2021 Hog Hunt Day 5 - A Final Day and Drive Home

Rick and I went out to drop kids off at school while Gary went to hunt quail.  My wingshooting isn't good enough to justify any kind of guided hunt for birds, but it did sound like Gary enjoyed the morning's hunt.

All the pig stands had been hit well.  The stand where I shot my sow was also hit - I'm always glad when I don't disrupt stands after taking a hog.

It rained most of the morning - not hard, but just a steady, spitting and cold rain.  The precipitation was lightening in the late morning so I walked Dixie down to the river - she is a handful.

Back at the lodge Bo and Harrison (father and son) came into camp.  They seemed nice enough even if Harrison seemed slightly unprepared for hog hunting.  Bo had a wizbang video scope on his rifle which made him look a bit like a weaponized TV videographer.  Still, the simplified ability to sight it in was neat and apparently the night vision capability is quite impressive.  I was surprised the cost of it (ATN 4K Pro) wasn't more expensive.

There was still rain in the area with some drizzle as we all left to go out for the afternoon so at the last minute I grabbed my rain gear.  This proved a good idea if not only for the rain, but also the wind since I was in an open "world-famous" ground blind.  I liked the spot I was at since it had showed really good activity all week.  The tripod gun stand was set up well.

The stand was close enough to a slightly more busy road to the point that the road noise was annoying at times.  I was able to sit quietly for most of the afternoon without squirming which was surprising as it was the end of the week when I'm usually more restless.

As the afternoon went on, the weather cleared and wind seemed to die down.  The sun descending to the horizon along with the fast moving and pretty clouds made an almost surreal sky.  I enjoyed the afternoon in the blind.

Right near dark four deer came out.  I have been very surprised on this trip how late I am seeing deer.  Usually I have at least a couple nights where I am covered up in deer, but this trip seems to only show me a few deer right before dark.  My hog hunting ended as it got dark with only those deer to keep me company.

It was difficult to walk out since I had to skirt a pond instead of walking down a 2-track.  I probably should have used my flashlight, but in the dark it seemed like I ended up walking through every sticker-bush.

Neither Bo nor Harrison had seen any hogs.  Gary had shot at a hog and had a tale where the hog hit the ground and flopped like well hit.  Then it jumped up and down ("like it was catching butterflies") then ran into and out of the woods a few times.  He did not take a follow-up shot.

Back at the lodge, I packed up most of my stuff in the truck and moved everything else into Gary's room so Bo and Harrison could bunk together - additionally both Gary and I are fairly early people.  Gary was once again very generous to share his meatloaf and taters with me.  Rick stopped by and we said our goodbyes before I turned in for the night.

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I woke up a little after 2:00 and decided I probably wasn't going to get back to sleep so I was on the road by 3:00.  Getting home was easy enough as my mind wandered back to the real world and the craziness of coronavirus...

I listened to Janesville by Amy Goldstein.  I'm not sure why this book originally ended up on my USB drive, but it was, at best, tolerable.  I wasn't really sure what the point of the book was.  It tells the stories of several families after a GM plant closes in a small Wisconsin town.  While the situation is sympathetic, and the closing of the plant devastating, it is not a new story and with Janesville situated on an interstate between Madison and Rockford, IL, it seems there may have been more palatable or less difficult options than those presented in the book at times.

The drive went fast enough.  Getting through Asheville, NC was still frustrating.  I stopped a few times for snacks that were increasingly odd (pickled sausage?) which I took as a sign I needed to be off the road.  Back at home the beagles were thrilled to see me.  I unpacked and did a much-needed oil change on the Ridgeline.  I made arrangements to drop off my pig skull to be cleaned out.  Given that it was a boar with pretty good tusks, I want it to be done right.

I had a good time and the night hunting was a new, and exciting, experience.  I probably think this every year, but I do miss Georgetown.  More than that, I miss hunting with Nathan and Rachel or Rob and Jessie.  I also realize the world is not a static place.  

Every year has something new.  I can look forward to what next year might bring.

2021 Hog Hunt Day 4 - She Came Back

Morning started slowly with coffee.  Gary and I chatted a bit before I helped Rick bag up corn and dropping kids off at school followed by grabbing a camera from a stand the Rick deer hunts from.  Then it was off to feed pigs.  All the stands were hit good.

