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| Another frosty start tto the day. Temps quickly rose from just above freeezing @ 6:15 am ,to 66F degrees by the end of the hunt, 5 hours later. |
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| Sun still below the horizon. But light enough to illuminate this scene any huntsman will understand. |
Cirrus clouds put an end to yesterday's blue bird skies.
We had 13 1/2 couple: Freddy's 9, my 4, Bobby's 7 and Tommy's 7. Jeff didnt make it down from NJ and Curtis was busy deerhunting in Maryland
Wind was, and will continue to be ( until the cold front moves through here on Monday), out of the SW. It was light, as yesterday, but it seemed harder to hear no matter where one was located today.
Hounds were put into the covert at 7:30 am , and immediately began cold trailing. For the next 40 minutes they tried to get a fox on the move without much success. As Tommy and I waited on the downwind side of the covert, I happened to turn around to look at the open fields on the opposite side of the road . Just as I did so, a gorgeous big red fox jumped up from some tall weeds where he had been lying-in., about 200 feet from me. He had been sleeping there, and I watched him as he trotted away from me, stopping three times to sit and look over his shoulder to listen to the hounds as they picked their way along in the woods 1/4mile upwind. I tallyho'd , and gave a quick explanation over the radio as I began to run towards the covert where the hounds were still just picking along. Tommy joined me, and although the fox had been content to move along slowly, once Tommy and I began to blow the hounds out, he turned on the after-burners and took off. Freddy got to me and the two of us ran the 10 or so houndcs that had come to the horns to the spot where I had viewed Charlie pop up. They hit the line and took off, and I turned around and watched as hounds harked to them from ALL CORNERS of that covert on the other side of the road. A man and woman on bicycles were making their way slowly up the road and were forced to stop when some of the hounds ran right in front of them. It was amusing to see the looks on their faces as they watched in awe as "dogs were acomin' from everywhere!" , As they put it!LOL!
What a lucky break! We had the entire pack on this fox, and he showed great sport for almost an hour. During this time, Charles decided to run right through some recenlty constructed chicken houses and around the owners' RV (in which they were sound asleep). Bobby and I watched the pack as they swarmed around the folks' yard and a huge manure pile located only a few feet adjacent.( Eeewwwww...) It was a long check, and since we were afraid that someone's peaceful slumber was being rudely awakened, we decided to drive down their lane and load the pack. HOwever, just as we got in front of the RV, hounds picked the line back up and re-entered some woods. As I turned to hop back in my truck for a hasty retreat, my eyes met those of "the Missus". Her head was sticking out of the window of the camper's pop-out sleeping compartment. Uh -oh.....But when Bobby and I began spewing forth profuse apologies , she cried out ,
" The fox ran RIGHT through my yard!!"... with a HUGE grin on her face! Phew!! Lucky again! I muttered to Bobby as I waved madly and smiled back at her: "Add another landowner gift to the list this year!"'lol.
Right after that happened, I took this video:
It was the only time all day that I stood still long enough to pull out the camera. This is right after we left "the Missus's " abode. Tippy had viewed the fox when Charlie popped out of the covert and ran the road before ducking into woods on the other side, right at a yellow road sign. You'll see the hounds over-run the line when they hit the road. Then you hear Tommy blow them forward, and you can see Repo (and a couple other hounds) smelling the fox in the roadway, while the others are coming towards us. They recover the line right at the sign.
From there, it becomes a whirlwind of foxes. I can't remember where exactly this fox led the pack next, but at some j uncture, Bobby and I got stuck trying to break his Shamrock and Freddy's Gypsy off another fox. Meanwhile , the rest of the guys were having great views of yet another fox and the hounds as they ran the open several times . After I got back to my truck with Gypsy, and a s Bobby was still trying to get Shamrock, (lol!), I heard via the radios that the main pack had put their fox to ground about a mile from me. They had all of mine loaded except for Marney and Marilyn. I flew down there, got Marilyn out of the covert, but Marney was nowhere in sight. It was another 15minutes before i found her running the fox's line backwards,in the open. I got her head up by blowing the truck horn, and then I had a long sprint in some soft ground to get to her. But she met me half way, so I made a big fuss over how good she was to come to me. ( After all, as Marney saw it, it wasnt her fault that HER ride wasn't there to pick her up at the end of the chase!)
Somewhere before that, though, we did have a bigger split,because I remember Tommy,Bobby and me breaking 12 hounds as the rest were running somewhere else. ( It's getting really fuzzy, as I am really tired!)
I do know that when I loaded Marney,and Bobby had gotten Shamrock, it was 10:30 and all hounds were in trucks. And Freddy was asking where did we want to hunt next....
SO....we headed back to the country we had hunted on Friday, hoping that all of those foxes that we had pushed out of that little thicket on Cattail Branch would be back there again. And they were. And I viewed one away as Bobby drew the covert. And the hounds hit a line of another one as he was walking the pack to my view. And then it was crazy for another hour while the pack ran this fox until we finally broke them. Hounds were getting strung out, it was now 65degrees, and we didnt want to spend the rest of the day looking for hot, tired hounds all over the countryside. Breaking them wasnt easy, and quite comical, and maybve tomorrow when Im not so tired, I can add the details of how our day ended.
All I know is that we are hunting again tomorrow at 7:30am from the Foxhunters Clubhouse. I will be leaving Sara at home ( we are hunting AGAIN on Monday, weather permitting), and maybe Marney, too, if she appears as jammed up as she looked when I fed them this aftternoon.
And I gotta tell ya'... I'm feelig a bit jammed up from all the running on foot I did today, too.
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