Not always rosy.

Chukar hunting, as in all hunting, isn’t always fun. Take the day before Thanksgiving’s trip for a North Carolina chukar hunter, Darin Rice.

I had never met Darin personally, but had several texts and phone calls with him. We were hoping to get together this week and maybe share a camp and talk chukars and dogs. I got the call at 9:30 Tuesday evening that he was hunting over at the reservoir, but it wasn’t about meeting him, but rather if I knew someone that could get him unstuck. I didn’t, but volunteered to go over the next morning and help him out. I left home at 6:30 A.M. and finally got to see him in person at 9:30.

Meeting Darin and his six dogs was a pleasure and what a great group of chukar hunters they are. The getting stuck looked pretty uneventful and I was sure I would be heading back home within the hour. Well it turned out to be not so easy. As the rain started to fall I winched Darin’s van back up on the road using a snatch block to a tree to pull him up sideways or the front end would surely go downhill and the van would roll. It worked fine and he was safely on the road.

So far so good. But it was really raining now. The road was getting mighty greasy and as I tried to back up on the road my truck started sliding down the hill. I had to stop moving or I was going to roll down the hill sideways. Not good.

Still not panicking, we hooked the snatch block to a large rock up the hill and winched the front end of the truck up onto the road and kept it tight while I tried to back out. The back end still wanted to slip on the grease and I was soon at the point that if I unhooked the winch I might lose the truck. Looking the situation over, Darin and I figured the prudent thing to do was walk a mile over the hill where we could get phone service to the Weiser wrecker.

About 2 later Generally (General Lee) came to our aid.

Being that he was the pro we let him make the calls. It took very little time to get my truck back on the road. He just pulled my rear end up while I kept the front end up with the winch until I was on flat ground. Now to Darin. There was no way for the wrecker to get around me so I had to do the winching at his guidance. He also hooked the wrecker to my truck to keep me from sliding.

He pointed out a small flaw in Darin and my hook up. The rock we were hooked to might not be big enough. But it was the only one that we could use as a snatch block. It ended up working,but he was right. We pulled the rock down the hill about two feet before we were through. Had it of started to roll Darin’s van was in the path.

No sweat for me because by the time his van quit rolling I would have still had slack in the cable. But our friendship might have ended there. At the wrecker’s direction I kept the tention on the winch and pulled when he asked and let loose also when directed. Mine was the easy job. Darin had the tough part. He was directed when to give power and when to put it in neutral and let me pull him back. He was told to not touch the brake as I was pulling but how do you not when you feel like your van is going over the edge. He was now in the same place where I was stuck and it seemed like for each inch back he was sliding an inch sideways.

It was a long task to winch the front up and then the back several times until he finally got to flat land but with the help of the wrecker guy we finally got there. No, this isn’t the end of the journey. We still had to back up the two track road 200 yards before we could turn and drive out safely. Once again moving on the sloped and greasy road was a challenge and we had to keep the momentum going funtil we got to safety and that involved some gripping on the steering wheel.

Okay, we’re turned around and ready to head down to the main road. Looking good now. Suddenly, the wrecker truck lets out a lot of blue smoke and makes a terrible noise. He blew his clutch and he was between us and the main road. He also had a loose battery cable. I didn’t realize the cable part, but I heard him tell Darin to slam the hood down when he started the truck and be out of the way. The truck was in gear when he started it because he had no clutch. It all worked well and we were finally down at the road where the wrecker stalled.

Darin and I said our good byes and I had to pull the wrecker to the top of the grade 4 miles away. I finally got him there and he parted with me following. I don’t know what gear he had it in but he left me in the dirt or mud in this case. I got home at 8:30 that night just in time to say good night to my two grandsons who had come up for a early Thanksgiving get together.

Hopefully Darin and I will get together again before he returns home but, by the sound of things he and the dogs are doing well chasing chukars. He mentioned getting 6 chukars and a hun the day after we parted and today he sent me this picture of 8 chukars and a hun.

Makes me excited to get back on the mountain.

P.S. Since I edit Larry’s post, I feel I have the right to add a small note. This guy is making me older by the day. I find myself, everytime he is out, wondering what is next! Keep me in your thoughts. Barbara Szurgot