How often in an outdoorsman’s lifetime does he get to hunt with three generations of his family members? In my case, it’s frequent. But it’s exciting every time we gather to chase the elusive grouse and woodcock. We are a Maryland family that enjoys upland and waterfowl hunting and frequently hunts across the US. We take regular trips to the upper Midwest, but this year felt a trip closer to home would be better. This trip was particularly poignant in that my son Michael, Andrew’s dad, passed away two years prior. We dedicate our hunts to his memory.
Fall in Maine is the perfect time to experience upland hunting at its finest so my sons Ken Jr, David, Joe, and grandson Andrew, I headed to Kennebago Lake near Rangeley, Maine to try our luck with three days of early October grouse and woodcock hunting. We were not disappointed.
We chose Grant’s Camp on Kennebago Lake in western Maine as our destination. Several of us had hunted the area and stayed at Grant’s Camps previously.
The hunting area around Kennebago Lake is privately owned, but those staying in Grant’s Camps are given keyed access to several thousand acres of prime upland hunting woods in various stages of logging, with many areas in transitional growth. As a base, Grant’s Camps offers excellent accommodations for hunters, with vintage cabins, excellent food, and an atmosphere welcoming to upland hunters as well as the four Pointing Labradors and the Boykin Spaniel with which we arrived.
Grant’s Kennebago Lake Camp lies at the center of the most productive high-country grouse hunting area in Maine. In years with a good hatch, the tens of thousands of acres of mixed-growth forest located behind a controlled access gate produces as many birds as anywhere in the country. Good native woodcock hunting is found along the many drainages and countless streams. Flight birds come in the middle of October and are found in the many hillside clear-cuts. They have an extensive amount of cleared walking trails and twitch roads – some only accessible by boat. This is truly a wild, exclusive hunting ground for the grouse and woodcock. Throughout the trip, the camp ensured that we were well-fed and comfortable. Three hearty meals a day were served in a cozy dining room overlooking the serene water. The dining room wasn’t just a place to eat; it was a communal space where we came together to share the day’s hunt. The camp’s focus was on traditional Maine home cooking, and the menu changed daily to keep things fresh and exciting. From robust breakfast to a light lunch and delicious dinners that ranged from prime rib to lobsters with all the fixings. Lunch was a practical affair, with the camp packing sandwiches of choice, snacks, and beverages the group could take with them during their exciting grouse and woodcock hunting expeditions each morning.
Grant’s Camp offers guides for the less experienced hunters or those without dogs. We hunted the afternoon of our arrival and the following two days, primarily on logging trails winding through the low mountains that form the northern terminus of the Appalachian Mountain chain. The weather on those first two days was ideal, with leaves in peak color, though it was a little too warm for the dogs.
On Day One of the trip, we arrived separately in two groups and hunted the afternoon. Andrew, Ken, and I chose a logging trail not too far from the entry gate. We parked high on the mountain and hunted both sides of the trail, working our way down steep terrain. Ken managed to flush several and bagged two. Andrew was anxious to prove his Boykin spaniel was up to the task and equal to the other dogs. Huk had several classy dog points and Andrew did his part and managed to knock some down. The dogs were impressive in retrieving birds in thick wooded cover, but we only managed a few flushes of grouse and were generally disappointed with the number of birds.
On our second day, we hunted with the full team. It felt great having us together and fielding so many dogs. I cherished the moments and time together. I've learned that the traditional way of learning from father down to son is not what happens at all, at least in my case. It's a cross-generational thing in which we each help and inform the other. I've learned from my grandson as much as he does from me.
Ambient mountain sounds and dry timber make walking silently in the grouse woods very difficult, especially for five hunters, so we decided to divide ourselves into two groups once again. Relying on the OnX app with the new growth filter we searched for Aspen and Alder edges, particularly where young growth meets older. The area is out of phone coverage, so a GPS is in order. We traveled the main logging roads, leading off onto older logging trails, and accessed some rarely hunted remote areas. The terrain was extremely rugged and old cut logs made for some difficult walking. We had several nice flushes and the dogs stayed steady to wing and shot.
Day Three brought us back as a team and despite the heavy rain we did very well. With five hunters and five dogs, we put two hunters on the low side of the mountain and two hunters on the high side. I, as the elder statesman, chose to walk the trail. The action was good on both sides of the road. I had two great shots at Woodcock but disappointedly underperformed. The dogs did great but due to the thick woodland and rain, we flushed and missed several birds. Accordingly, we employed a midwest pheasant hunting strategy of pushing and posting, with two hunters and dogs pushing towards two other hunters on each side of the logging trail and myself staying on the road waiting to receive the birds. That worked very well with Woodcock notorious for flushing and traveling a short distance. The grouse like to continue to fly when flushed so they had to pass one of the three of us posted. On the third day, when the weather turned wet and rainy, we managed to flush forty grouse and six woodcock.
Despite the rain, we had a spectacular hunt. We saw one black bear that our dog Colt wanted to chase. One of us got lost for a brief time but was able to find his way back.
No upland hunt is complete without a talented team of dogs to make our work easy. Our dogs are what holds our family together in many ways and our mix of Pointing Labradors and Boykin Spaniels are as important as the human dynamics. One of the greatest traits is their ability to adjust to the game at hand. Whether it's timberdoodles and Ruffed Grouse in the northern woods or prairie chickens, pheasants, or waterfowl on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, they all present very different scenarios to a hunting dog. Pointing Labs are excellent at adapting to the situation. They will hold a point if the bird is holding, they will track and flush if the situation calls for it, and are excellent at marking and retrieving - often necessary due to our shooting skills t
On our last night at the Camp, we had a great time in the dining room, enjoying another well-prepared local Maine dish. We shared stories with our neighbor table, a group of seasoned hunters from southwest Virginia. We talked about the challenges of hunting in the rain, talked about our dog Colt spooking a black bear, and about David getting lost and his embarrassment at being "found". Afterward, we visited the camp lounge where the guides and owner John had retired. We shared stories of the mother lode of birds we flushed and our strategies for success. John is a most knowledgeable fly fisherman, upland hunter, and gracious host.
Afterward, we gathered back at one of our two cabins, threw another log into the stove, and watched the moon rise over Kennebago Lake, lifting our glasses to Michael and wishing he had been with us on this trip.
About the Author
Ken Griffin is a passionate upland and waterfowl hunter who enjoys spending time with his family and dogs pursuing birds across the Mid-Atlantic, New England, and the upper Mid-west. He is a retired award-winning architect (whose greatest accomplishment was to participate in the World Trade Center redesign), author of the book "Transit
Facilities", and a member of the Maryland Migratory Game Bird Advisory Committee.