Back at the lodge I wanted to take a walk and asked Rick if his lab, Dixie, needed a walk.  She pulls a lot more than a beagle, but she listens quite a bit better which at least partially makes up for the pulling.  It was nice having a dog to walk with.  A man walking a dog down a rural road is fine - maybe even quaint.  A man walking alone down a rural road is a vagrant.

There was some lollygagging and down time before heading out for the afternoon to hunt hogs.  With a SW wind, Gary was dropped at Fish Snatch and I at Sandy Bottoms.

The winds were not insignificant and the blind at Sandy Bottoms had a fabric door - I'm 100% sure it used to have a sliding plywood door.  With the wind, the fabric was whipping around making almost a strobe light effect inside the blind.  I used a few small sticks to wedge the fabric into a more compliant state.  The strongest winds were also causing the metal roof to bang against the frame.  A spent .308 shell strategically placed put an end to that.

Then it was time to wait.  And I didn't have to wait too long until three deer popped out a short ways in front of the blind.  It was between 4:00 and 4:30 so there was tons of light, and I grabbed my camera to try to get some pictures.  The deer jumped around a little bit before high-tailing it out of there.  I didn't think they heard me with the wind, especially inside the blind, so I wasn't sure what made them so nervous.  I was texting with SO and looked up and saw the reason as there was a sow with some smaller pigs on the pile.

I brought my gun up and waited for the sow to calm down.  I placed the crosshairs on her head and squeezed the trigger.  At the shot I saw her run a small loop and then shoot into the brush to my right of the corn pile.  I think I actually said out loud, "She's running??????????"

I stared through the scope wondering if the running pig was a different one.  Then I invented scenarios that were somewhat outlandish to understand what just happened.  But I knew that the way the pig was running it was most likely that I flat out missed.

I was not happy.  I texted Rick that I probably just lost a shirt tail.  I looked back on my phone to see when my last miss was (2013).  I tried to tell myself she is probably dead just out of sight (she wasn't).  I was stewing in my own failure.

The next events can best be told by my texts with Rick:

I've had groups of pigs come back after shooting one, but this was a first for me where the same pig I shot at came back.  When she came back, I had serious buck fever as I said to myself, "I am not going to miss her this time!"  And I did not.

I had more time to think and rethink then.  I was as sure as I could be that it was the same hog since it was the same color, same size and had the same number of smaller pigs with her.  I'm not happy I missed the first time and replayed that in my head.  I also said a few prayers of thanks.

Right as it was getting dark 2 does popped out right in front of me.  They just ran across the track.  They were followed shortly by three bucks.  The bucks obviously wanted to go to the corn, but they stayed dancing around closer to the blind than anything else.  I assumed they didn't want to go down there since there was a hog there.  It was getting quite dark by this time and I saw movement down by the corn as one large black hog came out.  As I was staring at it through the scope, I saw another three? hogs as well.  It was too dark to shoot and wwwwaaaayyyyy too dark to shoot with one on the ground.  I was surprised with two shots that hogs were still coming in.

Rick came and got me and we grabbed my hog before getting Gary.  I felt a little bad that he hadn't seen anything, but I would have guessed his stand to be the more likely.

Back at the lodge Rick worked his magic cleaning the hog and letting it hang.  Overnight temperatures were to be in the low-30's so this was almost perfect.

Gary was kind enough to share his ham crock-pot dinner with me.  We both turned in early.  As I went to bed I continued to replay in my head how lucky I was in the days events and how fortunate I am in the bigger picture.

2021 Hog Hunt Day 3 - Another One-Deer

 I probably over-caffeinated in the morning - which I know better than to do, but after the late (by my standards) night it was hard not to.
After dropping the kids off to school Rick and I went to feed stands.  All had been hit well including the stand I was on the previous afternoon.  But daylight is always the question.

Back at the lodge Rick and I tried to get some better pictures of my boar hog, but the shadows were all wrong so we waited and were successful a bit later in the afternoon.  The forced down time in hog camp can be hard for me but probably also good for me.  I spent time reading, watching TV and took a walk down to the river.  The day was the pick of the week weather-wise with bright sun and not too much wind.

