10/11/2008 - Lowell, VT

Date of hunt: 10/11/2008
Location: Doug Duffy's
Weather: Sunny
Temperature 46 °F (Start) 65 °F (End)
Dogs of mine: Bailey
Running Partner: Logan Abell
# of Rabbits Ran: 2
# of Rabbits Shot: 0

Up at a 4:50. Woke up hard, but I was excited to go. Picked up Logan at 5:30, and started towards Lowell. Pulled on to Robtoy Road at 6:30. On the way by Doug's camp I could see an excavator, and their truck in the yard; knew they were there. I passed the camp and intended on driving down to the new camp down near the swamp and start the hunt there. When I got down to the camp I saw that there were cars in the yard. I was a bit surpised because they are from out of state, NC. I headed back up to the main road and continued down to the log landing. Decided to park there, the cover looked like some thick soft woods. We geared up and headed down a logging road towards the pines. Bailey opened up right off, still in sight of the truck. She didn't get this one going. We found a parallel logging road, had thicker balsam cover on the sides. Made our way down that one. It opened up to a small clear cut that was starting to grow back. Had a really thick patch of balsams in the center. I thought it looked like good cover for a rabbit to be sitting. Bailey went in and started barking right off. Ran a hot line right out of the clear cut and back towards to the camp near the swamp. I got really nervous, thought it could be a deer or a moose. She ended up turning and brought the rabbit back up along the edge of the clear cut. Logan headed up to get a view, I think he turned the rabbit. It reversed its swing and cirlced up toward the truck, turned a tight corner and came back to where it was kicked up. Bailey lost it. Never got a chance to see it to get a shot. We worked back through the woods towards the first logging road we were on. I jumped up a rabbit and got Bailey on it. She ran it right back up towards the truck and lost it on the turn. Called her back in and worked the woods back up to the truck. She barked again when we were back in sight with the truck. She couldn't get it going. It was 10:30 at this point, plan was to head out and try Kidder Hill Road. On the way out I could see that the excavator was running and there were people outside. Stopped and talked with Missy and Doug for a bit. RJ was running the excavator, digging a pond near the road. Went up to Mike Nason's camp and tried working around there. At this point it was 65 degrees. Felt too hot, decided to head out. Never made it over to Kidder Hill.