[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/hunting-a-challenge-by-choice\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/hunting-a-challenge-by-choice\/","headline":"Hunting: A Challenge by Choice","name":"Hunting: A Challenge by Choice","description":"While experiencing wilderness in places like northern Minnesota\u2019s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), we leave the heavy strains and...","datePublished":"2013-07-11","dateModified":"2018-11-02","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/#Person","name":"Hector Agosto","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/author\/hagosto\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7bfedbdc5ef3ed8f8df91eb37e1ffbe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Legendary Whitetails","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","url":"http:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/logo-legendary-whitetails.png","width":522,"height":226}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/BHA-canoe-e1431369158265.jpg","url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/BHA-canoe-e1431369158265.jpg","height":561,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/hunting-a-challenge-by-choice\/","about":["News"],"wordCount":1425,"keywords":["News"],"articleBody":"While experiencing wilderness in places like northern Minnesota\u2019s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), we leave the heavy strains and structure of civilization behind, the frantic complications of city life, and go beyond the reach of the cell phone\u2019s ring and the highway\u2019s whine, get out where the FedEx and UPS men won\u2019t deliver.Life is simpler and goals are pure out there. \u00a0Get through the day, eat, stay warm and dry, sleep soundly. \u00a0Luxury takes on new meaning: a hot cup of tea, a moment\u2019s rest in the sun, a good book, a gentle breeze. \u00a0Hiking, climbing, hunting, fishing, backpacking, canoeing, and all the other muscle-powered, quiet-use outdoor pursuits allow us to escape cities and civilization and experience the real, wild and natural, world.They promote an increasingly elusive understanding of wilderness and give us the opportunity to assimilate its rhythms and time scales, to comprehend the life cycles it supports; the growth and decay of trees and plants, the flights of birds and butterflies, the migration of animals, the relentless stalking of predators; all the essentials of healthy, intact landscapes. \u00a0They allow us to get back to the \u201crhythm of life.\u201dThe Rhythm of LifeMinnesota Backcountry Hunter & Angler (BHA) co-chair Darrell Spencer knows what I\u2019m talking about (i.e., escaping civilization and experiencing wilderness), having spent countless days and weeks canoeing and hunting in the BWCAW over the years. \u00a0After one such trip, Darrell wrote: \u201cJust got back from a 5-day solo trip with my dog in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. \u00a0It was fantastic: 60 miles and 37 portages. \u00a0By day 3, all I could think about was working, eating, and sleeping. \u00a0Back to the rhythm of life.\u201dMinnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA) executive director (and BHA member) Mark Johnson knows too. \u00a0He shot his once-in-a-lifetime Minnesota bull moose in the Boundary Waters, and in the Winter 2009 issue of Whitetales, described some of the life-enriching benefits of backcountry hunting.Mark says that, \u201cIn today\u2019s electronically connected society, wilderness is fully comprehended by few. \u00a0Much, if not most, of the BWCAW has no cell coverage. \u00a0In October, and definitely November, you will probably be the only one on the lake. \u00a0Except for an occasional high flying plane, there is no sound of motors. \u00a0The silence is deafening and disturbingly glorious.\u201dThe late Minnesota conservationist Paul Gruchow adds: \u201cThe howl of a wolf, the cry of a loon, the lap of clean water against an untrammeled shore constitute the only common currency; to defend them is to labor in the most elementary way for the general good.\u201d \u00a0And the opportunity to hunt backcountry bucks in the BWCAW is part and parcel of this \u201cgeneral good.\u201dBackcountry Bucks\u201cThere are many places where there are more deer, and most offer easier access and warmer quarters, but no region with whitetails offers more satisfaction and elbow room than the public forests of northeastern Minnesota,\u201d observes American Hunter contributor Patrick Durkin. Long-time Ely resident and backcountry hunter Stuart Osthoff says, \u201cI contend the BWCAW is the highest-quality public land wilderness whitetail hunting in America.\u201dMark Johnson would seem to agree: \u201cWilderness typically does not hold the numbers of deer that intensively managed areas do. \u00a0The redeeming factor is size, since in the BWCAW, with very low hunting pressure, bucks and bears get old and that means big. \u00a0Imagine a deer weighing in excess of 300 lbs. \u00a0Now you have the picture.