Just one of those days
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:23 pmI started off the weekend with high hopes of bagging my first nilgai plus getting a wild hog, a few coveys of quail and a limit of redfish. I also was looking forward to scouting this secluded bay that I surmised was full of ducks plus I brought my flounder gigs and was hoping for a few flatties. This was my first camping trip of the year so my gear was scattered and it took me about 2 hours longer to hit the road than I planned. The first setback was my buddies 4x4 suburban with a high rack lost a fan belt then the motor stopped working all together. Nothing we could do about it so we rolled with the punches and I continued onto camp dumped all of my gear then returned to the side of the road and offloaded the suburban and we were on our way. We called a wrecker who came and picked up the suburban.
We arrive at camp and are somewhat bummed because we have sustained 20 mph winds which has muddied up the bay which means sight casting for reds is now impossible. Oh well theres nothing we can do about so we roll with the punches and decide to go scout for nilgai and quail. We drive and drive and drive and drive and all the spots that normally hold quail are barren and we don't even see a single bull or even a nilgai cow and the hordes of hogs have vanished. This is starting to suck. Its starting to get dark so we decide to blow this day off and go drink some beer and throw some chicken and sausage on the pit. We were hunting on a 9,000 acre property that borders the bay and while making our way back to camp the road back is flooded in a spot so I was thinking SOB we're going to have to drive about 20 minutes in the wrong direction then back track back to camp. I then see tracks in the flood plain that looks like will save us a ton of time so I decide to follow them while still being mindful that I can sink really easy if I'm not careful. Everything is going fine when it starts to get boggy but by this time if I stop I'm screwed so I gun it but the salt grass is getting really deep and I high center my Hummer. Its now dark and I'm about 3 miles from camp and I got my 5 year old, 7 year old, my red headed wife and my buddy and his 11 year old son and I just got us stuck out in the middle of a mosquito laden bog. AND ALL THE BEER IS BACK AT CAMP. MFER. All my tricks to get myself unstuck have failed so our only option is to hike back to camp through the bog at night with a bunch of kids. Did I mention I have a broken foot and I have no idea how I'm going to get my only mode of transportation out of the bog? Well we do what we have to do and finally make it back to camp. I clean off the mud, fire up the pit, down a couple of cold ones and start to relax. Well relax as much as I can with my vehicle sunk up to the axles. I wake up the next morning to a beautiful sunrise.
We do some fishing but the water is off colored so I kayak into a back bay and sure enough its full of ducks but the mud is like three feet deep and its full of oysters. I like to duck hunt but I'm not that mad at them. I then go pick up my buddies truck and all the tow rope I can find and slowly get as close to my hummer as possible. I can only make it to within 100 feet of my hummer for fear of sinking the heavy diesel so I pray the combined tow ropes are long enough. I walk it off and have six feet to spare. I hook it up and start to pull but I can feel the diesel start to sink so I stop. I know the only way to get it out is to pop it so that what I do. I back up the diesel where I have a good bit of slack then gun it and tow line pops the hummer out of bog and I continue to drag it for about 100 yards until we're on safe dry ground. Catastrophe averted. We make it back to camp and I just sit and relax and watch my kids have a ball shooting their bb guns and explore in the kayaks. All in all the weekend could have been better but I still got my kids out in the woods. Next weekend is going to rock. Talk to ya'll later.
We arrive at camp and are somewhat bummed because we have sustained 20 mph winds which has muddied up the bay which means sight casting for reds is now impossible. Oh well theres nothing we can do about so we roll with the punches and decide to go scout for nilgai and quail. We drive and drive and drive and drive and all the spots that normally hold quail are barren and we don't even see a single bull or even a nilgai cow and the hordes of hogs have vanished. This is starting to suck. Its starting to get dark so we decide to blow this day off and go drink some beer and throw some chicken and sausage on the pit. We were hunting on a 9,000 acre property that borders the bay and while making our way back to camp the road back is flooded in a spot so I was thinking SOB we're going to have to drive about 20 minutes in the wrong direction then back track back to camp. I then see tracks in the flood plain that looks like will save us a ton of time so I decide to follow them while still being mindful that I can sink really easy if I'm not careful. Everything is going fine when it starts to get boggy but by this time if I stop I'm screwed so I gun it but the salt grass is getting really deep and I high center my Hummer. Its now dark and I'm about 3 miles from camp and I got my 5 year old, 7 year old, my red headed wife and my buddy and his 11 year old son and I just got us stuck out in the middle of a mosquito laden bog. AND ALL THE BEER IS BACK AT CAMP. MFER. All my tricks to get myself unstuck have failed so our only option is to hike back to camp through the bog at night with a bunch of kids. Did I mention I have a broken foot and I have no idea how I'm going to get my only mode of transportation out of the bog? Well we do what we have to do and finally make it back to camp. I clean off the mud, fire up the pit, down a couple of cold ones and start to relax. Well relax as much as I can with my vehicle sunk up to the axles. I wake up the next morning to a beautiful sunrise.
We do some fishing but the water is off colored so I kayak into a back bay and sure enough its full of ducks but the mud is like three feet deep and its full of oysters. I like to duck hunt but I'm not that mad at them. I then go pick up my buddies truck and all the tow rope I can find and slowly get as close to my hummer as possible. I can only make it to within 100 feet of my hummer for fear of sinking the heavy diesel so I pray the combined tow ropes are long enough. I walk it off and have six feet to spare. I hook it up and start to pull but I can feel the diesel start to sink so I stop. I know the only way to get it out is to pop it so that what I do. I back up the diesel where I have a good bit of slack then gun it and tow line pops the hummer out of bog and I continue to drag it for about 100 yards until we're on safe dry ground. Catastrophe averted. We make it back to camp and I just sit and relax and watch my kids have a ball shooting their bb guns and explore in the kayaks. All in all the weekend could have been better but I still got my kids out in the woods. Next weekend is going to rock. Talk to ya'll later.
