3 to Ground,Sunday Nov. 13, 2011

The day began as a gorgeous morning with the waning  full moon setting as the first rays of sunlight hit the trees in a blaze of glory. This pic was taken at 7:15am, just  a few minutes before we began our hunt with 13 couple.  Hounds were walked down a path in the middle of the covert shown in the picture.  As Tommy, Bobby,Freddy and I walked the hounds in, I turned around after the hounds had been on the ground for only  seconds -I didnt see my Marney or Marilyn.  I  turned around quickly to be sure they werent back on the edge,and before I could get back down the 150 feet in the woods where the others were, Marney opened.  Part-time honored her immediately. They were both ahead of the others ,but only by about 100 feet. It was just 7:25am, and we had walked no  more than 30 seconds into the woods. That alone was pretty cool, but having Marney make the find with Tommy's and Freddys' hounds being out in addition to our regular little week day pack made it even sweeter...

The chase was on as this fox ran up Georges' branch, then made a return trip back down, but on the opposite side of the stream.  Wind was out of the S/SE at about 15mph, but we were upwind and had t o fly around to Knife Box Road  to hear them.   There is a small farm with Charlevoix cattle between the branch and the road, and Charles took advantage of the cows by running right through them. We watched as the pack had trouble-not smelling through the cattle yard-but finding their way through the nasty wire fence enclosure.    The result :  some hounds went to the road and ran the road down to pick the line up  again in the field ( pretty amazing to watch, as they had no human help). Others turned back into the woods, still tonguing. We now had two foxes up. One entered  the woods behind Ricky's house.  Bobby, Freddy and I stayed with that bunch, while Tommy and Curtis went with the others.

Our fox ran  Burleigh's open fields all the way to a small covert next to a highway. Freddy watched as the fox came right to the edge of the road, then doubled back behind a small doe.  Seconds later, the doe kept on into the woods,while the fox ran west across the open farmland shown in the video.  It was a pretty run, and I wish I had gotten there in time to see the fox. Freddy and his dad saw it all, and I managed to get the hounds running the open for about 1/2mile.  When I stopped the camera, the hounds were still runing the open, then they passed through a small covert next to Baker rd.  The fox crossed Baker rd and continued on in the open for another mile to return to where he had been found. 

Meannwhile, Marney ( Sara,Marilyn AND Lark were in the other bunch) and  the others were still busy running  their fox up and down Georges branch.  Tommy and Curtis, hearing everone's hollering  about  the long run in the open  decided to come and see what all the excitement was about. This left no one riding Marney's bunch! I  left and went to find them, knowing I was about to miss out on some great views. But Marney- I had to know where she was.  I went downwind to Knife Box rd, but  couldnt hear anything. So I went 90 degrees, onto a road to be parallel with the covert and about 3/4 of a mile  up that road, I finally heard them.They were travelling west,. headed for Garland Lake-and a gravel pit not too far from town. I got to the bridge at Garland road and could hear the hounds coming towards me. I prayed  that the fox would turn away and not cross Garland Road because I  knew I would have trouble holding them up alone-Marney is notoriously hard to break off a fox. My prayer was answered, and this fox turned back to run  the entire length of  the branch again.

(ignore the first few seconds-the fox is out of focus. I tried to edit it out,but the edited version would not upload).
 By now, the other fox had gone to ground and hounds had been gathered..  Curtis had joined me, and we could hear hounds running not far from the 'overgoin'. The rest of the hounds were unkennelled  and  the reunited pack ran this fox to ground about 1/2 mile away.  But Marney and her little bunch  had been running this one the entire time we had been following  the other hounds . Curtis and I  viewed the third fox as he was leaving the same covert  where hounds had just denned. . The pack was  quickly  brought to the view and everyone watched as this fox ran straight to the same earth.

It was now 9:35, and the wind was just beginning to get serious. The forecast was for sustained breezes of 25-30 mph, and  it was amazing how fast it came up.  We had trouble hearing  when the wind was barely blowing, so it was a unanimous decision to call it quits while we had  all of our hounds accounted for.