JHO Tejon Hunt Results

[Speckmisser]

I kind of experiment with it. That's the great thing about sausage... it's hard to mess it up too bad.

My favorite lately has been sun-dried tomatoes and basil, and I'll often do something with hot peppers like jalapenos and habanero.

Indian spices (curry, cardamom, cinnamon, etc.) also make for interesting flavors.

Fruit works great in sausage. Apricots, apples (dried apples especially), raisins...

Bottom line is, don't be scared.

 

[ltdann]

My favorite is the beer wurst. Hickory smoked, its the bomb. mmmmmmm

 

[spectr17]

I left my green folding table at the skinning rack if anybody grabbed it. If so and you're local to Socal I can swing by and get it. If not just bring it next year please. Thanks.

Pass me one of them there sausage by the way. Apple or hickory smoked beer bitte.

 

[canadagoose]

Guess I'm a bit slow in sending mine out. I went out for a bit of a look around Friday afternoon to explore the canyon below Speckmisser ridge. I figured it'd be a good idea to know that area better in case I ended up going low on a retrieve. Turned out I didn't need to, but I did get a better idea of what leads to what.

Friday night I headed up to Speckmisser road and Jesse came along to do some video. He stayed on Speckmisser road with my truck, and I hit the next finger over from there. After maybe an hour of glassing all over the place, I see a pig way over on one of the fingers coming off Speckmisser ridge. It's way too far of a shot, so I give a quick look around to see if any pigs have come out anywhere closer.

No dice, so I got on it and started side hilling over little ridges to get closer. I stopped when I had about a 100 yard broadside shot across a draw and got the shooting sticks out. She wasn't moving quickly, so I took a moment to relax and let my heart rate drop.

I squeezed off a shot and she dropped and rolled down into the draw. A quick scramble down and back up again and I found her caught up in a clump of small trees stone dead. The impact was heart/lung and copper did its job nicely.

I had to climb back up to the top of the ridge for anyone to hear me on the radio, and learned that Phil had a pig down somewhere below me and was taking it out low, and Jesse had no idea how far I'd side hilled. It was at this point I realized I was on my own and would be taking my very first pig apart by my self, in a hell hole, after dark. I gotta stop learning from Phil. :smiley_doh:

Back down into the draw, dug out my knife, and got down to business. Slowly, given my inexperience. I gutted her and started on skinning as it got dark and switched on the head lamp part way through. I eventually decided the legs were all I was going to be able to carry and stuffed them into my pack.

Getting up out of that draw was really hard, and it was up hill all the way to the road. Jesse had my truck and was trying to figure out where I was going to meet back up with the road. All I knew was that it was very dark, I had what felt like a ton of pig and gear on my back, the terrain was all up hill, and I was damn glad I had the GPS to keep me going in the right direction and give me some sense of progress.

I eventually came to the top of a little hill where I could see Jesse driving my truck far in the distance and way up above me. The hill I was on started to descend again, and my heart sunk. I was going back down into some sort of drainage and was going to have to climb back up the other side. Not was I was hoping for.

But wait, what's that just ahead? Could it be? No, it couldn't be. Not here. It's ... Petunia. And Phil needs someone to drive her back down to where he had ended up. I could have kissed her. Maybe I did. I'll never tell.

I hopped into Petunia, rendezvoused with Jesse, and we headed down to pick up Phil.

Back at camp the legs weighed in at 50 lbs. Not bad for my first kill - I'm definitely happy.

The next day around lunch I decided to split early since my legs were shot and my ice was melting faster than expected.

Looking forward to doing it again next year.

 

[Speckmisser]

Wayne, you da man, humping UP out of that hell hole. There's a reason we always take 'em down through the drainage... you'll only do that uphill hike a couple of times before you start to cuss gravity. If I EVER meet Isaac Newton, I'm kicking his ass for inventing that stuff.

Glad you stumbled over Petunia, though... that was one welcome sight coming down the road Friday night! I'll even forgive you for kissing on her and stuff.

Jesse, I've got your table. Also got somebody's Gorilla Gambrel. That's about all I found of value when I policed the place.

Good job to all for collecting your garbage! With the exception of the kleenex flowers behind the white trash trailer, the place was definitely cleaner than we found it.

 

[BDB]

Congrats to all, sounds like a fun but tough hunt. Congrats on the first pig Wayne, glad you got one!

 

[spectr17]

Wayne definitely gets the Iron Man award for this hunt for walking that hog back UP out of that hell hole. There were at least 2 of us on the radio telling him he was nuts but he made it. :not-worthy:

 

[chirohunter]

Congrats on your first pig, Wayne! After the 2007 Tejon hunt...then this hunt....you have definitely earned it.....Great job!!! You learned the art of "hell-hole-hunting" from the master. So, do you now have the fever for more...like I did after my first pig?
Steve

 

[huntsndives]

Phill the gambrel might be mine, I'll check when I get home from work tonight.