Schoolhouse, March 17,2022

 

Today we were at Schoolhouse.  It had rained during the night and stopped a little before the meet was supposed to start. Things were looking good.  Footing was squishy but not too bad on the grassy fields.  The woods trails were pretty muddy and slick.  Quite the challenge for balance especially on the side slopes.  But hunt horses being what they are, they all handled it well. 

The weather held up for a while.  We were about a half an hour in when we started getting a mist which turned into a drizzle which then evolved into a steady rain.  It did that for the next 45 minutes.

We started hunting by heading out of Schoolhouse over to Moriah.  We worked north from there and eventually crossed over onto Buck Mountain Ford Rd.  We quickly moved down the road and ducked into Yadkin.  We weren't that long onto Yadkin when the hounds hit.  Initially it sounded like they werre going to turn and head up the mountain but instead they straightened out and headed north.  They made it all the way up to Davis Shop Rd Road before being stopped.

Matthew gathered the hounds and was hunting his way back in but to no avail.  With the rain coming down steadily there was not much chance for scent.   At the end of the day there were muddy riders, horses and tack but we got the day it and it was kind of fun. We did cover 9.85 miles for the day.

Sherwood, March 8,2022

 

It was a beautiful day.  Conditions were good.  Footing was good.  A bit of a quiet day though.

Matthew must have been in a bushwhacking mood today because we spent the first 30 minutes or so bushwacking through the woods by the utility easement.   We worked up into where the easement and Carter Mountain Rd meet and started working parallel and down the road towards Rt. 20.  We weren't far into the process when the younger hounds got going.  Unfortunately, the got a lesson in that not all critters we come across are what w want to chase.

Later in the hunt Matthew was working in the woods just beyond the Redland Farm barns.  We had just come alongside the little ponds when the hounds started speaking and took off.  They hooked around pretty quick and then headed south across Nutmeg Farm.  They also managed to get across Secretary Rd before most of them could be headed.  A small pack managed to keep going and started running along the Hardware River.

With the pack scattered the day was called and we started a big loop around to get back home.  For the day we covered about 8.8 miles.

 

Miller School, March 3, 2022

 

We were at Miller School today.  It was a gorgeous but warm day.  After a couple of weeks of dry weather the footing is getting really nice.

It's amazing how things can change at fixtures.  Miller School used to be a fairly quiet hunt.  Once they ramped up their Agriculture program to include farm animals the hunting at Miller has become consistently busy and we're not even chasing the farm animals.  One nice thing today is that the pigs were gone and are probably nicely stored in a freezer somewhere.

It wasn't a long day but it was busy.  The bell tower struck ten and within a few minutes the hounds were busy.  They got a fox up and running near the pig enclosure in what used to be called the equestrian woods.  I guess it is now the pig woods.  The fox was viewed crossing the driveway.  It then made a turn and made a long run down the pinewoods trail, through the swampy area at the end of Alumni Lake and then made a run for the water tower where it was lost.  Yellow line on map.

Matthew gathered the hounds and headed down the back driveway, going into the woods past the dumpsters.  We were only a few minutes in when the hounds hit again.  The fox looped out and was heading along behind the houses and towards the pond when the hounds lost him.  It was a good run as the hounds were working steadily even if not on a dead run.  Orange line.

Matthew gathered again and came back across the utility easement.  He was just a little past it when the hounds hit again.  They ran through the woods toward the clear cut and were heading back up the hill a bit east of the water tower.  They ran for a bit but lost somewhere in the woods just above the clear cut.  Red line on the map.

 After that we headed in as it had gotten quite warm and the hounds were lagging.

It's very interesting to look at the map and wonder if it was not the same fox all along because it would be easy to link those runs into one smooth track.

ETA:  I was talking with John Wells several days later and he told me he saw a fox running with some deer in the Miller Woods that day.