The Loudoun Hunt

November 2002

Hunting Diary

Hacked north on Canby Road to Billy Laycock’s woods along left side of Canby Road. Cast hounds into the woods Melvin opened on a line across the old Leesburg Road heading toward the spring fed creek. The hounds settled on the line working it out but it has sharpened yet. All of a sudden the voice changed in the pack, the pitch rising, the line is fresher and the hounds now own it.

Circling left handed the hounds take us up past the old Civil war trenches overlooking Digges Valley, down to the creek that feeds the pond at Yellowwood. Crossing the creek the hounds fault by the coop at the bottom of Travis Brown’s hill, and work forward into the thicket below Kent’s.

Moving up the hill through the thicket the line freshens again turning sharp left and straight up the hill on the Laycock side. Hounds burst through the fence at the top of the hill in Kope’s backyard dropping down toward the pond at Westerly. The line faults, when a holloa comes from Mrs. Traubal’s.

The hounds are harked onto the holloa, picking the line up again in the pinewoods by Mrs. Traubal’s pond. The hounds own the line again charging through the pines breaking out into the field behind Mrs. Traubal’s house. Working steadily across the field the hounds push into the wooded lot alongside Rt. 704.

Turning sharp right the fox parallel’s the road to the bottom of the hill before Hughesville Road and the driveway at Yellowwood. Turning right again Charlie stays up in the pasture along the driveway crossing the driveway by the pond at the house. Deer are pouring out of the cover in all directions. The hounds stick to their business working clockwise around the pond.

Below the old chicken house the line stops dead. Hounds cast back and the line freshens again along the edge of the water back to the creek feeding the pond. Hounds are in the old Leesburg roadbed pushing toward Travis Brown’s when the line breaks up then turns sharp right into the thicket again.

This time the fox stays in the thicket up to the top of the hill turns right back down toward the wooded cover on Patty’s Hill. Back at the top of Patty’s Hill the hounds break out of the pinewoods in Mrs. Traubal’s field. The hounds with Irish, Halo, Isabel and several young entry in the lead drive toward the stables passing it moving into the front field they cross right handed into the top of the wooded lot along Rt. 704.

The line breaks down on covered ground; hounds are trying to work it out casting forward. The cast works right handed back toward the pinewoods. An open but without conviction, some of the older hounds are not certain, when the line sharpens some. Hounds attack the line and begin to push forward, back into Yellowwood at the top of Patty’s Hill. Hounds are working steadily forward down the hill toward the wet weather creek. Cross the creek into the wooded cover, hounds push forward into Travis Brown’s.

The fox has turned left running north toward the old Leesburg Road and the Civil War trenches. The line faults at the trenches and suddenly freshens in the wooded lot along the corner of Thomas Mill and Canby Road.

Cheer the hounds on through the woods breaking out at Canby Road. The fox has crossed Canby in behind the houses on both Canby and Thomas Mill running parallel to Thomas Mill. Hounds cast forward for about one-quarter mile but the line is dwindling. We cannot get to the hounds to determine if the fox has gone to ground but the hounds have clearly held up as if they are marking. Cannot verify the gone-to-ground, give the hounds encouragement and then pick them up.

The scent is starting to deteriorate. We would like to put hounds onto one more fox to end on a good note. Hack back up Thomas Mill Road to Canby Road put the hounds into the cornfield in Laycock’s. Hounds open almost immediately pushing east out of the corn down to the fence line by the small pond.

The line is spotty but the hounds work it out across the pasture into the cornfield along behind the log house. Push straight through the corn strip and across the open field into the Hume woods, straight out the other side of the Hume woods. Scent is rapidly deteriorating as the temperature has risen sharply in the last half-hour.

Casting forward, the hounds get into another thick wood lot down to the stone wall in the Hume, turn left and the line falters. Hounds have given it a good effort. We have been out almost three hours. Pick up the pack and call it a day, all the hounds are in.

Submitted by T.J.