2015 Hog Hunt Day 3

The day started as the previous day with me getting up early.  I again took a walk down to the river and back.  Later in the evening Rick showed me a picture that a neighbor sent asking if the dude walking down the road was "one of his guys".  This just helps prove what I say about walking and why I need to have dogs:  An ugly old man walking alone down a rural road is a vagrant.  An ugly old man walking down the road with a dog is quaint.

We hung out at the lodge for a while while Rick and Joe went to the taxidermist and start to feed stands.  Early in the afternoon I left with Rick to finish feeding stands and pick Will up at school.  Then they dropped me off in the rough for the evening.  I was hunting the same property as the previous night, but a different stand.  We met the Forester of the property as we were driving in and he commented on how something needs to be done about the hogs before the clear-cut patch was replanted, "or there is just no point."
The stand I was on was the same stand as Rob, Cody and Will were on the previous evening.  They had heard hogs, seen a bobcat and the pile had been hit hard the night before.
The night was warmer than Monday, but also much noisier.  There was more wind, the peepers were deafening and there were numerous other tree frogs, dogs etc. all making noise.  I thought I heard a hog squeal at one point, but it was hard to tell for sure.
The evening progressed slowly.  As it got dark, a pretty amazing sunset could be seen through the pines.  The sun shone up on the staccato clouds, making a very pretty red to orange scene.

After dark I packed up my stuff and headed out to meet Rick back at the clear cut.  I packed and walked out without the flashlight.  As I neared the corn pile on the road about 100 yards from where I was sitting, I thought I saw a hog standing in the road next to a water hole.  I was walking very quietly so stopped and looked; I thought I saw a couple more hogs behind the first.  I thought for a second about what I should do when one of the hogs squealed.  The larger hog nearest me ran straight toward me, close enough I could have kicked it before doing a 180 and hightailing it to the left.  The other hogs followed.  I probably startled the hogs being able to walk up with 10-15 yards of them.  I know they scared me for an instant.  It was both interesting and frustrating to know that there were hogs within about 100 yards from where I was sitting.

After getting to the truck and relaying the brief excitement to Rick, we headed out to the property where Joe, Jess, Rob and Cody were.  Both Rob and Cody had shot very respectable boar hogs weighing in near 175 and 200 pounds respectively.  Nicely, neither hog smelled bad and so both should be good eating.

It was good that someone in the group got hogs on the ground, let alone two really decent ones.  Now for the rest of us.