As it got into the afternoon, Rick and I headed out for me to be dropped off for the afternoon.  Rick dropped me off at the Craw field.  The walk there was a bit longer than I remember.  It wasn't hard to find, but I did second-guess myself as to if I had missed a cut-off to take or something.

In the stand I once again had a hard time getting settled initially.  Weather was almost ideal with temperatures in the lower 60's and bright sunshine.  If anything, the sun was a pain until it went behind some trees since it made watching anything really difficult.

Not long after I was in the stand the military jets started flying somewhere nearby.  The noise from seemingly tree-top level flying can be deafening.  Thankfully they were only in the area for around 15 minutes.

Once both the sun and I did get settled it was a really nice afternoon.  One thing I like about coming down to hunt in South Carolina is the chance to get pictures of deer while I'm not hunting them.  One lone deer did come out around 4:30.  I usually use my ancient Kodak P850 because if I'm going to accidentally drop a camera from a treestand, I'd rather it not be better one.  It can be a bit hard to get clear pictures without moving from the distance, but I was able to get a few pictures that were reasonably good.

The deer stayed around and gave me something to watch for around 30 minutes before sauntering off.  I got hopeful as it got later and the shadows started to get longer.  I did hear something off to my right at one point - I have no idea what it was but think the chances it was hogs was very low.  Still, I'm kind of scratching my head about what (or who?) it could have been?

Long shadows gave way to sunset which began to turn into darkness.  I know hogs can show up very quickly, but it wasn't to happen.  It got too dark to see well and I unloaded my gun before climbing out of the ladder stand.

Back at the lodge Gary from Pennsylvania had arrived.  We all talked for a bit before turning in for the night, with myself hopeful for two more days.

2021 Hog Hunt Day 2 - Under the Cover of Darkness

 Up at my normal time I putzed around online for a while before reading Donald Hall's Essays after Eighty.  It was only OK.  The beginning was good, but it didn't stay that way.

Rick and I went out to feed the stands around 9:00.  All had been hit well - the ever present question being if it was during daylight.  We kvetched about ammo availability.  Rick has been looking on gunbroker.com where it is now going for astronomical prices.

With the stands baited we headed back to the lodge.  I should have gotten a bit of exercise by walking down to the river, but ended up half-napping while watching The Office and eating lunch.  Then it was off to hunt.  Rick dropped me off at Fish Snatch where I quietly made my way down the sandy track to the box blind.  

It was warm, but once again the wind was significant.  I appreciated being in an enclosed blind with the wind; even if it did blow in, I stayed quite comfortable.  Once situated I was quite comfortable and settled in for the afternoon.

Some time through the afternoon Joe texted me. I last hunted hogs with Joe about five years ago and he continues to vicariously hunt hogs with me. Unquestionably I have met quite a few characters down here. I was glad for the distraction since not much else was moving. About the only excitement through the afternoon was when some kind of small, colorful raptor-bird landed on the shooting port of the blind when my face was only a few inches away. I'm not sure who was more startled - the bird or me.

Like the previous day as it got later the wind died down.  For about the last hour of daylight, the wind completely quit - so much that the silence was absolutely deafening.  I love these magical moments.  It was so quiet that every creek of the chair I was sitting in felt like an explosion.  The quiet also made me hopeful that the pigs would show up.

Around 45 minutes before dark, I heard some thumping to my right.  Peering through the shooting port I saw a one-antlered fork horn buck walking down the 2-track.  It either heard or smelled me and bounded away quickly after passing the shooting blind.  I also thought I saw something moving way beyond the corn pile, but I wasn't sure and if it was there it almost looked more canine-like.  Darkness came with nothing else.

I packed up my stuff and headed back to the gate.  Rick was there shortly and I got in.  We talked for a few minutes about not seeing anything on one of my favorite stands.  A few minutes later Rick asked, "How hungry are you?"  I wondered what joke I was being set up for but I really hadn't thought about eating yet.  "I'm pissed off about you not seeing anything.  Let's grab the thermal and see if we can find anything in the dark."  Being alone in camp has some priveleges.  "We ain't going to stay out all night, but let's try it."

