Old men on the hill

I promise that I’ll start being more positive after this post but, I wanted to get this video in for my benefit more than anything else. It’s a video of me that Greg took with his cell phone back in November.

Greg and I had left the vehicle and went hunting in our separate ways as we usually do. I was still pretty crippled up from my operation and injuries and moving pretty slow on the hill. The dogs were having an extremely good day on the hill and it was everything I could muster up to get to their points. Needless to say I was very spent on the hill when I saw Greg and the truck on the road below. Like happens many times, as I headed down towards the rig, the dogs locked on point and above me. In the video you can see Grady once in a while in the upper right hand corner. He was honoring Jake. The hill was much steeper than it looks but that wasn’t the only reason for my slow movements.

I was moving in on the point for more than ten minutes before Greg decided to capture me on film and I was moving that slow the whole time. My back and leg hurt so bad that I was trying to encourage the dogs to break point by saying “okay” and “get it”. I really didn’t want to go any higher. As you can see, Jake finally broke and so did Grady. The single hun finally flushed and I was tickled to be done going up hill.

The purpose of this video is to show how far I’ve come since then. Although I’m still recovering, I now have doubled my miles on the hill and I do so without being such a whiner. I wouldn’t have been on the mountain if it weren’t for the dogs. I owe it to them to get to their point and because of them I’ll be able to do it even easier next year.

What won’t get better is the other old man on the team. Jake just finished his ninth year of chasing chukars. He hasn’t lost his love for finding chukars but he has slowed down. His points aren’t quite as solid as they use to be but his heart is as big as ever. Everything he does is for me. Today on our hike he had a point that I saw several times this year. When I first saw him he was on a solid flat back and raised tail point. By the time I got to him he had assumed a sitting position but still on point. His back end is getting weaker and downhill it probably is becoming more comfortable. I’ve never been much for style and I ended up flushing a covey of chukar off this point. Both Jake and I were very happy with it.

Point being, like all my past dogs, Jake has done everything he could to keep me going on the mountain and in return I’ll do everything I can to keep him up there with me. And when the time comes he can’t be on the mountain with me I’ll make sure he is as comfortable as possible. The couch is his whenever he is ready. I sure love that dog and pray for several more years together chasing chukars.