Last Updated: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 10:22 AM CDT
Outdoors : Duck hunt takes boys on the path to manhood
by Mark Walters - Columnist
Hello friends.
Another successful mission has been completed and this one is for several reasons. I recently spent four days camped on an island on the Mississippi River with five young men between the ages of 13 and 19, whom I have known all their lives.
We hunted ducks, laughed a lot and I came to realize, that the kids I have been traveling with for years are turning the path from boys to men.
Friday, September 28
High 77, low 53
One of the biggest parts of this trip is the three-mile boat journey to the island I have been camping on since 1972. Six people in two boats that are pulling five canoes and every watercraft is fully loaded with camping and hunting gear.
After we reached the island the relief and excitement truly began. We had made it, and there were ducks flying non- stop.
With a following morning opener, Seth Steinhauer, Riley Schuster, Ryan Moll, Kevin Dushek, Joey Dushek and myself, built camp, cut firewood and then took part in one of my favorite parts of the trip. We each canoed out to the back-waters surrounding our island and built temporary duck blinds. This adventure is one with a spectacular display of waterfowl bombarding each and every one of us. We hit our sleeping tonight with big thoughts of the upcoming day.
Saturday, September 29
High 77 low 53
Today was a big day for my stepson, Joey Dushek. Joey turned 14, and was hunting ducks in his own canoe a short distance away. Kevin Dushek completed a triangle for our crew.
Down river about 600 yards, Riley, Ryan and Seth were hunting out of two canoes, with Maggie, the Moll family's five-year-old golden retriever set to do the days fetching.
For a backup, my cocker spaniel Brownie, that came to my family as a stray last winter, was in Seth's canoe. Seth Steinhauer, who is a senior at Waunakee high school, is more than likely the most avid duck hunter in our crew, having had his own duck blind on a Dane County marsh for years.
When the clock struck 9 a.m. ducks began falling out of the sky and at first my golden retriever, Ice, and I were pretty productive, then my duck shooting skills kind of fell apart or perhaps the local flock was wearing their bullet proof vests.
Everyone else in our gang had a great day and it was pretty neat to watch nature for nine hours out of a canoe.
The three boys to the south had a perfect view of a hawk flying overhead with a live teal in its talons. They also observed the bird of prey landing in a nearby tree and eating its dinner.
I watched a bald eagle flying over- head that was carrying a large branch. The eagle dropped the branch directly into a flock of coot that was swimming underneath of it and scared the heck out of them.
Tonight we had our annual bacon wrapped duck, cooked over the campfire feast. My dad started this annual meal when he began hunting here in the mid 50s and duck camp would not be the same with out it.
Sunday, October 1
High 74, low 50
We are living in a sea of poison ivy and at this point ignoring it.
Early this morning, we paddled out to our blinds in the dark, under very windy conditions. Around 10 a.m., I got on the radio and told the boys that the journey back to Ferryville might be a dangerous one.
Everyone agreed they would rather stay another day than die, and the mood was good.
Hunting was done from the blind as well as jump shooting and by the following morning, “Brownie,” the dog everyone loves to love, had fetched two ducks for Joey, who definitely came into his own as a duck hunter on this trip.
As we were paddling our canoes back to the island, after our late afternoon shoot a major typhoon type storm besieged the island and we had a lot of laughs from my tent as we waited for a tree to fall on us, or the wind to simply blow us away.
My dad would have been proud of this year's crew!
Sunset
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Ice, Maggie and Ryan Moll huntind ducks on the Mississippi River.
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