I was hard up to find something to do so I cruised down the 101 from Santa Maria where I live today. Some miles south along the freeway off to one side, I saw patches of obvious pig rooting in areas of fresh growth about 100 yards off the freeway at the base of some steep canyons running up fast climbing mountains. I pulled my truck to a large area off the side of the road and stood a few minutes at the fence and glassed the area good. I found many rooting places and tracks as close as a few feet from the shoulder of the road. Amazing. I have passed this area hundreds or thousands of times over the years and never really took the time to seek out fresh pig sign. After these rains we had here, finding these kinds of signs are not that difficult. The tracks and rooting I saw at this particular spot was as fresh as it gets. I do not recommend looking while driving, use common sense. In my case, I pulled over a large area that was for that purpose. I also drove around many of the county roads in the Santa Ynez/Lompoc valley and found several spots where pigs dug up left over acorns at the base of the many huge oak trees along with tracks. Of course, all of this area is private but so far no law against glassing and really checking out those valleys and canyons that yield the right habitat for pigs. It was cheap entertainment and really got me hot to plan a pig hunt . I found glassing and just finding that pigs had been where I was standing just hours before was a real rush for being so close to home and the road. Now I do not advocate trespassing and I'm no road hunter and I do not poach. Just seeing the signs was enough of a rush for me. If you drive by this area, look along the east end of the 101 freeway in the north bound lane about 1 mile south of the 154 turnoff, check out those grassy areas with those beautiful wild flowers at the base of those steep canyons. I bet anyone standing 50-100 yards off the freeway would see lots of tracks along that active creek bed. You can't see that creek from the road, but I know it's there.
- Thread starter Tusker
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Suzmar1997
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Kinda reminds me of the area off of the 5 freeway just after Lebec. My father and I got accustomed to seeing a nice group of piggies about 20 yards off of the freeway feeding next to the cattle. We would see them around 0500 just north of the meadow like area on our way to quail hunting in Cuyama. We would pull off the highway everytime and watch/photo the pigs. There were at least 2-3 over 200 lbs and made a nice beginning to a very succusful quail hunt season in 2001-02. Haven't seen them there at all this year, but its always nice to watch them when they are.
Freedivr2
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Interesting coincidence.........my wife and I stayed in Solvang Jan. 18th and 19th to do a little wine tasting around Los Osos. Sure enough, right where the 101 and 154 intersect, on the east side, there was an area right next to the dang offramp totally rooted up. No acorns in sight, my guess was the acorns are slim pickins now, and with barley just sprouts, the hogs are rootin wherever they think they'll find grubs. Cool...........
