I'm not much of a story teller so this will be brief. I'm hoping pics will follow soon.
Over the past few visits to the property hunting with Ray Hammond we became good friends with the owner, Andrew Harper. Emails, phone calls, even a visit on my vacation last summer helped bond our friendship. We have also become good friends with Andrew's right hand man, Charlie.
It was so good to see our buddy again and tour his new facilities. Wow! What a camp! Brand new bunkhouse and totally remodeled main house with beautiful meeting room, kitchen/dining room, and front porch over looking a pond.
Way too much happened over the next five days to go into the details of eight bowhunters and our individual adventures. In a nutshell...........
Over 2" rain ended right before we got there, which made the roads slick and gooey, and the swamp and woods flooded. We have been there several times and never seen water like this. Some areas were tough to impossible to get to.
Our weather started with highs in the mid 40's and ended near 80 on our last day. It never rained a drop during our stay. By the end, the roads were dry again but the water continued to rise in the swamp.
Each day we all headed out to explore the new areas around camp and to check on spots we liked from past hunts. My first morning hunt produced a sighting of 20 hogs in one group, my largest sighting ever. Too bad they were across Blue Lake (really full of water and 'gators), no way to go after them.
Each hunter had encounters throughout the week in nearly every area of the property. One of our more adventurous members found a way in to where the water had the hogs pushed to high ground. He saw 170 hogs himself throughout the hunt!
Others had close calls that almost produced a shot. A few got a shot but missed. The closest I got to an adult hog was about 55 yards until the wind shifted and sent the string of 12 hogs into high gear. I had 7 little guys around the base of my ladder stand one evening. They were having quite a good time scrapping and scratching.
As we all worked toward the picnic area for lunch on Saturday a HERD of hogs was inadvertantly pushed ahead right toward an unsuspecting hunter. Our friend got a shot off as at least 30 hogs rushed by him. The shot resulted in a non-lethal hit and was the only blood drawn on the hunt.
We spent midday relaxing, looking for arrow heads, shooting, and hanging out with our friends Andrew and Charlie. When you have a week to hunt you can really have a more leasurely experience. This was our "Spring Break" and we soaked up every bit of sun and fun we could.
The food was beyond anything we could have imagined. Andrew is quite the camp cook! From breakfast to dinner he outdid himself each time. My goodness I never ate so good! I actually lost a belt notch during our stay! We sampled some true southern cooking at camp and also at a local BBQ. Andrew's friend, Billy, joined us one evening for dinner and campfire. Lots of laughs were followed by the night sounds of coyotes and frogs. The clear night produced the most beautiful star lit sky. What an after dinner show!
It was tough to say our goodbyes and head back to cold snowy PA on Sunday. It will be another year 'til we meet again and get to explore one of the coolest places on earth.
The Tribe
Topic: Wild Things - Tribal Gathering (Read 511 times)
