Wednesday I met my friend Eric and his setter Cider from Parkersburg at the Save-A-Lot parking lot in Davis WV for another hunt in the Canaan. The snow from Monday had melted and we hunted a logging road that led up the mountain. We moved 3 grouse but none offered any shots and by noon we were back at the trucks. We decided to give the old Camp 70 logging road that I had hunted on Monday another try as Eric had never hunted that area. Emma was soon on point in some spruce but the grouse proved to be too smart for us and using the trees flew away without a shot. Later out the road Eric tried for a woodcock with his little Fox but the bird used a large hawthorn to aid in it's escape. With Eric to provide pleasant conversation was we hunted I didn't take many pics. Here's Eric hunting through some mature hawthorn cover
Mature aspen and goldenrod cover looked good but held no birds today.
Emma finally went on point and Cider came in and backed her beautifully. As I walked in Eric captured this with his phone's camera.
A woodcock lifted in front of Emma and tried to use the big hawthorns to escape but a load of 7/8 oz. of #8's from the right barrel of The Twigg brought it down. This proved to be the last bird we found and back at the truck Emma and I posed with our first Canaan Valley woodcock.
I had hoped to hunt the Valley one more time this week but with a forecast of 33 degrees as the high with a wind chill of 23 degrees and a 70% chance of snow I decided that Emma and I would hunt near home and be satisfied with dreams of hunting the Valley and the Dolly Sods next fall.
2 comments:
Thanks for the virtual tour of the Canaan Rick. It's great that you moved some birds and connected with a doodle! I've been fascinated with the history of the valley ever since reading The Upland Shooting Life and more recently, The Real Ryman Setter. Walt Lesser gives a great account of plying the valley with H. Burnell Davis and "Bud" Evans, including some stellar photos. Definitely on my upland bucket list. Well Done.
Thanks for stopping by David. Sadly much of Canaan Valley has been commercialized. A golf course and ski lodge now sit on GBE's favorite coverts and hundreds of summer homes dot the valley. Still the Valley and Dolly Sods have some beautifully desolate scenery.
Post a Comment