Left school at 3:00 Friday afternoon and drove way back in on the rough, rocky, 5mph Hunter's Road on the dry northwest side of Mauna Kea. Worked the truck down a side trail, dropping 1000 feet to the Parker Ranch fenceline and set up camp, the ice chest and a collapsible chair on the ground and my sleeping bag in the bed of the truck. Darkness was coming on. I loaded my rifle and sat in the chair and drank a diet 7-up. In the tall dry grass just on the far side of an arroyo, 2 jet-black hogs were feeding on some brush. I got up, walked 50 yards toward them using a large bush as cover, peeked from behind it, set the crosshairs on the larger hog, and that was that. 140 pound dry sow, give or take. Took the choice cuts and settled down beneath a zillion stars that were bright and sparkly from my vantage point at 7000 feet.
Cold night but I was snug in my bag. I could hear pigs walking past the truck several times during the night. Packed up early Sat morning and started back along the Hunter's Road. Just as I was about to leave the rifle hunting area and enter the archery area, a band of 15 mouflon sheep were feeding 150 yards above the road. I stopped the truck, got out, and walked uphill for about 20 yards, found a branch to use as a rest, and waited. They appeared from behind some trees, locked eyes on me, and began to trot off. A full-curl dark ram was the leader but I couldn't get a clear shot at him so I settled on a sure bet and centered the crosshairs on a huge ewe. It was an easy shot. Butchered the sheep and put the meat into the ice chest next to the pork.
My wife's 50 year old brother went through brutal chemotherapy 15 years ago and 3 months ago his heart began to fail quickly, an unknown [but now well known] consequence of a particular combination of drugs used to fight the cancer. He's back in New York City and was put on the transplant list for the month of October. He only had 5 days and then he'd be taken off the list and he'd basically sit at home until he died. On my way home, the wife called and her brother was being rushed to the hospital for a new heart, that of a 26-year old who died from head trauma of some kind [they won't tell anyone who he was or how he died]. Got a call 15 minutes ago and her brother is out of surgery, doing fine, and will remain in a drug-induced coma for several days while his body heals. The outlook is very good. What modern medicine can accomplish these days simply amazes me.
Nice weekend overall, I'd say. By the way, I never saw another human being and it was all on public property.
No photos this time. I'm getting a bit tired of taking photos of dead animals. I think I'll start taking photos of the scenery and camp and posting those instead.
Aloha for now.
Cold night but I was snug in my bag. I could hear pigs walking past the truck several times during the night. Packed up early Sat morning and started back along the Hunter's Road. Just as I was about to leave the rifle hunting area and enter the archery area, a band of 15 mouflon sheep were feeding 150 yards above the road. I stopped the truck, got out, and walked uphill for about 20 yards, found a branch to use as a rest, and waited. They appeared from behind some trees, locked eyes on me, and began to trot off. A full-curl dark ram was the leader but I couldn't get a clear shot at him so I settled on a sure bet and centered the crosshairs on a huge ewe. It was an easy shot. Butchered the sheep and put the meat into the ice chest next to the pork.
My wife's 50 year old brother went through brutal chemotherapy 15 years ago and 3 months ago his heart began to fail quickly, an unknown [but now well known] consequence of a particular combination of drugs used to fight the cancer. He's back in New York City and was put on the transplant list for the month of October. He only had 5 days and then he'd be taken off the list and he'd basically sit at home until he died. On my way home, the wife called and her brother was being rushed to the hospital for a new heart, that of a 26-year old who died from head trauma of some kind [they won't tell anyone who he was or how he died]. Got a call 15 minutes ago and her brother is out of surgery, doing fine, and will remain in a drug-induced coma for several days while his body heals. The outlook is very good. What modern medicine can accomplish these days simply amazes me.
Nice weekend overall, I'd say. By the way, I never saw another human being and it was all on public property.
No photos this time. I'm getting a bit tired of taking photos of dead animals. I think I'll start taking photos of the scenery and camp and posting those instead.
Aloha for now.
