The hot trail during the first draw. Sara ,that "wrong colored hound" stands out, ey?!
27degrees at 8 am, but a west/northwest wind blowing at 15-20 mph made it feel o-so much colder!
12 1/2 couple hit a pretty good trail as soon as we put them into the covert at 8:32 am. They got this fox on the move, but it didnt stay up for very long at all-going to ground only 20 minutes later in an earth in the middle of a powerline cutover behind "the crazy lady's place". Hounds were walked from the hole and on into the woods again by Bobby and Curtis. Tommy was on the lookout on the west perimeter and upwind a bit, while I was positioned in a small clearing smack in the middle of the covert, downwind. Not alot was going on, but I was in the sun and out of the wind, and it felt nice.
I was hoping to get lucky and see a fox cross this small clearing, and I had the camera out and ready. When nothing happened after a good 20 minutes, I got bored and let the camera shut off. A couple minutes later I looked behind me and saw a fox cross a woods road about 60 yards away. He was picking his way along and stopped to look at me before continuing slowly on into the woods. I grabbed my radio and told Curtis and Bobby to bring the hounds up to my view and as I was talking to them, the fox came back into the lane and sat down. Bobby and Curtis were a good hundred yards away from me, in the opposite direction and it took them several minutes to get to me. During that time, I viewed the same fox cross back over the path twice more. The last time over he ran a downed tree across the path. When the hounds approached the area, it was interesting to watch them work the puzzle. It was Reno who followed the line through the twists and turns until she took it away across the log. All hounds harked ,and another short chase ensued. This fox went to ground after only 45 minutes, and it went into the same earth where the first fox denned. ( I never bothered trying to get this fox on camera, since I was having so much trouble getting the f*$&#% to focus)
Now that hole must have been pretty stinky, cause it took some doing to get the ohounds away from it. Terri, Tommy's small blue bitch, was way down inside the den when I walked up to it. I pulled her out and got a hold of her with my whip and walked her , Sara and Twister away. Most of the others had come to the horn or our calls save for Roscoe, Jocko and Annie. It was only 10:50am.
It was decided to try to find one more fox so that any hounds not accounted for would hark Damn, something told me this wasnt a good idea today... But what the heck, I had all day since it was already too late to try to get a ride in ( first day of shotgun in Delaware, so it would only be halfway safe to ride out at lunchtime).
Tommy walked his hounds into the woods about a mile east of where the first two denned. I had all four of my bitches in my truck. Bobby had all of his in his truck. I was seriously considering leaving mine right where they were until....Tommy's hounds opened at 11:10 and two foxes were viewed away. But the pack was running a third, and when that fox crossed over a gravel road right in front of Bobby's truck, I couldnt resist turning back out again. 12 couple were back together . Only Curtis' Annie had failed to hark. We had a good chase on this red until he decided to make a run for the highway. What IS IT with all these foxes running straight for the damn highway??? Bobby thinks he turned the fox back from the road ( he was blowing the truck horn HARD!) , but the hounds still overran and spilled onto the blacktop. Traffic came to a dead stop . A very nice lady driving a van with a cocker spaniel sitting in her lap held up the eastbound line of traffic by stopping dead center on the yellow line. Tommy stopped the westbound side. It was just before noon, and no one had to ask if we were going to hunt on , since we're hunting again tomorrow.
(Annie was located 15 minutes after we sorted hounds, still in the covert not far from the earth where the 2 foxes went to ground)
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