Day 3

Hooch and I went hunting today.

We met Jeff at 8 at Thorny's.  He told us how to get to part of coyote flats that we were going to hunt.  It involved driving the truck up that long steep road that starts at the end of the pavement on Snake River Road.  Driving up it was a bitch.  I was really concerned that the tires would get cut on all of the sharp rocks.  That doesn't seem to have happened.

When we got near the top we hunted the flats and a draw on the east side.  We didn't see a thing on the whole way.  When we got back to the truck we rested the dogs and decided to try a little farther up the road.  We drove up and parked at the bottom of a draw.  We walked up the draw and saw nothing. 

As we were walking up the side hill to go back Lucy went on point.  Rowdy backed her.  A covey of chuckar flew up.  I got two with three shots.  Hooch missed.  The dogs retrieved the birds and then went after the rest.  Lucy went on point again and some more birds got up.  It was a long shot for me, but I got one.  Hooch missed again.

We were going to go after the singles, but a couple of people on 4 wheelers drove between us and the birds.  They were the only people we saw the whole day.  At about the same time it started to rain.  It would be impossible to get the truck down the road if it was muddy.  So we hurried back to the truck.  It took most of an hour to drive down.  In some places the truck slide on the loose rocks.

We stopped at the sportsman's access on the way back.  We walked all the way past the pump and back down river.  Lucy flushed a rooster, but I didn't have a shot.  A little later one took off in front of us, too far to shoot at.  The dogs were really tired, so they weren't doing a lot of work.  Rowdy's feet were really sore.

On the long walk back we got rained on a little, but by the time we got to the truck the sun was shining.  Lucy did fine the whole day.  She sure kept up with Rowdy.

For dinner we went to Dave and Linda's.  We had hotdogs and venison chili.  We sat on their deck around the fire pit.  It was really nice.