\u201dDarrell Spencer\u2019s thoughts, words, and deeds echo those of Patrick, Stuart, and Mark, because he\u2019s been hunting big bucks in the BWCAW for years. \u00a0On November 5, 2007, Darrell was hunting in a \u201ctop secret backcountry\u201d location at about 9:00 a.m., stalking through a swamp with his trusty 1970s vintage Winchester .30-06, when he spied a buck and doe about 80 yards distant.One well-placed shot dropped the buck in its tracks, and by week\u2019s end all 7 points (plus a broken tine) and 240 pounds were headed for home (Duluth, in Darrell\u2019s case) and the freezer. \u00a0Darrell says, \u201cThis buck was a bruiser. \u00a0Half of one ear torn in half. \u00a0Big cut by his eye and a hole through his other ear.\u201d \u00a0A true backcountry buck taken in a traditional fair-chase hunt.As Darrell knows well, the key rallying point for Minnesota Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, and many other outdoorsmen and women, is a shared valuing of tradition: renouncing motors and gadgets in favor of muscle and mind in pursuit of game. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s the freedom to hunt and fish in solitude, without urban excesses, and with challenge,\u201d explains BHA founder Mike Beagle. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s an old-fashioned way of doing things that says it\u2019s demeaning to wildlife to use technology to show our mastery over wildlife.\u201dBeagle, a former army officer, high school teacher, and football coach, refers back to Teddy Roosevelt when he talks about \u201cthe doctrine of the strenuous life\u201d\u2014getting yourself in and out of the backcountry by your own power, and meeting your prey on their turf and level. \u00a0All it requires is leaving the land alone and leaving the toys at home. \u00a0Which, of course, would also keep many of the motor-and-technology-dependent hunters at home. \u00a0Like it used to be.Like It Used to BeTeddy Roosevelt wore out the soles of his boots hunting elk, deer, cougar, and bear in America\u2019s backcountry, and thereby earned an authentic perspective of our nation\u2019s natural resources. \u00a0He believed strongly that if the American character was forged in the wilderness, it also needed to be renewed from time to time in the wilderness, and throughout his life Teddy was a strong and tireless proponent of wild places and wide open spaces.\u201cAbove all,\u201d Roosevelt said, \u201cwe should realize that the effort toward this end is essentially a democratic movement. \u00a0It is entirely in our power as a nation to preserve large tracts of wilderness \u2026 to preserve the game so that it shall continue to exist for the benefit of all.\u201d \u00a0Gladly, we\u2019ve done just that in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as Mark Johnson aptly describes: \u201cTalk about man-eating country! \u00a0This is the grand-daddy. \u00a0Imagine a vast wilderness area of over 2,000 square miles.\u201d\u201cBeing a \u2018designated wilderness area,\u2019\u201d Mark adds, \u201cthe BWCAW\u2019s landscape is populated with all sorts of wildlife (moose, wolves, bear, deer, ducks, grouse, hare, etc.), not to mention untold fishing opportunities for walleye, northern pike, lake trout and panfish. \u00a0Yes, opportunity abounds here, but you have to earn it.\u201dAs Mark alludes to, wilderness is the gold standard for wildlife habitat and backcountry hunting grounds, for \u201copportunity,\u201d but the game we hunt and kill there must be earned in a fair-chase hunt, like it used to be, like it still is in those few remaining places where the backcountry has not been fragmented and degraded by roads and (increasingly) ATVs.While hunting in the backcountry, in wilderness, you have no choice but to earn your keep and kill, and the tradeoff is you get to experience the \u201clarge tracts of wilderness\u201d Roosevelt devoted his life to saving and the \u201cman-eating country\u201d Mark shot his once-in-a-lifetime moose amid, the same country Darrell experiences each cold, snowy November while stalking big bucks in the backcountry swamps of the Superior National Forest. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t get any better.\u201cWe all suffer love, hope, fear, hunger, and despair, and all of us practice to agreater or lesser degree the survival of the fittest, for man is a selfish creature.\u00a0We all seek happiness, and here in the outdoors I had found it. \u00a0My greatestchore was a pleasure, my slightest experience a thrill.\u201d\u2013Charles Ira Cook Jr.\u00a0"},{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Legendary Whitetail's Blog"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https:\/\/community.legendarywhitetails.com\/blog\/hunting-a-challenge-by-choice\/#breadcrumbitem","name":"Hunting: A Challenge by Choice"}}]}]