visit Christian there since he will uproot at that time in getting his business going in Alaska.
It was a good visit. Perhaps the next time he comes down, Derwood might look quite different, as strange as it appeared now with the heavy snow all around and the inside of the cave evacuated except for a big game menagerie.