Hiking for hogs

When you're hunting and don't succeed you're essentially hiking.  So today was a hog hike of sorts.  It was a great way to spend a morning and did provide some excitement.  A buddy and I started out walking a dried up riverbed, and I mean bone dry.  The sunrise was beautiful to take in as we walked the riverbed.

Some geese were coming off the lake that the river emptied into all morning. 

The reeds were easily twice as tall as a person.  It felt as if we were in a hallway.  

I like this shot as the first rays of sun are just hitting the tips of grass and reeds

Eventually the river opens into the lake.  Waterline was far back and upon entering the clearing there was a coyote walking the shoreline in the distance.  

Well on a couple occasions we could hear hogs in the reeds.  They had trail openings in the reeds that crossed the riverbed.  Here's a couple views of the openings.

you can see how matted down the reeds are.  These are heavily traveled.  At one point we were hearing one so close it seemed like it was going to be bursting out and be less than 10 feet from us.  But it made it's way back in and never came out.  Still gets the heart pumping though.  

Well we decided to try another spot and on the drive over we came across this hog on the dirt road that someone killed and left.  This was big.  Our estimate was 200-250lbs easy. 

The next spot was a mixture of open grasses mixed with thick woods and lots of cedar trees throughout.

Well wouldn't you know we walk in about 30 yards and jump a group of hogs nestled under a group of cedar trees.  There were pigs running out the back end and they were gone as soon as we saw them and was too thick for a shot.  We pursued and jumped a couple more but it was about the same story.  We would be busted before a good shot could be had.  

Here is a monster of a tree.  I put my rifle for scale but it was about 6ft. wide.  

Well that was about the day.  We had hiked for about 6 hours and had to call it a day.  I put some good miles on the Summit pack.  Here it is sloppily stuffed with my wool jacket.  It carried great all day.  

  

thanks for looking