WEEK THREE!

A tired polecat enjoys the couch for the first time in years.

Mule steaks three weekends in a row! Trailhugger would have been proud of how these rare ones turned out!

Friday:

Global warming strikes again, with three inches of partly cloudy being deposited across the happy hunting grounds. Leaddog has the woods to himself, which apparently was the case indeed. Just one mule track was observed, heading away from the intended solo hunt. Many hours were spent in several watches, with not one additional mule track or associated mule in it observed. Polecat shows up, but is hindered by yet another gas delivery.

Saturday:

With a almost full complement of Rangers, sans the Probie and Steven, The crew heads for the back country to verify the existence of the Beast O’ Mighty. The main assault commences from the alternate ingress route, with Leaddog and Digger having blocking guard duty up above on the Thumb and the Escape route. While both were contemplating the next task at hand, two shots were heard from down below, where the spearhead assault was underway.

Radios proved to be somewhat useless, as garbled transmissions were heard with comments such as “A Racker Buck”, and “Lindy”! The excitement was short lived however due to what was heard in the next transmission as “Crossed the Creek, and heading to Stayaway”.

Let loose the Hounds!

Lindy has finally seen and confirmed the actual existence of the “Beast O’ Mighty”, and what follows next was the emotional rollercoaster ride of hunting. Robba and “Junior” finds blood, and then tracks the now somewhat wounded mule to the top of Stayaway, where apparently it’s bullet proof armor worked in fine fashion. With a grazing wound, the mule digs a trench akin to what National Grid would dig to lay cable, as observed by Robba – (aka:The Bloodhound). Feeling confident that the mule is just pissed and not mortally wounded, the crew suspends operations vowing to return bright and early next Saturday.

According to Lindy, the mule encountered was indeed “Da thirty-six point buck” of hunting lore. Lindy drowns his sorrows and relives over and over in his mind the prior exchange, with copious amounts of “kerosine”.

Junior earns inadvertently, his “Cross the Creek” and the coveted “Stayaway” badge with Robba on Saturday, and even earned the “Bernie’s Mystery Trail” badge on Sunday, by soloing and navigating the trail.

Sunday:

The crew decides to put on drives in familiar haunts, due to weather uncertainty, which certainly exercised it’s uncertainty. The drive commences, as does the rain, snow…snrain!
Much sign is observed by Digger, who was being observed as well by a non-conforming hunter of a different crew. Mules were pushed off the hill, with a spike and a fork horn being passed by the now picky watchers. Part two of the hunt has “Darren’s Dates” flying off the hill as usual, but no buck in the mix this time.