Hannah/lost and found and more

Sunday morning I checked the weather and it looked perfect for another campout. I took the dogs with me to set up the tent, they saw my backpack and ran next to the car and sat.

I had to laugh and imagine me explaining that No, they were going to help me set up camp.

I usually struggle a little bit in putting up the tent, in the end, I get it done. Instead of using the rain cover, I tossed a blanket over the top vent to keep our body heat in overnight.

I turned around and there was only Charlie sitting on the old camp cot I have. No Hannah. So I called, whistled and hollered. I tried her 'beeper' collar. She always come running to that as it means she gets a treat or a pat on the head.

Nothing.

I grabbed Charlie and took him home on the 4 wheeler and put him in the house so I could run down through our woods and call for Hannah.

I spent 45 minutes calling and then realized that since we are surrounded by 600+ acres on the east and 200+ acres on the west, and hundreds of acres of fields and forest to the south and north -- she could have gone anywhere.

I stopped running around. Hannah knew the lay of the land. She'd either come to camp or go home eventually. When Rich and I would lose a hound while hunting, we'd take our coats off and lay them down at the last place we'd been with our hound. By morning, the hound would have made a bed of our coats and we'd pick him/her up.

I got back to the house to grab my chore flannel off the porch and check on Charlie. He was happy to see me and then he ran to the porch door. I asked if he had to go out when I heard a very quiet 'woof'. It wasn't Charlie.

Hannah was laying on my insulated flannel in the sunshine on the porch. I wanted to yell at her and tell her she was bad bad bad and wished she could tell me what happened. 

I didn't. She was so overjoyed at seeing me. She launched into wiggles and smiles. Yup, she draws up her lips while wiggling and shows her teeth in an awkward smile.

I hugged her and gave her a treat for being so smart as to come home and lay on the porch.

We eventually got back to the campsite and got set for an October camp. It was going to be a chilly night with temps dipping into the low 40's. I figured if we got cold, we could just walk home and go in the house.

We left at 5pm and spent quite a bit of time sitting on the old junk cot watching the fire and listening to the forest around us.

At sunset, I walked out into the meadow and took this shot looking east with the pretty pink clouds and the neighbor's meadow. The line of fog is actually smoke from my fire lingering in the woods far off.

Once it got dark, the temperature started to drop. That is when the first group of coyotes started to sing their hunting songs. Not too far off an owl started to call. It was a different call than the 'Who Cooks For You' but it was a Barred Owl --> I think.

The fire had burned low so I banked the coals and we retired inside the tent. It was only 7:30, I cracked open a book and started to read. My cohorts made a bed on my jacket and some blankets and seemed to be interested in what I was reading.

Around 8:30 I decided to check on things outside before calling it a night. I walked out with the dogs and had them do their thing while I looked at the stars.

I couldn't believe my lucky eyes. The Milky Way had not quite set yet. I kept the dogs collar lights on and grabbed my camera out of the backpack.

I thought that time had run out on seeing the Milky Way, however, it hadn't quite set yet.

I was so tickled and happy, I did a little jig and Hannah did one too. Charlie huffed and went into the tent to make his bed. Apparently he was not impressed.

I could see my breath in my headlamp so I know the temperature had dropped again. I thought I'd take a couple of night camp shots so I could remember our 'night out'.

So the night sounds we heard were really quite beautiful. We heard raccoons chirping in the forest. Yes, they do make chirping sounds! A buck not too far off was grunting which sounds hilarious. I am guessing he was chasing a doe who he thought was in heat.

We heard from the coyotes a few more times but they didn't come our way.

The coolest sounds we heard were from the Barred Owls or perhaps they were Great Horned Owls. The songs were odd but definitely an owl of some kind. It sounded as if a Barred Owl couldn't quite get it right and was trying to sound like an adult.

They kept at it every once in a while until nearly dawn. 

I enjoyed the night noises so much especially the owl 'talk'. It was one of the highlights of my night!

By the time 6am arrived, the dogs and I were buried under layers of blankets together. I got dressed and had to convince the dogs to leave their warm blankets and walk home with me in the predawn. 

We walked through our meadow towards home and listened to the group of Robins that were chattering. They were migrating through and gave us more 'songs' to enjoy on our camping adventure.

The outside temperature at the house was 38 degrees F. Hmmm. We survived!

And, I got a pretty good night's sleep!

[I also want to say that Hannah is a huge scent driven dog. She can track me if I hide from her, a playful trick I used to do to all of our hounds. Charlie doesn't have that sort of scent drive, but he has also learned to stay close over the past 8 yrs.]