NORTH OF ISLAND LAKE _ At 5:30 a.m. Saturday, Mike Morley of Eveleth put the coffee water on to boil at his deer shack. Then he stepped outside to check the thermometer.
"Forty degrees out there," he announced to his fellow hunters. "It's ridiculous."
Most of Minnesota's estimated 500,000 deer hunters must have had the same thought Saturday morning. But on a day that would see temperatures rise to a record 70 degrees in Duluth, Minn., those hunters had gathered with friends and family to carry on one of the most hallowed traditions in Minnesota's outdoor heritage _ the firearms deer opener.
"This is the first time I've woken up here in deer season and there hasn't been a chill in the air," Morley said. "It's unbelievable."
Morley and three companions had gathered Friday night at the humble shack his family has been using since 1941. The camp's name, "Hellovahaven," is spelled out in block letters over the front door alongside a couple sets of deer racks and a moose antler.
Joining Morley, 38, were his brother-in-law, Jim Smith, 42, of Virginia; long-time friends Patrick Mickle, 38, of Tower and Dan Listug, 36, of Pequot Lakes, Minn.
Well before dawn, after a quick breakfast of blueberry bagels, Morley, Smith and Listug headed for their deer stands. Mickle had already shot a doe near Tower this fall with his bow, so he wasn't hunting. But he still had to come to camp.
"I just come for the stories and the cards and the harassment," he said.
