A Stranger Lived in My Woods While I Was Gone

19 hours ago

3 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_O6z7PnaxE

While I was away guiding on Haida Gwaii for 114 days, someone moved into the back corner of our property. It scared the kids, and we ended up calling the police.

My kids know this land really well, and that's the only reason anyone found him. His camp was right back in our hunting spot, near our stands, in the deepest corner of the woods. His vehicle, an older Ford Explorer, was hidden under cut branches so well you couldn't see it from the air or with a drone. When the police came out, he ran off on foot. They didn't come up with anything, and it was left for us to deal with.

I went back in with a friend who's a police officer. The guy had moved camp and cut his own way out along an old game trail where I'd had a stand years ago, basically pounding the Explorer through. Later in the fall he somehow got the vehicle out, and we figured he was gone. Then my boy saw a tail light back there, and there was a smashed side mirror that hadn't been there before.

So I went in to check, with nothing but bear spray. I know better. There are lots of bears around here too. The bear den from one of my winter videos is just over the hill. On the walk in I heard a big, bizarre noise, twice, from near where I'd left the Argo. I still don't know what it was.

His old camp told the story. Fire pits with brake rotors in them, more rotors hanging in the trees, car parts everywhere, a useless lantern, branches cut to hide the vehicle and some blue spray paint. There was a fire that was definitely new, and trees cut down since we'd been in with the police, including one dropped right across the trail. He had a lot of work to do to get that vehicle out, and then he came back. I don't understand why. As far as I know, he never bothered the house.

While I was there I set out a salt lick at one of our stands on a major game trail. Close to his original spot I found what looks like a second camp: another fire pit and energy drink cans. Then fresh side-by-side tracks, a pile of good cable left behind and a bent-over tree where something got pulled out. Somebody on a side-by-side was down there right then.

This kind of thing is happening all over Canada. It just sucks when it happens to you. One thing about living up north: winter squeezes you out. Nobody lives in a Ford Explorer here in the winter. Hopefully he's moved on for good. Now it's time to get the trapping gear together and get on the line.

Lessons from my own back forty

Call the police first. We did, and when I went back in, I went with a friend who's a police officer.
Know your land. My kids know every corner, which is the only reason we found him at all.
Small changes tell the story. A tail light, a broken mirror and a fresh-cut tree told us he'd been back.
Winter does the rest. Up north, nobody can live out of a vehicle once the cold comes.