I had never been to the U. P. before 1971. My wife and I were married the year before and when my new brother-in-law ask me if I would like to go to his families hunting camp I was honored. I had deer hunted with my Dad in Southern Indiana and had all the camp skills from Boy Scouts and the Marine Corps. Upon arriving at camp I learned that being brother-in-law is the lowest rank on the totem pole. The ranking starts at Grandfather and then Father, Son, Son in law and brothers, it is a camp of all family. The original camp was established in 1927 and it is about the same in the basic utilities. We still burn wood in a metal stove for heat and we have no electric or running water.


The 2008 hunting season was as great as all the past seasons with eight hunters in camp and seven deer harvested. My life has been experiencing some personal changes in that I am retired now and I have started up a more spiritual path. In reading a book about personal spiritual development there was the idea that to get what you want, you have to "assume the feeling" of your wish fulfilled. So about two weeks before going to hunting camp I started visualizing what happens after I shoot the deer. I spent little time visualizing getting out of my pop-up blind, finding the deer and field dressing it. The real fun part is when you first get back to camp and the hunters start asking was that your shot about twenty till five? What did you get? Where is he now? In the swamp! Do you need help to bring him in? With the rounds of hand shakes, high fives and back slapping with "way to go" is like you hit a home run. The next thing you know there is a bottle of Parma Frost being passed around to toast your accomplishment.

So you have three buddies and yourself on two four wheelers going to the nearest point of a road to your blind. The four of us start with flashlights and my GPS to the deer. My blind is positioned about forty yards off the swamp boundary in the hardwoods. The deer is laying inside the swamp about thirty yards so I veered too far south into the swamp a long way before we needed to and now you are bent over and walking around downed, crooked trees and the brave hunters think the swamp is too spooky. Turn north and get back into the hardwoods to finish the distance. He is right where I left him and we drag him to the four wheelers one quarter mile away. The last of the visualization is hanging your deer on the meat pole at camp. At this time the rest of the camp gets to see your deer and the bottle gets pasted again for a toast to your success. For two weeks before I had "assumed the feeling" of the last paragraph over and over in my head as if my wish is fulfilled. That worked very well on the first day of hunting the last paragraph was accomplished.

The second day of hunting season I am relaxing in my blind about two in the afternoon and thought I sure would like to see a deer with some potential for next year. What to my wonder, ten minutes later a three point buck stepped out of the same hole in the swamp the eight point came from.

The author on this article is Bart Sharp, avid hunter.

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