Alright, second day back home on Kauai couldn't wait to get out hunting. This was last week. I decided to load up the remmy 308 carbine and check out my trail across the street from my house that goes into public hunting land. I have caught two hogs here, both small with my dogs. Stalked pretty close to a sizeable pig...couldnt see if it was a boar or sow but it spooked and ran away.
This day I wasn't so lucky. My trail starts off on a steep incline through waist to chest high fern (not the tangle fern). Pretty much the entire trail is under a canopy of strawberry guava trees and java plum trees. When I came to the first river/wallow area i slowed down and stopped every 5 steps or so to listen. I could hear some rustling across the small stream but couldn't see to identify anything. When I finally stalked close enough to the stream I still couldn't see anything. All of a sudden about ten yards to my left upstream I hear a huge ruffling sound and out comes....a rooster. I hate those damn things. There's tons of wild chickens in hawaii. They sure make putting a stalk on something hard. Now if you want a challenge but a pellet gun and go chicken stalking little crappers have good eyesite. Anyways, when I got to the wallow there was some evidence of hogs, abdomen high rubbings on trailside trees, old rootings. This area is notorious for holding "legends" or big boars which have killed many hunter's dogs.
My trail then follows the river down aways and goes up onto a ridge into the next piggy area. when I got to the top there was the lilikoi (passion fruit) vines. Its an area about ten yard radius in a circleish shape where the trees are covered in the lilokoi vine. there were about 5 on the ground bit in half by hogs. I grabbed about 5 more from the vine and ate them. The trail then goes up onto another ridge covered in blueberry guava. The blueberry guava aren't quite ripe by this time in the summer and dont make a very good snack for pigs although we've caught pigs that are full of these blueberry guavas before. They are too small to really make up a meal. It goes down this ridge for a while and into a really wet valley. It is all buffalo grass in the middle with a river flowing underneath. I like to sit here and rest while scanning the riverbed for signs. My dogs have chased in the top of this valley almost to the water tower.
The trail follows this river for a ways and then goes up a steep incline in the guava patch. It is about a 2 acre patch of wild guava with scattered big mango trees. This is where my dogs have found every pig except for one at the first wallow, never got the pig but my dog came back bloodied, i think she killed it. No signs in the guava patch and the mangoes aren't quite ripe yet. I decided not to hike up towards the huge mango patch as there werent too many ripe enough to fall oto the ground. This place goes off when they are in season. I have seen rootings almost waist deep under the trees. i would have sworn someone went int there with a backhoe. So I followed the trail into the bottom of the valley and sat on the edge of a cow pasture for about an hour. at one point i heard a stick break, but no other noises or anything...
All in all...not any real fresh sign, I think most of the pigs have moved up the valley to the rose apple patches as im pretty sure they're all ripe right now.
We're going tommorow with the dogs to hike about 5 miles up. We're almost guranteed to catch a pig so hopefully tommorow night i'll have some better news to write.
Evan
This day I wasn't so lucky. My trail starts off on a steep incline through waist to chest high fern (not the tangle fern). Pretty much the entire trail is under a canopy of strawberry guava trees and java plum trees. When I came to the first river/wallow area i slowed down and stopped every 5 steps or so to listen. I could hear some rustling across the small stream but couldn't see to identify anything. When I finally stalked close enough to the stream I still couldn't see anything. All of a sudden about ten yards to my left upstream I hear a huge ruffling sound and out comes....a rooster. I hate those damn things. There's tons of wild chickens in hawaii. They sure make putting a stalk on something hard. Now if you want a challenge but a pellet gun and go chicken stalking little crappers have good eyesite. Anyways, when I got to the wallow there was some evidence of hogs, abdomen high rubbings on trailside trees, old rootings. This area is notorious for holding "legends" or big boars which have killed many hunter's dogs.
My trail then follows the river down aways and goes up onto a ridge into the next piggy area. when I got to the top there was the lilikoi (passion fruit) vines. Its an area about ten yard radius in a circleish shape where the trees are covered in the lilokoi vine. there were about 5 on the ground bit in half by hogs. I grabbed about 5 more from the vine and ate them. The trail then goes up onto another ridge covered in blueberry guava. The blueberry guava aren't quite ripe by this time in the summer and dont make a very good snack for pigs although we've caught pigs that are full of these blueberry guavas before. They are too small to really make up a meal. It goes down this ridge for a while and into a really wet valley. It is all buffalo grass in the middle with a river flowing underneath. I like to sit here and rest while scanning the riverbed for signs. My dogs have chased in the top of this valley almost to the water tower.
The trail follows this river for a ways and then goes up a steep incline in the guava patch. It is about a 2 acre patch of wild guava with scattered big mango trees. This is where my dogs have found every pig except for one at the first wallow, never got the pig but my dog came back bloodied, i think she killed it. No signs in the guava patch and the mangoes aren't quite ripe yet. I decided not to hike up towards the huge mango patch as there werent too many ripe enough to fall oto the ground. This place goes off when they are in season. I have seen rootings almost waist deep under the trees. i would have sworn someone went int there with a backhoe. So I followed the trail into the bottom of the valley and sat on the edge of a cow pasture for about an hour. at one point i heard a stick break, but no other noises or anything...
All in all...not any real fresh sign, I think most of the pigs have moved up the valley to the rose apple patches as im pretty sure they're all ripe right now.
We're going tommorow with the dogs to hike about 5 miles up. We're almost guranteed to catch a pig so hopefully tommorow night i'll have some better news to write.
Evan
