Like most hunts, the refrain when Cuz ands Rye met me at Cuz’s house to lead me to the afternoon hunt was “you should have been where we were this morning. We left a lot of rabbits. Why, even Rye already has two. Now we’re going to hunt this back property there’s a big swamp down there in the bottom. We have to leave by 2 o’clock so we can be at the Brown Road hunt by 2:30. That’s a piece of property that I told djmed was on the downhill population wise. But Cuz remembering hunts from two years or so past was convinced that the rabbits were still there. Plus he can ride in a gotor when he gets
Anyway, given the pressing time frame it was only natural that the dogs ran one of the better races of the year and in water stubbornly refusing to give up
The sight of little Lucy, Brag and my beaner puppy, hitting pools of water and coming up swimming trying to keep up with the pack was a sight that had Brag laughing later. Shallow pool, deep pools , squishy ground, mud to your knees, running streams and roadways with the tire lanes flowing with water didn’t stop one (maybe two if they switched rabbits) of the best races I’ve heard in a few hunts. West Wind’s hardwood bottoms and Briar City’s rolling land excepted.
2 o’clock passed 2:30 passed 3 arrived before the beagles gave up and came to our calls after a two hour race.

Brown Road wasn’t so much a disappointment to me since I was more or less prepared. Cuz , after we managed to kill two after walking to near dark, is totally convinced that we need to hunt there next Saturday morning. Brag is right though. We need to hunt the thick bottoms. There just isn’t enough cover in the planted pines and we are seeing more coyote sign. Still, we did have two good races.