I hope this post doesn't jinx the whole thing, but it looks like our first hog trip will be the weekend of the 30th at FHL. I practically have the truck packed and ready to go right now!
Excellent. I'm locked down with mom-in-law over that weekend. We're taking her down 101 and its going to be hard to avoid taking that detour over to the fort with .44 in hand... "It'll just be an hour..."
We did end up making it to FHL this past weekend. I really like the place. We're planning on going back regularly.
Friday Afternoon: We arrived, checked in, and chose area 19 for the next day.
Friday Night: I learned my brother snores louder than I do. I got little sleep.
Saturday Morning; We set the alarm clock for 5:30. Too late. It was already light by then. We then spent some time looking for area 19, took a wrong turn into area 12, saw bunkers and fox holes, and decided to turn around. Finally found area 19 about 7:30. Hiked up and over large hills for about 1.5 hours. Spent the next 2 hours cruising the perimeter of area 19. Decided we didn’t really like that area and headed on out by a different direction, looking over the other areas as we went.
Saturday Afternoon: Changed areas to area 25. Noticed that someone had left business cards for jesseshuntingpage.com at the check-in station. Took one for a souvenir.
Saturday Evening: Decided to try ambushing. We parked, hiked quite a ways from the truck, and positioned ourselves under an old oak near the river, waiting for all the pigs to come out of the canyons and cross the big open area between the canyons and the river for an evening drink. Apparently the pigs weren’t thirsty. Nether were any other animals.
Saturday Night: I won the race to get to sleep before my brother. Now it was his turn to suffer.
Sunday Morning: We arrived at the TA at about 5am. Still dark. We parked at one end of area 25 and basically hiked to the other end, where it meets area 29, looking for pig sign. Most of this was between Tule road and the river (forget the river’s name), closer to the river than the road in an area where there are lots of trees, bushes, and nice hiding places for small pig-like animals. Although we didn’t see any pigs or any signs of any pigs, this was much more enjoyable than the previous day. We got back to the truck about 9 or 10am and called it a day (and a trip).
We didn’t see any pigs or pig sign the whole trip. We saw lots of deer and elk (and came within 25 yards of one elk and within 40 yards of several well-fed deer). That, at least, did a little to help our wounded egos (it wasn’t all our fault). There were deer and elk all over the place, including a herd of about 40 elk in the range area across from area 25. Also saw skunks, badgers, and coyotes. There were two reports of pigs taken from area 29 that weekend as well as two turkeys (there may have been more, but those were the only ones we heard about).
All in all, it was great fun. We’ll probably be going back in late April or early May, depending on when everyone can get the time off.
Thanks to everyone here for the help at getting started!
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