CHASE WORLD: Hunt # 20, Nov. 2 .Marney Finds!!

It should be illegal to have this much fun, lol:

Sunrise, 7:40am

Heavy Frost!!

Frost burned off quickly in areas where the sun hit early.

11 cple met @ 7:45 am. A hoar frost covered the brush with a thick coating of white The temp was 30 degrees, wind to be out of the NE, but calm at sunrise.

At 7:50, there was a quick burst of tonguing on the woods' edge, then silence pierced by infrequent voices calling out as the hounds feathered madly in the tall weeds. They trailed this line for about 10minutes before Part Time and Reno ( the bitch that I just weaned the pups from 2 weeks ago, she didnt last too long, lol!) began to tongue way ahead of the others. At 8:05, Gail viewed the fox away, heading north towards the ditch where Radio had gotten stuck in the pipe last week. I headed down the ditchline, and stopped after only 50 yards -I could hear Part time and Reno heading my way, but the rest of the pack were way behind. I was on the opposite side of the ditch ,had the lead hounds in sight, and ran behind them as they made their way towards the dirt lane. The two were having trouble smelling this fox,but they perservered and it appeared as if they may cross the road and head towards some chicken houses on the far side. I got to the lane to hold them up, but it wasnt necessary, as they made a long check only a few yards in,which gave the others time to catch up. Everyone was on the lane to watch as the hounds tried their darnedest to follow this fox over the frost covered woods' floor. PArt Time and Reno emerged first, and a long check followed on the lane. Did Charles run the lane south? I know he didnt run it north, and I suspected that he crossed over the lane and into the very tall stand of frosty weeds shown in the first photo. Sure enough, after severa l minutes, the pack trailed into those weeds and Bobby, Howard and I began to walk in with them. The plan was to walk them through the weeds and into the woods towards those chicken houses on the other side. Maybe Charles had gone for some breakfast....

But no, hounds stayed within this plot of tall grass, looping back and forth with no sucess until they opened once more. But after only a couple seconds, it was clear that they were running heel towards the dirt road. I got to them and turned them back towards the guys, then hurried back to continue on with the draw.
Not much was happening save for some subdued notes from the hounds as they walked over the now-cold line of their pilot. However.... just as I rode up, I happened to see Marney, away from the pack in a section of the weeds where no hound had yet been.....and she was feathering madly. Could she? Will she?? Rap and I followed her, leaving Bobby and Howard as they continued on towards the woods.

Then... yes, she can!!!! Marney opened, softly at first, with her high-pitched note that is unmistakable. As she continued to tongue, the other hounds honored her and came flying through the weeds. It was so cool to be right there to see her, as the weeds are chest high on the horse. If I hadnt noticed her feathering, and hadnt followed her, I would have missed seeing her find.

Our first pilot had given the slip to the pack, but this fresh one was ready and willing to run. And run he did.
First he went south, towards the southern perimeter gate, then he made a swing back north , running close to the aformentioned chicken houses . By now the pack was in full cry and flying . They went through the weeds where they had lost their first pilot, gathering steam as they stayed in the woods running parallel to the dirt lane. I galloped north on the road while Bobby and Howard were still making their way out of the field.
I could hear the pack swinging west, and as Rap and I rounded a turn they flew out into the road only 100 feet in front of us. When they hit that lane, all of them kicked it up another gear. I was the only one with the pack, and at that moment I was about to find out if my little QH was up to the task of staying with them.
Surprise, surprise! I didnt have to ask much, as Rap is pretty keen to his job. There is nothing more fun than riding right behind a pack in full cry.... and being the only one there!

Hounds ran the road down for about 1/2 mile before turning back east and into the woods. It appeared that he was now setting his sights towards the old Beagle Club grounds on Rabbit Run Rd. Andy and Gail were already headed that way. They viewed the fox cross the road close to the Beagle Club gates, and it was obvious that this fellow had no intentions of swinging back to the state land-he was headed out of the country . When he crossed over Fire Tower road about 15 minutes later, we had to break them. 9 1/2 cple jumped into Andy's hound truck, and only 1 1/2 cple jumped into Bobby's. It didnt matter, all were on, and all were accounted for. I had a long hack back to my horse trailer,and en route, bumped into a rabbit hunter ( oops, his hounds decided to follow my horse until a crack of the whip discouraged that) and two fellows on motocross cycles ( which are illegal in the state land). But one cyclist had a helmet cam! A brief discussion ensued as to which type of camera is better.

We sorted hounds back at my trailer, and Gail was kind enough to cool my horse out while I loaded mine.
By 10 am, we were on our way to breakfast, and the temperature had climbed 25 degrees.

This is during the time the hounds came to a loss on the first fox.. They had trouble running him from the start, due to the heavy frost. The loss came on the other side of the road, where the sun had yet to melt the frost. It is there, also that Marney opened on the second fox. No time for the video camera after this short clip!