10/4/2008 - Milton, VT

Date of hunt: 10/4/2008
Location: Corey Lombard's
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: 46 °F (Start) 72 °F (End)
Dogs of mine: Bailey
Running Partner: Logan Abell
# of Rabbits Ran: 1
# of Rabbits Shot: 0

Alarm went off at 5:45am, the bed felt good, but I was comitted. I had asked Logan to go along with me, and I told him I would be there a little after 6. As I was getting dressed I was thinking about what it would be like if I was getting up this early to go out for opening day of bow season. There wasn't any excitement there. I was however excited to see how Bailey would run alone. I'm not going to miss giving up bow season this year as long as Bailey keeps running like she did up at Dean's last weekend. Let Bailey out of the pen, Remi sure did want to go. I feel bad for her, I wish she was as solid as Bailey is right now. Picked up Logan, he was dressed and ready to go. His alarm went off at 5am, he said he was out of bed at 5:30. He was excited. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts and I got a coffee for myself and a hot chocolate for Logan. We pulled in to Corey's at about 6:40, it was plenty daylight. Put the gear on Bailey and started out along the mowed road beside Corey's. Bailey struck quickly on some scent, about 60 yards from the house, but I coaxed her off from it. I didn't want to run a rabbit that close to the house that early in the morning. Bailey was working really hard, I was happy with her excitement. We walked down the road and crossed over the washout between the two beaver ponds. Bailey was out in front as we worked up the road toward the meadow. Bailey was working really hard at this point. I told Logan that the area was pretty "gamey". It was like there was a light on in the bush and Bailey's nose led her right to it. She went in the brush and started in on a really hot bark. She worked the line about 10 feet and then the rabbit popped out onto the road and ran away from us. Logan got a good look at it, I was beaming from ear to ear. Bailey ran the cottontail trail across the road without any help from me. She kept on the rabbit hard. I wasn't sure which way the rabbit was going to swing, towards the meadow or back towards the power lines. Once I determined that Bailey was running the rabbit back towards the power lines I tried to set up at a "Y" in the road to see if I could catch the rabbit crossing. Bailey was still running solid and popped out onto the road. She worked right up the road toward me and went down the other side of the Y, barking as she went. I must had missed the rabbit by a couple of seconds. Right place, wrong time. Bailey ran the rabbit down into the soft woods and back toward the beaver pond. I caught a glimpse of the rabbit and was ready for it hop out across a pile of blow downs. It stayed in the soft woods a bit longer then I thought and then hit the high grass as it headed back toward the road, where Logan was, and where Bailey started the rabbit. I moved up toward Logan to help him out, but it must had already crossed. Bailey lost out on the trail at the road and that was end of that run. But a FULL CIRCLE! I really wanted to shoot that rabbit and make it the first Official rabbit shot in front of Bailey alone. Oh well, next time. We kept working around the meadow and then back towards Corey's. Bailey found about 3 different rabbits but could never find the line to run it. We packed up at around 9:00, as it warmed up quick, and headed home. Logan enjoyed himself.