Jim
12-20-2012, 10:49 AM
Not every hunt is successful as all here are painfully aware.
Jeff and I put Susie and Jasper in the truck last night and went down to the river on the north side of his place. About ten minutes after we turned 'em out, Susie opened up. A coupla' minutes later, Jasper showed up at the scene and started his treein' bawl.
First words outa' Jeff's mouth was "They would go up there." They were treed about two thirds the way up a very steep and rocky bluff that was a mass of Laurel thickets. Jeff suggested I wait at the bottom while he went up and killed the 'coon. "It's mighty steep, Jim. That's gonna be a tough climb for ya'."
I pointed up the slope and said "Lead the way, I'm right behind ya'." "You sure you wanna try that?" I looked at him like he had insulted me and told him "You think I'm gonna let you take my new rifle an' kill a 'coon with it before I do?" We started up.
From the river to the top of the bluff is about 200 feet. The grade is about 45 degrees, so the climb to the dogs was about the same distance. The first 50 to 75 feet was rock strewn and covered in loose, dead leaves. If you don't check your footing with the forward foot before lifting the other, you're in for a ride to the bottom over what you just had to navigate through and around.
Climbing a rock strewn and leaf littered steep slope is bad enough. Doing that in the dark with nothing more than a headlamp for lighting and trying to keep a rifle slung without it tipping upside down makes it really fun. Just about the time I was getting the hang of climbing this hazard course, we got to the Laurel thicket.
56320
After another hundred feet or so of crawling through this, we finally got to the dogs. Jeff and I split up and got on opposite sides of the tree to spot. We lit up every square inch of that tree. Nothin'. The branches of the tree the dogs were on were intertwined with the branches of about every other tree on the slope. It was hopeless.
Jeff leashed Jasper and I caught Susie. Ya' gotta' leash 'em and walk 'em back down. If you don't they'll stay on the tree all night. Now we had to go back down through all that and lead the dogs, too! Joy.
After half crawling and half bob sledding through the Laurels and bouncing off rocks as big as wash tubs, we finally made it back to the bottom and the truck. We got the dogs in the box, collapsed on the tail gate and pulled a coupla' bottles of water out of the cooler. Neither one of us said a word for several minutes.
I looked at Jeff and asked "You wanna take 'em to the East hollow?" Jeff looked at me and with a perfectly straight face said "Not only no, but h311 no!" We rolled it up and went to the house.
Not every hunt is successful. Ya' gotta' take the good with the bad.
Jeff and I put Susie and Jasper in the truck last night and went down to the river on the north side of his place. About ten minutes after we turned 'em out, Susie opened up. A coupla' minutes later, Jasper showed up at the scene and started his treein' bawl.
First words outa' Jeff's mouth was "They would go up there." They were treed about two thirds the way up a very steep and rocky bluff that was a mass of Laurel thickets. Jeff suggested I wait at the bottom while he went up and killed the 'coon. "It's mighty steep, Jim. That's gonna be a tough climb for ya'."
I pointed up the slope and said "Lead the way, I'm right behind ya'." "You sure you wanna try that?" I looked at him like he had insulted me and told him "You think I'm gonna let you take my new rifle an' kill a 'coon with it before I do?" We started up.
From the river to the top of the bluff is about 200 feet. The grade is about 45 degrees, so the climb to the dogs was about the same distance. The first 50 to 75 feet was rock strewn and covered in loose, dead leaves. If you don't check your footing with the forward foot before lifting the other, you're in for a ride to the bottom over what you just had to navigate through and around.
Climbing a rock strewn and leaf littered steep slope is bad enough. Doing that in the dark with nothing more than a headlamp for lighting and trying to keep a rifle slung without it tipping upside down makes it really fun. Just about the time I was getting the hang of climbing this hazard course, we got to the Laurel thicket.
56320
After another hundred feet or so of crawling through this, we finally got to the dogs. Jeff and I split up and got on opposite sides of the tree to spot. We lit up every square inch of that tree. Nothin'. The branches of the tree the dogs were on were intertwined with the branches of about every other tree on the slope. It was hopeless.
Jeff leashed Jasper and I caught Susie. Ya' gotta' leash 'em and walk 'em back down. If you don't they'll stay on the tree all night. Now we had to go back down through all that and lead the dogs, too! Joy.
After half crawling and half bob sledding through the Laurels and bouncing off rocks as big as wash tubs, we finally made it back to the bottom and the truck. We got the dogs in the box, collapsed on the tail gate and pulled a coupla' bottles of water out of the cooler. Neither one of us said a word for several minutes.
I looked at Jeff and asked "You wanna take 'em to the East hollow?" Jeff looked at me and with a perfectly straight face said "Not only no, but h311 no!" We rolled it up and went to the house.
Not every hunt is successful. Ya' gotta' take the good with the bad.