After spending nearly 3 weeks between Florida and Louisiana, we were definitely ready for some cooler weather, and that’s just what we got as we drove into Texas. We went from muggy mid-80s to downright refreshing high 50s. Our stop for the weekend was the Canton KOA, a newly remodeled RV resort in East Texas just off the 20 Interstate.
Still somewhat of an RV parking lot, the infrastructure was in great shape, and there were some fun amenities to enjoy. There was a dog park, two stocked fishing ponds (with genius fish who would not touch our lures), a BBQ restaurant (which we had to-go lunch from on Saturday), and various yard-type games. Overall it was nice and a relaxing place to spend the weekend.
For this stop, I wanted to share something with Josh and Liam that they were aware of, but have never experienced themselves: wild hog hunting. Like many parts of the country, Texas has a huge problem with wild pigs. They tear up ranchland and cause substantial losses for farmers when they pillage their agricultural fields. Unlike in California (which also has a wild pig problem), in Texas you don’t need a hunting license or tag in order to hunt wild pigs on private property.
After some research on the Googles and the Facebooks I found a gentleman who runs a business helping ranchers manage their wild pig problem, as well as hunters like us, who wanted to “help” in our own way. The plan was to hunt with my bow out of a ground blind in the morning, and if needed in the evening. The blind was in an area known to be frequented by a decent size boar. Josh and Liam were going to accompany me, but not do any of the shooting.
Frank, the operator of Texas Hogs & Wildlife, picked us up at 6am on Saturday to drive us to one of the many ranches he has access to. We had a really nice sit in the blind for about 4 hours, but by the end of the morning we didn’t see any pigs. I’m almost glad we didn’t see anything that morning (at least that’s what I tell myself now) as I think the boys would have gotten the wrong idea about hunting if we had. It really is more about sitting quietly in the woods, taking it all in with your senses, than it is about non-stop action. We had some good (quiet) conversations about a number of different topics in that blind.
After Frank drove us back to the RV resort we grabbed some lunch at the BBQ restaurant, walked around a bit to enjoy some of the other onsite activities, and did a little fishing (also no success). About an hour before sunset Frank came back to drive us to that same blind to sit for the evening hunt. We were in the blind for a few hours, well past sunset, but still no pigs. Frank had lent me a rifle with a thermal scope to switch to after sunset, since my bow would be useless in the dark. My guess is that with the 3 of us, we weren’t quite as stealthy as normal so the pigs probably knew we were there and wanted nothing to do with us. After all, they don’t get to be big boars by being stupid.
Even though we didn’t end up coming up with a boar that day, the boys had fun and I’m really glad they were able to have that new experience. If you’re wondering what Lana was doing while we were out hunting, she was able to catch up on her Netflix documentary watch list (I’m asking if she wants to write a blog post on that but I’m getting head shaking).
The good news is that Frank did stop by the RV park right before we left on Sunday morning to drop off a quartered wild pig that he had recently pulled off a ranch himself. While it would have been great to come back with a pig that we actually got ourselves, this was the next best thing. As I’ve always said, I’d rather eat wild game than factory farmed. It’s much healthier and unlike factory farmed animals who experience horrible conditions their entire lives, these wild ones live the life they were meant to, with only one bad day.
Now we’re off to West Texas where we’re going to stay at two different state parks. With the weather expected to get even colder, I have no doubt that soon we’ll be pining away for those hot muggy conditions we were just complaining about.