Schoolhouse (Junior Day) 11/27/21

 

Today was Junior Day!  I like Junior Days.  It's great fun to see all of the kids out and today was a great group.  I know we had 15 juniors in the second flight and over 20 for the day.  All the kids were very well turned out and really rode nicely.  Unfortunately it was a very quiet day and ended up being an 8 mile tour of the area.

The ground is like concrete and even places along the creeks were dry.  There were places where it looked like it was foggy from all the dust being kicked up.  At Keelona the other day we ran a coyote and viewed two foxes.  Then on Thursday a trio of foxes came out at one time.  Normally we get some good runs in around the area we were at today, especially along Piney Creek and then over by McNeeley's Shed.  But today was not our day.  That's the way hunting goes.

Hopefully the next junior day will be a little busier.

Keelona November 23,2021

 

Today was a very cold and windy day.  Normally I like hunting when the temperature is between 35-45 but without the wind.  Given we were hunting at Keelona and Trump Winery we were exposed to the wind.  Unfortunately so was the scent and the hounds.

However, all was not lost.  We came out of the meet and were hunting along the driveway between the paddocks.  The third flight had gone back behind the house.  The hounds started speaking along the fence line when all of a sudden we had a loud tally-ho from Liz I believe.  It was a coyote and Matthew hustled the hounds over and a short run developed  (yellow line) that kind of paralleled Carter Mountain Rd. It was reported that the coyote and taken an alternate route thorough a culvert pipe and was lost.

Just as that was ending, a fox was initially spotted again.  I also think this was Liz again.  The fox came down the hill through the paddocks and ran along the fence line toward the riding ring (orange line).  The second flight got a great view of it.  As they say, in life timing is everything.  It took about 15 minutes for Matthew to gather the hounds and come over but by that time the scent was gone with the wind.

We continued hunting north parallel to Carter Mountain Rd crossing into the Trump Winery.  Several times the hounds were put into coverts and began speaking but never really emerged.   They would work and work and work but never could really follow the scent out of the covert.  After a couple of times of this it seemed that their sound was getting frustrated at least to my untrained ears.

We continued up the Winery and were just below the ridge and in front of the Albemarle House and the event center.  Another fox was spotted, again by Liz I believe.  It went into the woods past the hotel. The hounds got on it and we had a short run from there to past the event center at the top of the vineyards. (red line).

For the day, the horses got in about 7.5 miles and the hounds were up around 11 or 12.

Locust Grove, November 20,2021

 

In the map above the blue track is the second flight.  First flight may not be much different.  It's interesting and hard to follow because of the way the hounds ran.  There was quite a lot of looping back on themselves.  Also, they tended to go where the horses couldn't.  So often we were not far often and could hear them singing beautifully but couldn't follow really tight.

The map above is a simplified version of today's events.  The first run, in red, started shortly after we crossed the river.  It was interesting in that the hounds sounded really good.  The sound was cool because they were staying along the river and were up hill from them, so the acoustics were great.  At this point the run was a walk.  Given the slow pace the hounds were maintaining I expected the run to peter out at any minute. We had run out a place to go on the trail and decided to reverse our direction. 

The coyote and the hounds helped us out by also reversing direction and coming back down to the river.  They crossed the river and then everything picked up speed.  The coyote and hounds again started heading north and recrossed the river.   They headed up and over the ridge before turning north again and the run ending around Hob Knob or Whiskey Ridge Farm (I'm not sure which is the appropriate name).  It was a 30 minute run that was kind of like a roller coaster - a slow crawl up and then a really fast finish.

Matthew gathered hounds and headed into the woods behind the house.  In five minutes they were on another coyote. Whether it was the original coyote or a new was hard to tell.  The coyote headed north as if it was going to cross over Free Union Rd but instead started turning back behind the VDOT Depot.  It eventually made it back to where the first run started but not before turning several circles along the way.  Like the first run it was hard to get close to the action but we could always get a good listen to the hounds.

For the day the hounds covered 10.6 miles and the second flight did 6.4.  I think Liz said the third flight covered 5.5.  Apparently Liz's favorite perch has been logged and now she can sit there with third flight and be in the middle of the action all the time.

