Dokken: Hunting camp tradition is a rite of fall at its finest

SOMEWHERE UP NORTH, Minn. — Like so many big things, it started small, this fall tradition, a father and son from the Twin Cities area venturing to a friend’s place “Up North” to try their luck at ruffed grouse hunting during the long MEA weekend when kids get two days off from school.

It was October 1999 (give or take a year), and they’d just completed their firearms safety training together, so there was a bit of a learning curve in figuring out where and how to hunt the birds, which can be either incredibly wary … or incredibly not wary.

Some might say dumb, but I’ve been humbled enough to say otherwise.

Whether the birds were wary or otherwise, there was plenty of public land to explore within a few miles of camp, and so opportunities weren’t hard to come by.

This wasn’t a hardcore