I did get one nice 24 hour hunt in on December 27th, 2004, the day that horrible rain storm started. I went on a wild boar hunt up at the Tejon Ranch in the Tehachipi mountains. The weather proved to be as much of an adventure as the hunt did, perhaps more so. I gave up hunting public land years ago because there are so few animals on public land and far too many people. This ranch is huge, 270,000 acres, and much of it is totally undeveloped except for a barbed wire fence here and there to discourage the cattle from roaming away.
When I got off the Interstate 5 just over the grapevine, it had not yet started to rain. The winds were awful, and there was a dust storm off in the distance. Later I had to drive through the dust storm, not too far though. The guide met me at the gate of the ranch, and I followed him up a dirt road into the mountains, and at about 4,000 feet we came to the cabin (more of a house, actually, very nice, runs on propane.) By the time we got to the cabin it started to rain. I took one test shot at the target range next to the cabin to verify that my rifle was zeroed in, then off we went in his 4 wheel drive truck. We saw some small pigs, not very interesting, and kept going. At about 6,500 feet we saw some nice big ones, so we drove as close as we could without giving ourselves away. The rain had turned to snow at this altitude. The wind was ferocious, and it almost ripped the door off the truck when I got out. It was so loud that the hog, normally very wary, didn't hear us stumbling downhill in the ice and snow. The wind blew me off my feet twice, an honest 75mph (gusts were clocked at 90 mph on the freeway that night.) For those of you who live in states that have actual weather, this may not sound so bad, but we Kahlifornians tend to be somewhat spoiled by sunshine...[8D]
I got to within 40 yards of the critter before I shot. It was facing me, making a very difficult shot. I should have waited to see if she turned broadside. In between the wind, the branches in between us, the failing light at 4 pm, me shivering and just damnable bad luck I did NOT hit her right between the eyes as planned.[:@] I wounded her, and she got really, really furious.[:-] It was at this moment that I notice that my guide had forgotten his gun in the truck. Fortunately the hog took off in the other direction, or else things would have been very awkward indeed. We tracked it about a quarter mile on steep mountain trails, then a second well placed shot settled things.
When we got to her, it occurred to us that the truck was way up at the top of the mountain. I commented to the guide that he and I need to start hunting UPHILL from the truck instead of DOWNHILL. We decided that the smart move would be to hike back uphill and see if we could move the truck closer. I am so out of shape that the hike back uphill almost killed me. My legs hurt for days and my knees hurt for weeks, but I made it. We drove over the top of the mountain, back downhill a ways, and off road a bit until we came to a cliff. We were not that much closer but there was much less vertical incline. We hiked back to the hog, took picture, and then began the less glamorous aspects of big game hunting. Since the good wife won't let me hang stuffed heads in the house, I left the head there for the coyotes and mountain lions. We normally would have worked together to drag the pig uphill, but the trail was too narrow so we sectioned it up and made two trips. One one of these the wind reached under the hood of my jacket and ripped my hat off, never to be seen again.
On the way back downhill we saw a huge boar in the road and a bobcat. The wind had blown trees down while we were uphill and we had to remove them from the road to progress. Back at the cabin the rain was sideways. We ended up skinning the pig in the walk-in refrigerator because it was warmer than outside. There were three other hunters and two other guides up there and I was told that I was fortunate to have taken one right away, because we may need to evacuate in the morning.
That night the storm raged on, and I was worried that the cabin would blow away, or that the windows would blow in. The roof was leaking because the wind blew rain up underneath the shingles. I slept great because I had earplugs, thanks goodness. That storm brought the second highets amount of rain in recorded history to Southern California. Just yesterday 18 houses were destroyed in a landslide caused by too much leftover groundwater from this storm.
The next morning my guide and I decided to get the heck out of there. He gave me a radio and led the way down in his 4WD (my truck is only 2WD.) He told me not to follow too closely, and that ruts were my friend; you may get stuck in a rut but you won't slide off the cliff if you're driving in a rut.
That was a hairy ride down hill, let me tell you! I almost got stuck once but it worked out pretty well.
Once I hit paved road I drove ~25 miles towards the freeway. I was almost there when the road washed out, and there was a big river going across it. I didn't even think of trying. I turned around and drove about 30 miles to another road that I knew led to the I-5. Sure enough this one was washed out too, but not quite so badly yet. I waded out with a stick to see if there was road everywhere under the water and there was, so I drove across. The drive home down the Grapevine portion of the 5 was nasty too.
Anyway, the hog was about 220 lbs live weight or maybe more, a very nice specimen. I got 106 lbs of meat off it and would have gotten about 120 had not my first shot spoiled a ham.[>:] We had it turned into ham, pork chops, spare ribs and sausage. It is excellent, and everybody in the family loves it, which makes the whole thing worthwhile. It is better than domestic pork - - no hormones, chemicals or antibiotics, and a bit leaner than domestic pork too.
Anyway, it was a real adventure, and I hope to go again in a few months so long as the meat gets eaten up by then!
Here's a photo.
WHATS YYOUR MOST UNFORGETABLE HUNT????