Miller School. November 13,2021

 

Today we were at the Miller School of Albemarle.  It was a gorgeous, cool morning wit spectacular colors on the mountains around us.  It was also howling wind which did not bode well for things.  On the plus side we had found that the pigs were confined to the pen by the red barn.  👍👍 While the pigs are scary for the horses, it seems with the great expansion of MSA's agriculture program, the hunting has improved as we are seeing more foxes and coyotes on the campus.  My thought is the feed being put out for the chickens and pigs is drawing in the small critters which in turn is drawing in the foxes and coyotes.

We started out by immediately going into the woods next to the meet.  I'd say we weren't ten seconds in when the hounds opened up.  We ran through the woods just past the old abandoned house and up the hill by one of the coops.  We checked there and found that the hounds had reversed were heading back to where they had started.  We reversed out just in time to find Matthew coming back and the hounds going back into the woods.  They circled around again and the fox was lost.  The run is on the map shaded in yellow.  It was a nice warm-up run that went about 17 minutes and covered a little over a mile. That's pretty cool because that stand of woods is about 100 acres.  It shows how much round and round we did.  

From there Matthew picked up the hounds and hunted up the hill on the trail that is right after the lake.  We got to the top and things headed east again the hounds started speaking and went down the hill to the south end of the lake.  Unfortunately not much developed from there.

We then headed to the trail that starts by the coop at the top of the upper meadow and that goes through the pine woods down to Pounding Creek Rd.  I've been hunting the MSA campus since 2015 and we have never had anything develop over there.  Howling wind and all, we got what Matthews thinks was a coyote up and running.  It took off towards Pounding Creek rd and then ran parallel to the road.

For the fields a decision had to be made.  Do we follow along the road in a trail position, or do reverse and try to head off by going back through the campus.  The decision was made to reverse and try to head off.  

While we were reversing back the coyote came through the logged area that abuts the MSA campus and cut back in by the water tower.  He kept running and came past the the faculty apartments before heading down hill and across the soccer pitch.  He kept going and disappeared back into the woods and disappeared around the pig pen.

It was an excellent run that took about 35 minutes and covered about 2 miles.

Matthew was gathering hounds and with the wind still howling, the day was called.  For the day, we covered about 6.6 miles in the second flight.

Chapel Springs 11/9/21

 

 

 Today was a very hunt.  It was very pretty with all of the fall colors on the mountains.  Unfortunately it was very dry, very hot and very windy which made for a very quiet hunt day.

Matthew started hunting back through the trees by the meet in the general direction of the Wesley Chapel.  After coming up blank there he worked his way around and got back into the woods and worked his way parallel to the gas pipeline and eventually came out by the lake.  Despite being back in the woods, still nothing happening.

He then came out of the woods, looped around the barns, through the pastures and back into the woods.  He crossed over Rocky Creek and head towards Maccie's place.  The only thing found along that way was the bottle of Port provided by Maccie.

Shortly after this the day was called.  Quite the quiet day as the only game seen was a suicidal bunny that ran through the middle of the hounds and lived to tell about.

The map above has only one line because the fields and the hounds pretty much traveled the same path.  The path above is second flight which covered 7.1 miles.

Yadkin November 4,2021

 

 

A coyote was spotted just a little ways from the meet drinking out of a cow trough.  Weather that was the coyote that ended up being hunted or not was hard to say.  Matthew started out paralleling the road towards the ford.  It wasn't but a few minutes when they all started speaking.  They then looped back as if they were going to go up the mountain.  They passed the house and then came down the driveway.  That's when things got going fast and far.

The coyote and the hounds crossed the road and headed out on a pretty straight track that was splitting the difference between Markwood Rd and Catterton Rd.  They eventually turned back towards the meet a few hundred yards shy of Buck Mountain Rd right behind the auto repair place.  It was pretty fast as the hounds showed a top speed of 27 miles per hour and were often over 20 while on the run.

After making the turn they headed on almost a straight line back toward the ford from where things started.  Mostly they spent the time hugging along the backside of the developments.  Back behind one house where the hounds slowed for a while they gave a thrill to some little kids and there mom who came out of their house to watch the hounds.

It was a great, fast run that took about an hour and forty minutes and covered just over 11 miles.  The second flight covered around 6 miles.  On the map the blue line is second flight and the orange line is hounds.