Sheep Creek Camp

[Wea300mag]

Does anyone on here know this crew? I've noticed their sign over the years going up the Little Bridge Cr road during hunting season. I saw their sign this last weekend and wondered if they leave it every year. I probably wouldn't be so trusting that someone wouldn't steal it.

[Smokepole]

I grew up hunting there, as did Deer Slayer, and Bear Hunter.  I started hunting there in 1972, my dad in the mid sixties.  Until then Dad hunted around Navarre.  We killed a lot of deer up in those hills, but after they thinned the woods, the travel routes changed.

It's a very special place to me.  Played hide and seek under the big Ponderosa Pines and learned to build a proper fire. 

My boy and I hunt elsewhere now.  Got our own rig and we found some new digs.  But the camp is still maintained by its founders Don Pearson and Paul Koetje, from Mt. Vernon.  Everyone who hunts Little Bridge Creek knows them, and respects their camp.  Camp has been there since the sixties.  My Dad hunted with Paul and Don, and there were others that have passed away.  Originally, the camp was up Sheep Creek, until they installed gates.  We used to get up and hike up the road in the dark to hunt the watershed.  Killed my first deer in them woods.  Learned a lot of cuss words, too.

The Wells brothers from Mount Vernon had a camp just upstream.  We would stop there for hot buttered rum and some b.s. stories.  Linc and Laurie Wells were old timers, who hunted mulies in the early days.  They stacked up like chord wood.  Their camp was upstream near the lean-to horse shelter.

I could go on for hours.  Glad you asked.  Lots of good memories...

[elksnout]

To steal or deface that cherished sign would be like stealing or defacing a tombstone from a gravesite. What a great piece of local history. Thanks for sharing.

Elksnout

[Wea300mag]

Haha, the world keeps getting smaller. I have similar family history up the road a bit (Valentine Cr). I started hunting there in 1975, a couple uncles and a grandpa in the late 50's and early 60's. Although I tend to move around a lot, my brother has done a better job of keeping up the tradition and he still anchors the Valentine Cr camp.

[Wea300mag]

To steal or deface that cherished sign would be like stealing or defacing a tombstone from a gravesite. What a great piece of local history. Thanks for sharing.

Elksnout

I agree. I'm just surprised it is not taken home each year. There are too many people in the world who don't understand what that sign really means.

[Smokepole]

I hunted Valentine a lot in the afternoons, but for some reason never killed one in there.  I killed a couple bucks up in the headwaters of Little Bridge Creek under Midnight Mtn.  Bearhunter, my nephew killed his first bear up there.  Scary deal in some tag alder, but got the job done.  

Other camps in the area that come to mind... Owl Camp, Ken Kinickenberg and his dad, Langs, and Pleogs.  Not sure if the spelling is right.  My favorites were Linc and Laurie Wells, who were camped up near Valentine Creek on that little loop road on the left hand side of the main road.  For a while in the 80's there was an old guy who drove around on a honda trail 90.  If he got a deer he would make a travois, and drag it out with the bike.  You may have seen him before?  His name was bob.

If you spent a lot of time in Valentine Creek, you may have seen two hand holds carved into a hollow snag.  I carved those holes into the tree during my first deer hunt.  I was trying to shake the snag down, but the snag won.  There's a big slap of granite nearby, where dad and I used to sit.  Dad killed some deer up there during the migration, and shot one from that slab of rock.

Heard a wolf howl up there in the early 80's, which surprised me at the time.

  

[Bearhunter]

Hey Kevin, Wea300mag is Jim Seamocks brother (my neighbor) , you probably didnt know that did you.... small worlk

[Bearhunter]

Dan, as Smokepole stated that is our camp, that is where we learned to hunt.  I wouldnt be half the hunter that I am today if it werent for our camp there.  I learned many things there including ethics, survival skills, camp cooking, fire wood cutting, what snoose was, what booze will do to a man, how to keep my eyes closed when Koetje would roll out of bed butt naked   Thompson ridge will always hold a special place in my heart.  I shot at my first deer up the icicle draw as we called it with my uncle smokepole.  The most important thing about being successful I learned from my grandfather, and that was if you think your hunting slow enough, slow down even more and keep glassing.  We parted ways from little bridge creek years ago, but the memories will always be there.  I wonder if Paul is done hunting up there now and hung the sign as a memorial, what I want to know is where the hell is the millers on the plaque?

[Smokepole]

The camp is still active.  I saw straw and rotten apples, but no deer hooves and trimmings there last year.  

Wea300, tell Jim hi for me.  Hope he's still getting out doing some hunting.

[Bearhunter]

Ill tell him Kevin as he lives about 100yards from me, Ive got to borrow his rototiller this weekend.  He is a hunting machine, and seems to be really successful every year, he does a bit of muzzleloader hunting.

[Ridgerunner]

Great stories, that is cool that there are some family camps that have been passed down over the generations, unfortunately those are getting fewer and fewer.

[DeerHarvester]

Good times were had at Sheep creek, I believe bearhunter and smokepole covered what that camp taught us. We still have a great camp with many memories too come just in a new location with a bit less bagage and a hell of a lot more harvesting.   

[Kent Hunter]

My Dad and I hunted Thompson Ridge for two years back in the late 70's. We got packed in by Claude Miller and did a drop camp. It was the last time that Dad and I hunted "just the two of us". We packed in from the Wolf Creek side. Dad killed the last deer that he would harvest. That country holds memories for me that are indescribable.

[zackmioli]

this thread is full of cool stories. that plaque is awesome looking.

[PA BEN]

Is that the Sheep Creek out of North Port in the NE corner?