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Bears and Pigs

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10 October 2021, 04:31 PM
Rancocas
Bears and Pigs
This afternoon I walked across the street, going to check on my deer blind over there in the woods. Directly across from my house, about 50 yards from my front door, right in the middle of my trail, is a large pile of bear poo.
My blind, which is simply a pile of brush around the base of a big tree, overlooks a shallow spot in London Creek where the deer cross. It was once a beaver dam, but it has long been abandoned by those buck-toothed critters, and washed out in spring floods, but enough sticks are still there to hold the silt and make a shallow crossing. Deer tracks are numerous in the mud, both going and coming. Good sign.
I took my trail camera and set it to guard the creek crossing. Hopefully, after several days I will have some good pictures.
Tomorrow, early, I am going up on Starr Mountain for some bear and wild pig hunting. A woman I know has a small cabin on 100 acres there surrounded by the national forest. She has a problem with the pigs rooting up her horse pasture. She says that last night the pigs tore up the ground just 30 yards from the cabin. But, feral pigs are mostly nocturnal. They spend the daylight hours back in the thick, tangled rhododendron jungles. Stalking them there is difficult.
I'm still quarantined, but I can go alone in the woods. I just have to stay away from people at least until Friday.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
11 October 2021, 07:19 AM
DanL
Rancocas, I wish you Good luck on your hunting.

My nephew killed a nice 85 pound porker yesterday morning. As my dad always said, " Good eatin' size".

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DanL,




God bless America and Alba Gu Brath!
12 October 2021, 07:59 AM
Rancocas
Well folks, it was another gorgeous autumn day in east Tenasi. I can't drive at night because on-coming headlights blind me, so I waited for dawn before leaving home. I headed up to Starr Mountain for a morning bear and wild pig hunt. Mist hung over the valleys and drifted up the mountain sides, giving good cause why the Smoky Mountains are called what they are.
Through the little town of Benton, then up the Hiwassee River past Quinn Springs. At Reliance I crossed the river, the fog so thick that I couldn't see the water below the bridge. But, as I climbed up the mountains I quickly got above the fog. On through Springtown, a tiny collection of houses and rundown barns. Past yards full of junk cars and household appliances. Dogs and chickens in the road. Appalachia.
Leaving the pavement, I passed a few isolated farms, and began to climb Starr Mountain on the gravel two-track. Twisting, winding, ever upward on the narrow road. Finally, I came to Yellow Creek and stopped. I backed down off the forest road and into a cleared spot beside the creek. Across the road was the gated driveway to 100 acres of private property that is jointly owned by a woman I know and another lady, both widows. I have permission to hunt there, but this day I planned to walk around outside of the fence, and go completely around the 100 acres. Jenice has complained the wild pigs are tearing up her horse pasture and she would like for me to reduce their number.
Slowly I climbed the ridge, threading my way through thick laurel and underbrush. Oaks, maples, hickories, sassafras, and pines towered overhead. There was no breeze, no moving air that I could detect. Signs of pigs were there, but the tangled jungle was so thick that I couldn't see more than 15 or 20 yards around me. I moved very slowly, quietly as I could, but the occasional crack of a stick somewhere ahead of me told that animals, probably pigs, were moving away from me.
A narrow path, pock marked with pig tracks, lead me over the ridge toward the horse pasture. At one spot where the forest opened up enough to see 50 yards or so I sat down with my back against a large oak. I waited there, quietly, for about an hour. Nothing moved, not even a bird. I went on, in the woods paralleling the field.
I heard a tractor start up and soon heard the sound of mowing in another pasture further beyond the near one. But, I went on through the woods, skirting the field, up the ridge.
On the back side of the property now, I made my way down, moving toward the sound of the tractor. I popped out of the brush and stepped into the field edge as a friend made a sweeping turn with the tractor. He spotted me as he came around. We talked for a few minutes then he went back to work and I continued on around the property, back in the woods again.
On a steep hillside overlooking Yellow Creek I paused for lunch, again sitting with my back against a large oak. A microwave cup of chilli, eaten cold with the point of my knife, and an apple satisfied my hunger. I lingered there, reading a book that I had brought in my backpack. I saw no game. I did see one bird, a wren. That is really sad when there are no birds around.
I moved on, dropping down to the babbling brook known as Yellow Creek and followed it back to my truck.
No game. Pig sign, but no sign whatsoever of bear or deer. No birds except a couple of crows that I had heard but not seen, and the wren, of course. Nevertheless, I had done what I had wanted, circled the 100 acres, relaxed, and enjoyed the day.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
12 October 2021, 08:57 AM
DanL
Sounds like a very nice day in the woods!

I never get enough of those days.


God bless America and Alba Gu Brath!
14 October 2021, 08:29 AM
Rancocas
Ah hope ya'll air doin' gud.
Well, yesterday, for the second time this week I got out to do a little bear and boar hunting. It was an interesting morning.
Climbing up Chilhowee Mountain I passed ten different pickup trucks, each one full of bear hunters and their dogs. The hunters were hunting bear, not hunting bare. ():~)
There was one truck parked at the entrance to the gated forest road where I wanted to go. I parked behind it anyway and began my long walk. More than a mile down the eastern side of the mountain is a series of large fields. The biggest has to be 40 or 50 acres, maybe more. In several places around those fields are rows of planted red and white oak trees, and in other places there are a couple different species of pine. The whole is surrounded with a wire fence. It is all in the middle of the national forest. Deer can easily jump over the 4 foot high fence, and a bear can climb over, but wild pigs can't get through without breaking down the fence. I figure it is all some kind of forest service study area.
I took my time walking the field edges, going from one field to another, then back outside the fence to the forest road that I had walked in on. It was about 11:30am when I got back to the place where I had first entered the fields. This time the gate was wide open. I sat down there to eat my lunch and read my book while I waited to see who might come out.
Well, 20 or 30 minutes later, here comes a pickup truck. The guy stopped to close the gate behind him, and I engaged him in conversation. He referred to those planted trees as "the orchard". What they do, he said, is collect the seeds (acorns and pine seed) and distribute them to other forest areas, mainly to Alabama at this time. It is contract work for the forest service. I was surprised to learn that he actually lives and works out of Murphy, North Carolina and has to drive way over here to tend to "the orchard". He and one other guy are responsible for mowing those big fields, pruning the trees, and collecting the seed when it is time.
I hitched a ride with him back up that long uphill mile back to my truck. I sure was grateful for the ride! Back at the locked gate (he had a key) there were now four more trucks beside my own. They had pulled in ahead of me, and one of them was blocking the gate. No one around.
The tree man was about to call the rangers and that one truck would have been towed, probably at great expense to the owner, but as we stood there, an orange clad bear hunter came walking up the road. It was his truck.
I got in my truck and promptly backed up and into a ditch. My truck was high-centered. I was going nowhere. However, I keep a strong tow chain in my truck. The other hunter was a friendly guy and he had a big four wheel drive pickup. He towed me out with ease.
So, that was my second morning of bear and wild boar hunting. I saw a couple of deer tracks, but no sign whatsoever of any other game. I did hear a pack of dogs bawling, far away, one time. I heard no shots.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.