Tuesday, January 16, 2024

2024 Hog Hunt Day 2 - Piggy's Got the Conch

Because I had gone to bed early, I woke up ungodly early.  And frustratingly, the previous afternoon's headache had not subsided.  I dozed and tossed and turned before deciding to see if caffeine would help.  It is always a game - more caffeine or less?  Food or no?  Sleep or power through.  It turns out Vacation Migraines are a real thing...
Headaches seem to be a common recurrence early in my adventures for the last couple years.  Is this due to getting older?  Or inflexibility on the disruption of the routine?  Or???  I hate it.

And why do AI image creators have such a hard time making guns?  A hat tip to anyone who can shoot the gun that is on the laptop in this image.

After a slow, painful early morning, Rick and I went to feed stands.  By the time we left I was starting to feel a bit better and there were other signs that the raging migraine was on its way down.  All of the water in the area had left many of the dirt roads rutted and/or half washed out.  There was lots of water around some of the stands as well.  It was fun seeing all the stands; most had good evidence of pig activity.

Back at the lodge I thought I was going to have some downtime only to have Doug come into camp.  He seemed a bit crabby that food wasn't provided, but if he was, got over it quickly and went to town to stock up.
Denis and Claude came back into camp and soon enough we all got ready to head out to hunt for the evening.  Thankfully, at this point, I felt nearly back to normal.

I was the last to be dropped off on the 15-Acre stand.  I liked the spot and had previously shot an orange spotted hog at this location.

The stand sits very near the road which is a little uncomfortable.  It was even more so since the trees in the field had been harvested.  It felt like every car driving by would be able to staring right at me.

Every few minutes a car would drive past.  I couldn't help but wonder how I might appear to them.  A semi-human form, there but also not there.  A silhouette of the unknown; an apparition of their own darker selves.  I was the beastie from William Golding's Lord of the Flies.  A solitary figure tethered to a tree, seen only as a fleeting glimpse from the background as they sped to their soulless destination.

Temperatures were warm in the lower 60s with filtered sunshine and little wind.  Wind direction was perfectly in my face.  I enjoyed the time in the stand.  It wasn't the placid quiet that hunting often is, both because of the road and some annoyingly loud 4-wheeler not that far away.  Those things can be awful.
A little before 5:00, deer started to filter out into the corn.  They were all very small.  The deer gave me a diversion as I watched.

I was hoping they would bolt away signaling something else coming in, but it didn't happen.  Eventually they worked their way out of the area.
It started to get dark and I saw bats flittering around eating bugs.  Their acrobatics were amusing.  A bald eagle also landed in the cutover.  There must have been something there for it to eat since I generally don't see eagles on the ground just to hang out.  And I couldn't have imagined what other large bird would have a bright white head and tail.

As it started to get dark, I once again saw shapes on the corn pile.  I was hopeful it was pigs but knew instantly it was just the deer coming back.  They were very playful and kept me entertained until it got too dark.  I slipped out as quietly as I could.
Nobody had seen any pigs.  I was a bit surprised by this given the almost perfect conditions.
A bite to eat back at the lodge and I turned in for the day.

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