"In a dark time, the eye begins to see." - Theodore Roethke

I dropped off my rifle while Rick got his 7mm-08 AR with FLIR scope and we headed out again, driving to a field Rick doesn't hunt with clients but whose owner has been having hog problems.  Using his handheld night scope, Rick saw many deer and a large group of hogs.  We parked at the gate, and because there was a bright light there, we hoofed it down a ways before climbing the fence and making our way to the back part of the field.  I could not believe how we could walk the field without spooking the hogs.  Many of the deer took off, but under the cover of darkness, once the pigs are settled they are fine as long as they didn't smell us.

Once at the far end of the field rick set up the rifle.  I looked through the scope and picked out a bigger hog.  They didn't look very big in the optics so I settled on the biggest one.  Since it was a group of pigs, I figured it was a big sow.  I settled the digital cross-hairs near the pigs neck and squeezed the trigger.  In AR-platform, the 7mm-08 is a pussy-cat, but it rocked the tripod.  Looking through the scope again, I saw my hog was down.

Rick grabbed the rifle and shot twice, bringing down another hog.  The rest of the group, quite confused, ran directly toward us, going into the woods next to us.  Rick and I talked quietly for a few minutes before he left to get the truck.  Standing there in the darkness I saw a vague shape and realized it was a big hog - and it was not acting right.  It took me a minute to get the FLIR back on and looking through the scope I saw it was Rick's hog.  It was close enough that I could see blood splashing off of it onto the ground.  It took me a few seconds to get the scope on the hog, but in the pitch blackness I wasn't sure what was behind the tree line.  I held off shooting - a decision I regret a little bit.

It took a while for Rick to drive up, and I told him about his pig.  We easily found bright red foamy blood that was easily followed.  Unfortunately, it was not recovered although there is little doubt it is dead.

We drove back up to my pig which was an enormous boar hog.  And despite being well shot, he wasn't done yet either.  Rick had me walk up behind it with my SP101, and I gave him a coup de grace (Rick videoed this - but it is a bit much to share...).  It never ceases to amaze me how tough a big hog is.  My shot right at the base of the skull with a hand-loaded XTP produced a near-geyser of blood.  

We took a few pictures in the darkness.  I'm quite sure it is the biggest hog I've shot and definitely had a good set of cutters on him.  Now was the next problem - how to get this beast into Ricks truck.  We ended up going back to the lodge to get the receiver tray and it was still all we could do to get him loaded up.

Back at the lodge we got him set up for better pictures in the daylight. I knew he would be inedible, but was hoping that like my 2016 hog, it might be. Sadly, he smelled truly terrible; eating him would be like eating 4-day-old skunk (although in all fairness, I've never eaten skunk). I have no issues shooting feral destructive species - but it can feel a little wasteful at times.

I was tired and Rick asked to be let off the clock. Even though I was kind of hungry, I knew if I ate a lot I'd regret it so I snacked lightly before turning in. After hog hunting for many years, night hunting was new and quite exciting. It makes me want to come back in the summer some time to have a go at it.

2021 Hog Hunt Day 1 - Self-Guided Start

After a reasonable night's sleep, I woke up and had a couple cups of terrible hotel room coffee - so bad it is good.  I had to kill time to not get to Rick's too early, but eventually I couldn't stand it and left for the couple hour's drive.

Letting the Garmin decide how to macroscopically route me is almost always a mistake, but this time it gave me a new route that I really liked.  I will definitely try this again on the way home (Exit 82/Screaming Eagle Road -> US601 -> US378).  I finished My Lobotomy and listened to a few NPR podcasts.  Just like the previous day, I was able to lose myself in the drive.

At some point Rick called me and asked where I was.  After telling him, he told me he was headed out to a day at the beach with his SO.  I asked about hunting in the afternoon.  "Well shit..." he had apparently forgotten the rearrangement we made in December (and why I had gotten a hotel room and was almost there).  I thought about texting him the screenshot of it I had grabbed from my old phone when the Pixel rang again.  "I was trying to figure out how to make this work and thought - he can take care of his own damn self since he's been coming down here for the last 25 years."  I was fine with this, although I also thought it was funny given how protective he is about his stands.  Sending someone out on their own was almost unthinkable.

