April 1 Kingsbury Harriers/Paradise Valley Beagles. Flagstaff, AZ

April 1 Kingsbury Harriers/Paradise Valley Beagles. Flagstaff, AZ

The Paradise Valley Beagles and Kingsbury Harriers combined their packs to hunt on April 1st, April Fools Day. We hunted 7 couple of Beagles, 2 couple of crossbred Beagle/Harrier, and 5 1/2 couple of Harriers.

The joint pack huntsmen were Suzie Stevenson and John Auborn. The whips were Jennie Cure, Colleen Auberle and Jane Baare.

Hounds cast at 8:30 AM on a sunny, warm, very dry day in Flagstaff, Arizona. After about 15 minutes a jackrabbit was seen by a whip, but hounds couldn't find the scent at all. So we knew it was going to be a rough day for hounds.

Hounds hunted North West into an open grassland dotted with rabbit bush and sage. The pack worked well together sweeping and trying to find at every bush. One other jackrabbit was spotted and hounds worked hard and tracked her for a short distance. So we decided to water hounds at a tank and headed for the juniper trees at the fringe of the pasture.

The field saw a jackrabbit and this time the hounds could follow with much hard work. For quite a while we followed this jack up into the junipers climbing the side of Rattlesnake Crater, losing and finding the scent until all the grass disappeared and we only had volcanic cinders on the ground.

Later we found another jack making a break down the hill toward the ranch house with Harriers very close. We lost for a time and then put her up again and she did a 180 and ran back up the hill, so all hounds viewed and Harrier/Beagle cross Herald screamed after her. Again the jack foiled the hounds in the raw cinders, but hounds persisted.

We went for more water, and everyone passed around flasks. The riders from New Mexico handed Adrian a flask of "New Mexico Mix"... Poor Adrian as it was Hatch chiles and vodka. The pack then ran 3 more jacks briefly, as scent was fading fast. We hacked back to the trailers after 3 hours of hare hunting.

Susan Slocum
Treasurer
Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
2910 Centre Pointe Drive
Roseville, MN 55113