well, as you might have read on the other topic, my wife was not too excited to let me go. She was quite hesitant and very worried about letting me and my two best friends go out with a hunter that we had never met before. The fact the this experienced hunter is a retired scout sniper for the military and has 25+ years hunting this private Property with numerous success stories did nothing to quell her nerves. None the less, I still went.
6 am sat morning we all met up in rosamond. 2 hours and 5 locked gates later and we were unloading our gear to setting up for the hunt. The night before it had snowed up in the mountains and had left a couple inches on the ground. The sun was shinning bright and the only clouds were way out in the distance. We knew that that gave us a good two hours give or take to hunt before it got bad. Being up at 6500' we knew that when the clouds moving in, we had to get out.
we staying up in that area for a good three hours. during that time we saw dozens of quail, coyotes, a 300+ pound brown bear, and tons of fresh bobcat tracks, but no pigs. The spot we chose was one that is abundant with tunnels and bedding area, but there were just no pigs to be seen, at least for recent tracks that is. At about 10:30 i decided to hike the mile back to the trucks to get something from the land cruiser. as i approached i heard the pigs callin. after dropping my pack and quietly calling the other guys on the radio, i started the stalk. within 20 minutes the guys showed up and i had already made my way downwind and almost under the pigs, or i should say where the sound was coming from.
after conferring with the guys, i made the decision to start crawling through the thick scrub oak and try to find and/or flush out whatever was in there. halfway through the 150 or so yards of srub, and the noise disappeared and who knows where they disappeared off to. right as i made it through, the snow started to fall again and we knew we better get out now or we'd be camping there.
We made it back down the hill and below the cloud cover as it started snowing and was near white out conditions. We came to the are our "guide", Ralph, called green valley and hung out for 30 minutes or so. My friend and I convinced ralph and our other friend to meet us at the bottom of this valley with the vehicles, that we wanted to hike down the three miles to the bottom from here. Thankfully about 20 minutes into this hike the snow let up a bit and was just flurries the rest of the day.
On this hike we spotted some wild mustangs, another brown bear, a bobcat,and even a herd of deer with a couple of 4-point bucks. Plenty of pig trails and signs of pig scat, but just no piggies seen the entire day. I take that back, I can't say the whole day was pig-less. The bacon on my burger back at the Wayside Cafe in Rosamond was outstanding.
I guess you can call it a successful hunt, we all came back with all our fingers and toes, saw some pig signs, and got a chance to see some of the most beautiful scenery i had ever seen. I am gonna try to shrink down the pics and get a couple of them posted shortly.
Thanks everyone to all the info leading up to my hunt and hopefully many more to come.
Frosty
ps. The wife was happy i came back empty handed, and said she would love to let me go out hunting again if i came home empty handed again. no promises....
6 am sat morning we all met up in rosamond. 2 hours and 5 locked gates later and we were unloading our gear to setting up for the hunt. The night before it had snowed up in the mountains and had left a couple inches on the ground. The sun was shinning bright and the only clouds were way out in the distance. We knew that that gave us a good two hours give or take to hunt before it got bad. Being up at 6500' we knew that when the clouds moving in, we had to get out.
we staying up in that area for a good three hours. during that time we saw dozens of quail, coyotes, a 300+ pound brown bear, and tons of fresh bobcat tracks, but no pigs. The spot we chose was one that is abundant with tunnels and bedding area, but there were just no pigs to be seen, at least for recent tracks that is. At about 10:30 i decided to hike the mile back to the trucks to get something from the land cruiser. as i approached i heard the pigs callin. after dropping my pack and quietly calling the other guys on the radio, i started the stalk. within 20 minutes the guys showed up and i had already made my way downwind and almost under the pigs, or i should say where the sound was coming from.
after conferring with the guys, i made the decision to start crawling through the thick scrub oak and try to find and/or flush out whatever was in there. halfway through the 150 or so yards of srub, and the noise disappeared and who knows where they disappeared off to. right as i made it through, the snow started to fall again and we knew we better get out now or we'd be camping there.
We made it back down the hill and below the cloud cover as it started snowing and was near white out conditions. We came to the are our "guide", Ralph, called green valley and hung out for 30 minutes or so. My friend and I convinced ralph and our other friend to meet us at the bottom of this valley with the vehicles, that we wanted to hike down the three miles to the bottom from here. Thankfully about 20 minutes into this hike the snow let up a bit and was just flurries the rest of the day.
On this hike we spotted some wild mustangs, another brown bear, a bobcat,and even a herd of deer with a couple of 4-point bucks. Plenty of pig trails and signs of pig scat, but just no piggies seen the entire day. I take that back, I can't say the whole day was pig-less. The bacon on my burger back at the Wayside Cafe in Rosamond was outstanding.
I guess you can call it a successful hunt, we all came back with all our fingers and toes, saw some pig signs, and got a chance to see some of the most beautiful scenery i had ever seen. I am gonna try to shrink down the pics and get a couple of them posted shortly.
Thanks everyone to all the info leading up to my hunt and hopefully many more to come.
Frosty
ps. The wife was happy i came back empty handed, and said she would love to let me go out hunting again if i came home empty handed again. no promises....
