THH Chancelors Gate, August 21, 2022

 

Today Munchkin and I were out with Thornton Hill Hounds at Chancelors Gate.  I have not hunted on that fixture in fifteen years or so.  That means I am not really familiar with the landmarks and trails, so today is a fair amount of guesswork and where the hounds were actually running.  Also we were in the woods a lot, so it was hard to see any mountain landmarks or other things like that.

As in life, timing is everything.  We started out with a warm humid morning but got two good runs in.  The first (yellow line on map) we picked up about a half an hour into the meet.  We were crossing a fallow field with really tall weeds.  The hounds were speaking but it wasn't organized but given time it built and we were off and running.  It was about a fifteen minute run where the hounds kind of twisted and turned while re ran a loop keeping the hounds to our right.  Eventually the hounds lost and were gathered.

It was about five minutes later when the hounds hit again.  This turned into about a 40 minute run. There was a lot of back and forth in the woods trying to stay with them.  Eventually the hounds made a run up and over Chancelor Mountain.  It was big push by the horses to finish with a fast climb up the mountain where we checked at the top.  The hounds lost somewhere on the backside of the mountain.

At that point, horses were spent and the call was made to head in.  Just as we were heading in the first couple of drops of rain were coming down.  It was a steady rain by the time everyone was loaded up.  so the timing was perfect.

Two very good runs.  We covered about 5.7 miles.  We hit a top speed of about 18 MPH which occurred on the first run.  It was a pretty moving along hunt. Out of the 1:39 we were out we were on the move for 1:23.  Our moving average was 4.7 miles per hour.  That doesn't sound like a lot but that is a pretty good moving average for a hunt especially when moving along wooded trails as were doing today.

THH Kennels, August 12,2022

 It was a beautiful day to get out with the hounds this morning.  When we started out at 7:30, the temperatures were still in the 60's.  We spent a lot of time going through the woods and when we were finishing a light breeze had come along to refresh us at the end.

We started off heading parallel to 522, got onto Barret Ln and then headed up Little Mason.  We were about three quarters of the way up when the hounds hit. They were quickly over the top and heading towards 522 with the seeming intent to cross it.  However they ended up turning and running parallel to 522 until they lost back behind the pond.  Yellow line on map.

It was a nice start to the day.

After that we hooked around toward Rudasill Mill Rd before heading back onto Barret Ln.  We worked along the backside of Mason Mountain with not much happening.  The hounds did speak a few times but nothing developed.    We crossed the Thornton River and worked along the tree line.  

We had just turned to hunt back to the trailers when a few of the hounds that were trailing got on a fox and got running. (Orange line on map) They were pretty much making a beeline for Turkey Mountain.  They were across Fletchers Mill quickly and heading up the mountain.  I don't know if they got all the way to the top before they started turning to the west.  They came down the mountain and then seemed to be stock in a hollow on the side of the mountain.  Once things seemed to get static the hounds were gathered and we headed in.

On this beautiful fall day we had two good runs and covered about 10.6 miles.

THH Kennels, August 7,2023

 

Today was the start of hunting season for Munchkin and I.  Wally will start at the beginning of September as I want to get some more prep in with him. 

I started think about some things regarding how and where I hunted last fall after injuring my back.  Even before gas prices went through the roof,  I wanted to cut down on my travel distances.  First, with my back issues, I can get pretty stiff in the car on a long ride.  Second, Munchkin is now 19 and starting his 16th hunt season.  After a long trailer ride he can start off a bit stiff in his hind legs.  About half of the Farmington Hunt fixtures are south of Charlottesville and that can be a long drive.  So I wanted to find an option to cut down on the drive times.  To do that I have added a membership at Thornton Hill Hounds (THH).  All of their fixtures are actually relatively close for us.  Some are only ten minutes away.  So my plan is to primarily hunt Munchkin with THH  and Wally with FHC but on the FHC fixtures north of Charlottesville.

Hunting with different hunts is kind of interesting.  It's all foxhunting but how each hunt goes about it can very different.  Hunts have different mixtures of hounds.  Of course, the huntsman is different.

FHC has a pack that is a mixture of American Foxhounds and PennMaryDel Hounds whose number is growing.  THH is all PennMaryDel.  I've never hunted behind an all PMD pack, so this will be interesting and something new to learn as the voices of the hounds are different.  Also, PMD's tend to "talk" more which means I'll to pay attention to learn their language.

Today Munchkin and I were out with THH from the Kennels.  The kennels are only a 20 minute trip for us.  We started out heading west from the Kennels paralleling route 522.  We got up to the Thornton River and the hounds started to speak in a tree line along the river and actually got pretty loud but no run developed.  As  we turned the end of the tree line across the river, there was scent but it was already high in the air.  

From there we worked up the side of Mason Mountain and eventually getting to the top. Going up the mountain we had to deal with quite a bit of damager from some the recent strong storms.  Going around, climbing over and bushwacking were required.   As we got the near the top, the hounds were speaking sporadically but nothing really developing.  It was when we came down the side into the open field that the hounds opened with a roar.  We got a pretty decent run out of it as the fox kept coming down the mountain and eventually circled back to where he came from.

It's the first time I've ever hunted in August but the 7:30 AM start helped mitigate the heat.  The ground conditions helped by our afternoon rain storms where pretty good.  It didn't seem like August out there.  

For the day we had the one run, we covered 5.6 miles which included 1500 feet of elevation climb.  Some fun and a good workout was had today.