The last week of February Clarence and I packed up the trailer, pulled Ethan from school, and took off for a couple of days of javelina hunting. We had gone scouting the week before and didn't see any javelina, but we were determined to see what we could do. So we went. A storm had come in that week, and the weather was cold! The week before the high was in the 70's. Friday it was in the 40's. We got up early in the morning and started glassing a mountain top. While looking around for some wildlife we discovered that we were surrounded by lots and lots of broken pottery. Upon further investigation we decided we were on top of some indian ruins of sorts. Ethan went on a pottery hunt and found an arrowhead and some realy cool big pieces of pottery. A neat find! The weather turned windy after that, so we headed off the mountain and decided to go hiking. We spent the day hiking and following old tracks, but never found what we were looking for. We hiked until we hit a spot that we couldn't go anymore because of a beautiful big waterfall. It was a neat hike.
That evening we decided to drive around for awhile to find different places to see javelina. We found a great spot to glass from and decided to come back in the morning.
The next morning we went to our glassing location and within about 1/2 an hour found what we were looking for. Yeah! Finally! The only problem is it was a LONG ways away and we would have to drive around the other side of the mountain. We spent another 1/2 an hour making a game plan and figuring the best way to get over there.
We parked our truck and soon set off into the desert to find our javelina. We hiked ALL morning long without any success. We could tell that we were close, but we just could never seem to catch them. Finally we decided we would head back to the truck and regroup. After dropping our stuff off at the truck, Clarence and I climbed this hill to glass back into the area we had just covered for one more look. Within 10 minutes I found them! I couldn't believe it! They were RIGHT where we just came from! It was almost 4, so we decided to give it 1 more try. Clarence and I picked up our bows and Ethan grabbed his gun. We ran as fast as we dared through the desert, over the stream (which I fell in YET AGAIN!) an up the hill to where we spotted them last. They were gone. Are you kidding me? We hiked around for a while and FINALLY Clarence spotted them again. We ran down the hill to get ino position, but Clarence was in front of us and those sneaky little boogers either heard us or smelled us. Clarence was only 20 yards from them, but he wanted Ethan or myself to get a shot. He yelled at us to get ready, but there was no time. We never saw them until one was flying right past us. Clarence could still see the rest of the group, so he ran over and grabbed the gun to get a shot off. But it was too late. Javelina may have terrible eye site, but that doesn't seem to stop them from running away very fast. We hiked around for awhile to see if we could find them, but we never did. Ethan was a little disapointed we didn't get a shot, but sometimes that's jsut how it goes. We went back to camp and loaded up. We may have left that hunt empty handed, but the memories I have of spending time with my hunny and my boy will always be with me. Watching and listening to Ethan was well worth the 15 miles I put on my shoes and the cactus I am still pulling out of my arms and legs. I love that kid, and I'm so thankful I get to be his mom.
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