ANTICIPATION IS KILLING ME!!!

WOW...what a day yesterday was. I'm not sure I've ever walked quite so far in one day and pretty sure I don't care to do it again. I paid too much money for a nice Polaris for that type thing, and my feet still really hurt today.

The day started off perfect. We had a hunt lined up on a new place near Corsicana where we hadn't previously been. The landowner had given one of the guys permission to run, but no one was very familiar with the layout of this place other than it was about 2,000 acres of solid woods without even a road through the middle.

One of the guys with us has pretty short range dogs and most of the time unloads at the truck and lets his dogs run around while everyone gets ready. As soon as we all fired up and headed towards the woods we didn't get 5 minutes down until his dogs were gone and we had a bay. The bay would last a short bit, then we would hear them down the woods a little ways. We followed briefly and finally agreed they were solid enough to unload the bulldogs and head in. Two others had catch dogs, so Zeus stayed in the box. One guy stayed at the four wheelers to try and keep the other dogs civil. (All mine, and several others were still in the buggies). When we got in the woods, we heard no sound. Waited...and finally a bay a good ways in. A waist-deep wade across a creek got us close enough to turn the two bulldogs in. They either missed or the bay broke but either way, we had no hog caught and two bulldogs on the ground. Not a good scenario. Finally we were able to get the bulldogs caught and listened again. We finally decided to return to the four wheeler, get the tracking system and check the dogs location. This is where the fun begins.

Long story short, we headed out in the wrong direction. Radios wouldn't work. GPS batteries were dead. (Didn't mark the four wheelers anyhow). Clouds covered the sun (when we could see up through the dense brush). Hollering produced no responce....we were lost.

As armyCOMBATmedic said, we walked and crawled for close to six hours. Several times I felt just like the guys on Survivor as we would sit for a break, then take a vote amongst our group of six on which way we were heading next. I was really distraught when I was informed that armyCOMBATmedic wasn't even packing any MRE's in his tote. (just kidding on that part)

FINALLY, we approached a gravel and dirt road which eventually led to civilization. A nice man mowing his yard gave our entourage a ride back to our vehicles in the back of his stock trailer. (after I heard him chuckle, and make a comment under his breath that "you guy's HAVE been walking a long way"). I was never so proud of a ride in all my life, and this guy was equally proud of the adult refreshments and $30 gratuity that we put in his pocket.

We were resting at the trucks, when the other guy showed up that we had left at the wheelers that morning. After taking inventory of what we had snapped up and brought out, it was determined that three dogs were still out. A track, and about an hours time got the others back and we were headed home.

So no...we didn't get a hog although if it hadn't been for our 6-hour detour I feel certain that we would have. I will have to say that even before my assurances that this was NOT a typical hunt for us, I never heard one complaint from armyCOMBATmedic. He was a pleasure to hunt (or walk) with, and we'll get this guy on a hog really soon.

Lesson learned for the day: In unfamiliar areas, mark location on GPS (including fresh batteries), and take the tracking system into the woods!

I have to go elevate my feet and tend to this poison Ivy now....

Bryant