Saturday, November 21, 2009

Foggy Big Savage Mountain hunt

I headed down to Big Savage Mountain just above the Maryland line for a hunt with Copper. In the nearly 30 years that I have known this cover it has changed little. Much of this cover was at one time a high mountain farm. Old stone fence rows and scattered orchards are the only reminders of the hard work done by long gone farmers eking out a living in this wild land. Grape vines, bittersweet, multi-flora rose, autumn olive, green briers and treetops broken off by ice storms and high winds make up much of the cover.
As I worked my way up the old logging road toward the top the fog became thicker.


Copper appearing out of the fog.




The old bones of a farm house. Once alive with a man and a woman and probably a litter of children, now slowly pasting time alone and empty with only its memories to fill its decaying rooms.



A bear marking its territory. These claw marks were 6 feet high.




No birds were carried off the mountain on this trip although I missed a wild flush and Copper found several, she just could not get them to hold for a point, but it was enough to know that the birds and the cover are still there waiting for the next time I decide to tackle Big Savage Mountain.










2 comments:

benedict1 said...

I just read through your last four posts. I hunted ruffed grouse and woodcock in Minnesota for over 15 years before moving here in 1992. I made a few trips back. Lord, how I miss it! I was lucky to have flat terrain to shoot in. I'm not sure that I could handle your mountains even in my so-called prime! I shot them over Pointers, Setters and Brittany Spaniels, with Brownings and Parkers and AyA guns. All of it was superb. Now I'm pretty much relegated to a game club here in Southern California but my English Pointer, Pride, and I can do that. My wife often accompanies me. Please see our latest adventure at my post here
http://tinyurl.com/yd33dmr (this is a shortened URL to save space) I envy you my friend but also thank God for what I still have. A fine wife, a wonderful dog, a lovely AyA gun, shells, a car to get there and some money to pay for the birds. Actually, pretty darned good! Shoot well, love your dogs and go out every chance you get. It all fades very fast.

Greyphase said...

Thanks for your comments Walter. I can only imagine the grouse & woodcock hunting you must have had in Minn. Read your lastest adventure and sounds like you and Pride had a great time.