The 'Madness' is over.....In the absence of Maddness...

[Terry Green]

Just reeling in from our 3 day hunt at Cohutta....me, Doug Johnson, and St Judes winner Barry 'Madness' Clodfelter.

What a great hunt we had chasing bears, ....deer and hogs were side bar to the bears, but still on the menu.  We had great weather till Sunday morn, saw some beautiful country, and ate some great meals.  Barry slipped in with some special roasted corn that was like eating desert!!!

If I'm able to offer this hunt up again next year,  I've invited Barry to come back and join us as well.  Barry still hasn't seen 'The Theater'.

I'll share more when I get time, still catching up from being gone......

       
     
   

[Ryan Sanpei]

Looking forward to this one.....
   

[jcar315]

Anxious for more story and pics.

[Jeff Roberts]

Terry, were ya'll camping at the ballfield on Little Bald Mt? If so the hogs were down in the Rough last weekend. Stormy weather Sunday to be up top.

[Terry Green]

Yeah Jeff....that's where we camped.  Several reasons, but mostly for cool sleeping weather, and boy did we get that.

Yep, the top was cleaned off, nothing but hulls left.....

[horatio1226]

That trailer is unreal!

[Swamp Preacher]

Terry,
Where did you get the trailer?  Gawgia is a long way from South Africa!

[Guru]

Boy, If only that cooler could talk...sure has been around...

Good stuff fellas    

[Van/TX]

Dang, I've never seen a 2 story tent before.  That's cool  :D  ...Van

[xtrema312]

[Wannabe1]

Great looking camp setup Terry. I like that trailer. Look forward to the rest of this story!  

[saumensch]

Waiting for this one....    

Wow that trailer is a stunner!

[madness522]

I know the feeling about still catching up from being gone! I need to finish unpacking and find my camera to share the few pics I did take.  
First let me thank Terry for offering up this hunt for St. Jude's and also for everything you do and have done with Tradgang.  After driving for about 5 hours I meet up with Terry in Calhoun and the adventure begins.  We pick up Doug and the rather awesome camper and head up the mountain!  Now the road going up is not really rough but it far from smooth and my Chevy didn't like going much over 15-20 mph.  Well Terry is pulling the camper and there are places were the dust had already settled on the road before I see where he stopped to wait on me.  This goes on for the hour or so it takes us to get up the hill the whole time I thinking what the heck did I get myself into. If I can't keep up on the road how am I going to keep in a wilderness area I have never seen.  But all is well when we get to the camp site and it seemed as we were stepping out of the vehicles there was a huge breath of air released and time slowed down and nothing else but being there mattered.

As we set up the Safari camper you could almost see the wildebeests and gnus running across the field and hear the elephants trumpeting and lions roar off in the distance.  When we got camp set up Terry and Doug took the tent on top and I took the bait shack.  I call it this because of a story Terry told about a guy who went to Africa hunting and every night there was a small boy who slept in his door way to "escort" him to the bathroom in the night should the need arise. The boy’s actual job was to be eaten instead of the guest inside the doorway where he slept.  So my job was to be the bait should a fierce lion or tiger come looking for a snack in the middle of the night.
With the little day light we had left it was time to play a fun and exciting game of judo soccer!  We took turns kicking a foam soccer ball across the field and fire arrows at it.  Nice little tune up and a lot of fun.
Well that’s all I have time for now need to go pay a few bills (work a little).

[Terry Green]

I bought the camper state side.....some one had bought a fleet of them and I was lucky to get one when I did....there are no more being imported that I know of.

Yes, Judo Soccer....Doug and I found out we had a shooting in camp!!!  Barry was tearing that nerf soccer ball apart.........All of us faired well on the one 40 yard broadleaf I called.  Our 'sites' were on for the hunt....more in a bit...

[lpcjon2]

That trailer looks like 5 * accommodations for sure. Was the hunt sponsored by LL Bean.     Sounds like it was a blast!

[Terry Green]

Originally posted by Guru:
Boy, If only that cooler could talk...sure has been around...

 

Yes sir....it sure has Curt.  One of the best investments I ever made was buying that cooler on sale for $39.  It should have its own frequent flier number.

Anyhow....the first night was filled with anticipation....Doug and I really wanted to be off the side of that mountain that evening, but Barry's license didn't start till Friday morn.......and the night was perfect for a fire and cool sleeping temps.

Barry got a real dose of the beauty of Cohutta the next morning as he stalked to 'Spaghetti Junction' in the fern carpeted open hardwoods.  One of the prettiest walks to a stand you'll find east of the Missisip.  This local got its name from the many trails through the ferns in all different directions the day I found it.  It's named after the infamous interchange of I-85 and 285 north east of Atlanta.

     

[sunny hill archer]

Bet y'all enjoyed the "cool sleeping temps!!!!!!!!!"          

[Mudd]

Nice that you and friends could just relax a bit even though I'm sure the thoughts of going off onto the mountain side weren't ever far from your conscious mind.

Thanks for sharing and I'll be waiting expectantly for the rest of the story.

God bless,Mudd

[Terry Green]

Like I said earlier, we hunted some mighty pretty country.  The 1st morning we hunted till 9:30 and came out for a real breakfast so we could get back in at noon and hunt the mid day moon phase and the rest of the day. During that morning I went on a little walk finding some more sign that looked promising for the afternoon.

That afternoon Doug, Barry and I all went looking at my 'new sign'....and we set Barry up on a trail that was heavily used as Doug and I went higher scouting again to try and fine tune the area and fine brand new sign.

What we found puzzled us, but it finally dawned on us that the white oaks we done on the ground, and nothing but hulls were left.  No bear scat and we determined the missing acorns were done mostly by hogs due to the sign we found......

     

So, we went back and got Barry and started descending finding more sign lower down the mountain and came to what we call 'spring one' and it was hot with hog sign and a bear track.  Barry was set up on this immediately as Doug decided to hunt below spaghetti junction, and I proceeded to 'spring two'.

I was tickled when I got to spring two at the sign there as well, but after a few minutes of monitoring the wind, I bailed out as I felt like I was cutting Barry off.  So, I went back and told Doug I was going off the back side of the lead he was on.

I knew of this area where two trails came together and a little outcropping of rocks that I could hunker back into.  I got all set up and cooled off and I got board. I took this interesting pic of a trees 'root-rock basket'.....

       


I just didn't have a lot of confidence and felt like I was just 'killing time'
so I headed north paralleling the lead.  I got about 80 yards away and I saw a mini bluff and nocked at arrow because I could see a white pine was growing up from the base of the bluff.  As I snuck and looked over the edge, sure enough, there was a bear bed under that white pine, but no bear was present.  I leaned up against a tree for a few minutes and started to climb up the lead a bit when I finally found fresh sign....bear scat with gnats and a beetle on it.  

     

Needless to say....I went right back to my rock outcropping and hunkered back in.      

[imskippy]

This is gonna be good. That trailer is awesome. Do you think there would be a market for these if they could be built reasonably? Terry if you don't mind me asking what something like that goes for?