I finished the drive and got settled at the lodge before getting final instructions from Rick as to where I was to sit.  The miracle of modern cell phones helped where he was able to text a Google Maps pin.  It also helped that it was near another stand I knew.

Getting to the location, I found the stand easily enough after wallowing through a muddy trail and got up in it.  Temperatures were moderate in the upper 40's, but it was really windy and I had a very hard time getting comfortable - and I just sort of felt off.  But it was a nice enough afternoon.  The wind died down throughout the afternoon and I was at least mostly enjoying it.  

Time did drag though which was made worse by not seeing much of anything at all.  I really had to play games with myself to not look at my watch frequently.  For a few brief minutes as the sun set, the sky above the field I was hunting turned the most amazing pink/coral color.  I thought about trying to take a picture, but these things almost always pale in comparison to the actual thing.  And life's fleeting magical moments can be better experienced living in the now.

Darkness approached and at the almost-too-dark-but-still-can-shoot-but-probably-shouldn't hour a murky figure came out onto the corn pile.  Peering through the scope I was almost relieved that it was a deer.  Within minutes it was too dark to do anything.  I waited a while longer just sitting there in the dark.  But with traffic on the nearby road it wasn't that blessed, tranquil darkness.  I climbed out of the stand and made my way back to the truck.

Back at the lodge I ate some canned chili and watched TV.  Rick showed up a little while later and I met his SO Tammy - who seemed very personable.  I turned in shortly after, thankful for all that had gone right to bring me once again to the Low Country.

2021 Hog Hunt Day 0 - Driving

Back in December Rick asked me to come in a day later than originally planned for hog hunting since he had people who wanted to be there on my original drive day.  I often get to his place with enough time to hunt on the day of, but it is never guaranteed.  And since the only real cost was a hotel room during a year when almost nothing was spent on travel, I opted to leave on my drive day anyway and get most of the way there.  This did make it somewhat awkward as I couldn't get to the hotel too early, meaning my normal crazy early leave time had to be pushed back.  Since I can't sleep, this meant an early morning at home while a headache throbbed behind my left eye.

The coronavirus is like a loose tooth.  As the hog hunting trip approached, I said I wasn't going to worry - just take an appropriate level of caution and enjoy it.  But every few minutes ... there is that loose tooth again.

So after an early morning with hot cocoa instead of coffee I pointed the Ridgeline south.  I took a wrong turn getting on the interstate very near home.  Holy crap I need to start traveling again.  I was embarrassed at the rookie mistake.  

"Every now and then, you realize, with perfect clarity, that you are just not where you want to be."-Killraven

Never has that been more both metaphorically and actually true...

There was minimal snow at home; I expected it to disappear quickly as I went south.  But the snow increased, at times significantly as I drove.  And in the cold early morning there were a few spots where it had refrozen into slick ice.  There was one stretch were as I slowly decreased my speed, I could feel the tires very briefly lose traction several times.  It wasn't terrible, but a little nerve-wracking.  Surprisingly I only saw one vehicle (a tractor-trailer) off the road.

My headache subsided, but was there most of the day.  I found it easy to just lose myself in the drive.  Wow do I miss this.  I was listening to My Lobotomy by Howard Dully.  I heard about this book while touring the Trans Allegheny Insane Asylum.  The book was good, but it was as much about the screwed-upness of a dysfunctional family - and other assorted characters - as it was about the effects of a lobotomy.  But I still enjoyed it - as much as one can "enjoy" a book like that.

Once out of the mountains the weather started to break.  Temperatures increased but so did the wind.  I've always loved the aura of I-26 where it descends from the Appalachian plateau down to the lower elevation.  Maybe it is just a reminder that adventure is ahead.

I got near Columbia and stopped at the hotel.  The place was empty but it was early.  As I was unpacking my stuff from my truck I noticed a cleaning lady sanitizing one of the rooms.  This gave me a little bit of comfort that spending a few bucks more on a hotel room during a pandemic might have been the right choice.

Thankfully the hotel does have a small breakfast since I was able to steal a plastic spoon to eat a noodle bowl for dinner.  This was made even better once I realized that I could watch Roku on my computer, allowing me to watch Magnum PI (the original one of course) until turning in for the night.