He only saw one doe each of the first two days of the season, but by the third day, there was an almost constant procession of does in front of his blind. Polly had a total of 17 deer sightings on the third day, three of which were fawns. Some of the adult does he saw probably visited his bait more than once, but there was still a tremendous amount of doe activity in the area.

On day four, Polly opted to move to Menominee's blind, where two bucks were seen the day before. He then graciously allowed me to occupy his blind. I was confident all of the doe activity was bound to attract a buck, and that proved to be the case.

A doe appeared at 10:15 a.m. A few minutes later, a nice buck followed her to the bait. As soon as I saw the rack, I knew he was a shooter, so didn't bother counting points. I assumed he was an 8-point. He stood statuesque for a full five minutes on a knoll behind the bait, assessing his surroundings, while suspiciously eyeing the blind I was in.

There was little wind that day and the front window of the blind was all the way open, so I didn't want to move while the buck was looking at the blind for fear of being seen or heard. I had wisely grabbed my rifle from the corner of the blind when I saw the doe approaching, just in a case a buck was behind her, and she acted as though she heard me make that move. While the buck was surveying the situation, the doe's fawn came around the left side of the knoll the buck was on and joined its mother at the bait.

After the fawn arrived, the buck relaxed and advanced to the bait, but his vitals were soon covered by branches. When he finally walked into the open, he nervously stomped a foot as though he detected something he didn't like. The doe and fawn started to leave and I was sure he would soon follow, so I quickly shouldered my .30/06 and fired when the cross hairs were on his shoulder. The 150-grain bullet instantly knocked him off his feet.

I sat in the blind for 15 minutes, savoring the moment. When I exited the blind, I saw Koljonen approaching. He actually reached the buck before I did and when he lifted the deer's antlers from the snow, we both realized the rack had 10 points instead of 8. Thanks to Polly's efforts, I was able to put my tag on a 3 1/2-year-old 10-point.

Our Keweenaw County deer camp is a realistic example of what you can expect on a U.P. hunt. You might not scope multiple trophies -- or even multiple bucks -- from your stand or blind each morning and evening, but persistent effort can produce impressive results in the northwoods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.