For those willing to endure my newbie gushing, I’m here to report that my second hunt was no less gratifying than my first.
I’m beginning to get the idea that a good bit of the excitement in hunting comes from the variety and surprise–the fact that you never know what the day will hold. This outing was quite different from my previous one. Lynn Lloyd’s fieldmaster was out for the day, so she invited me to ride right behind her, and was generous enough to put me on the mount she was using herself the last time I was there. There was just us and then the second flight somewhere way to the rear. We lost sight of them after a half hour or so. Lynn kept in walkie-talkie contact with the whips, and we’d cross paths with them once in a while, but in effect, I wound up getting a private tutorial from a celebrity MFH.
Conditions favored that. The scent was definitely strong, what with snow covering the ground and no wind, but from a fairly early stage after Lynn cast the hounds, each hound seemed to be following his own coyote. The whips were ranging far and wide. We’d see coyotes, but not the ones the hounds were after. Lynn led me to high ground where we waited, hoping that the hounds would get on a fairly uniform line and drive the quarry up to us, but by and by, we got further and further out and when Lynn blew the horn, nobody came. Occasionally one or another hound would amble up, but I think we went an hour at one point without seeing a one of them. The radio connection with the whips got spotty. Anyway, there Lynn and I were, four hours into it, about six miles from the kennels. The sun was about to make up its mind to set, and I wanted to at least try to be on the road to make it onto I-80 and get back over Donner Pass before any refreezing started, so I asked Lynn if she wouldn’t mind my hacking back alone.
Honestly, this was where this particular day’s real excitement came in. I had hopped over a couple of coops and had a great time ranging over the country, communing with Lynn and getting some great tips on inspecting coops, holding elevation once you’ve gained it, etc., but the hunt this time had been more cerebral, more a patient hunt and less a chase–just that kind of day. The Lord willed that I get my thrills all the same.
I had only the foggiest idea where we were in relation to the kennels. (I’m sure the horse could have found his way back without my help.) Lynn pointed out their direction as the crow flies, told me to follow a certain road and stay left when I came to a lone tree, and then look for the opening to the valley a couple of miles further on and follow the valley. Bless her magnanimous heart, she trusted me. Actually, she gave me a job, too–told me to send the trailer to pick her up when we got back. And we did make it back, but lordy, I have never felt, on the one hand, so radically free, and on the other, so alone and at the whim of a very indifferent Mother Nature in my life as I did hacking home alone in that gorgeous but desolate terrain with the sun going down and the temperature dropping. Holy cow! But I prayed, I guessed, I trusted my gut, got a move on, and it all worked out.
As on my earlier trip to Red Rock, I was too keyed up on adrenaline to eat anything for hours afterward (anyone else have that problem?). The hunt breakfast was long over, anyway. One of the whips was already back and just as she was about to head out with the trailer as requested, Lynn and the other whip appeared, having called it a day a little while after I left Lynn but headed straight over the mountains. I thanked them profusely for another marvelous day of sport and their incredible hospitality and said adios.
Which reminds me, it’s probably all to the good that I was too keyed up to eat for hours afterward, because the night before, I had been treated to a splendid and quite ample meal at the home of one of the whips. Red Rock seems to have this tradition of hosting dinner for all members and guests who wish to attend the night prior to the hunt. Both times now, I’ve been received as warmly and fed as heartily as a visiting kinsman.
I could go on and on. These people are the greatest.
Time for a little entrepreneurship, eh?
And Donner Pass, yikes, I’ve only read about that in a book which detailed the Donner Party back in what, the 1840’s???[/QUOTE]