• Thursday-What'sUP March 26 - 11:24 pm

Today, we're taking a ride to Eagle River with Brita Haapala and family. This is a good time of year to stop at the roadside park where the deer herd often congregates for some good grub. I remember taking my own boys up there when they were youngsters. It's always fun to see the "wonder" in those little ones eyes, as they watch the deer up close like that. Simple memories are often the best!

I think kids of today spend wayyy to much time in front of computers and video games. Look at the look on that precious-childs' face. That can never be replaced as they get older.

Even though I have no kids to have grandkids, I still managed to take thousands of pictures over the years of sites in Calumet and Lake Linden and everything in between. I have managed to put together at least 10, 12 by 12 scrapbooks of pictures of the area. ;O)

Stopping to say "hi" to those deer was always a must do on our snowmobile vacation. Amazingly enough, the deer never seemed to be bothered by our snowmobiles or as close as we were able to get to them.

Does the county or state still feed the deer herd in the winter like they did back in the sixties? I remember those Sunday drives "down the line" as my Grandma would say to see all of the deer.

I was just up at Eagle River, watching the deer, a couple of weekends ago. The best moment was feeding time: a van stopped, and a mother and several children got out with the deer's feed (a bag of corn, I think). One of the little kids, probably 4 or 5 years old, took the bag and started spreading the corn along the feeding path, and the deer were following just a few yards behind her. It was priceless!

Ah, Mary, I, too, remember taking my sons to the various places in the Copper Country to see the variety of wildlife that we had in the area. I now have five grandsons who live in the Metro-Detroit area who have never experience the sight that the little guy in the photo was able to view from his car window recently.
Growing up and living in various parts of the western part of the UP, I have to admit that I was truly blessed with those memories, you speak about Mary, of my interaction with God's wonderful creation in the UP. Again, thank you for sharing a piece of the UP with me this morning.

My children love to go to the Elk viewing in Gaylord as soon as they see the exit they all say lets go see the Elk before we go to grams n gramps house. In October we got to see them mate it was amazing as I never knew how they did that :)
In July 2006 we were there, there were two bulls fighting over the food and because their antlers were soft they both stood on the hind legs and it seemed as they were 10 feet tall and started fighting with their front legs, another amazing site we will never forget. We took our neighbors daughter with us and she never knew what an Elk was until she saw that, we don't get to see her very much now but when we do she always reminds us the Elk, she'll never forget plus we took them to Thunderfalls waterpark off 75 before the bridge and holy moly that place is a blast!!

That is a great spot to see deer. Janie you are right they don't spook easy. Last winter 2 cars away was some of my sons school buddies and they were yelling out the window at each other and the deer didn't care. Its amazing how many are there.

Kenty, Our two local Sportsmens clubs do most of the deer feeding in our area. The Lake Linden Hubbell Sportsmens Assn. and the Calumet Keweenaw Sportsmens Club. They both have web sites.

On the way to Eagle River, you can stop by the Phoenix store. The Keweenaw Sportsman's club has $2 bags of deer pellets for sale there. It is what the deer get most nutrition from this time of year.

Is it legal to feed the deer? Isn't that the same as baiting?

That part of Eagle River and the area near it is a deer yard... it's specifically kept by the UP Whitetails Association, and I believe that they feed them legally.

They do have permits to feed in Eagle River and a few other sites.