Today we were at Hunting Ridge. The scenting conditions were not good. We had a strong wind at the start and it kept getting windier as the hunt went on. The ground conditions re:footing were improved but for scenting not so much. The grass fields were very dry and crunchy as were the leaves in the woods. The footing underneath as kind of soft.
Going in the best we could have hoped for was that Matthew would get the hounds down low along one of the rivers and get the hounds out of the wind. We were hopeful a run down low that might keep going. It would have seemed that anything that got to the top of the ridge, the wind would blow away.
We initially started by hunting around Hunting Ridge. The hounds did get speaking once but once the crested the hill into the wind, it was all over.
We crossed over Ridge Road and started hunting down towards Meechums River. We got to the bottom there was no wind but also no scent. We crossed over the river utilizing some dicey ins and outs of the river. We had just crossed when the hounds hit and headed straight up the hill. Sure enough, they came out of the woods on the Schelford training track and the scent was gone with the wind. Yellow Line
From there we crossed through Schelford and dropped back down to the river. Nothing was happening there and we crossed the river over towards Laurel Ridge. The hounds hit and headed back up the hill. It looked like it was going to be another short run but the hounds manage to stay on the trail despite the wind and crossed over Ridge Road heading down to the Moorman River. Orange Line
They turned left and followed the river for a while before turning back up towards the ridge passing the polo field and tennis courts at Whipporwill farm. They crossed back of the ridge and continued back down toward Meechums where they put the fox to ground.
It was a pretty amazing run considering how hard that wind was blowing.
For the day we covered about 8.2 miles.
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