(the following embed is a soundtrack which might lend atmosphere to this story.... then again, maybe not... up to you if you want to listen to it while you read...... )
wednesday afternoon my dad, sister, her boyfriend and i went up into the ko'olau rainforest to bowhunt for wild pigs again..... this was the first time my sisters boyfriend had ever gone bowhunting... (he is a navy officer on a submarine based out of pearl harbor, ...... went along basically for the experience )... . ..
as usual we drove our jeep up a narrow mountain/jungle road to a place where we pull it off to one side and then cover it with camoflage netting..... we then hiked in the rest of the way to a make shift hunting shelter we have built in the ka'ua crater rim.... it is a bamboo platform built into the trunks of a banyan tree, well hidden, deep in a dense part of the forest above the crater floor.... we erect a canvas tarp over it for shelter from the rain and then suspend hammocks between the tree trunks for sleeping.... it is one of my favorite places to be in the whole world..... especially during a rain storm.....
it was late afternoon when we got there and had everything set up ... . . .. we had just enough daylight left to make one recon hike of the crater floor and see what signs of wild pigs might be there.... . . we hiked down through the jungle and saw movement almost immediately after entering the clearing in the crater floor .... a big sow was about 70 yards away in tall grass.... my dad took a shot with his bushmaster longbow and took the pig down with a double lung shot ..... . after being hit she ran about 30 yards before going down.... she weighed about 140 pounds by best estimate..... big enough to make the trip worth it all by herself.... but we had already to decided to stay until the next night regardless, and keep hunting anyway... . .. . it was dark by the time we got her back to camp.... ..
that night my sisters boyfriend had the priviledge of learning a new skill .... that of butchering and cleaning wild game in the field...... he helped us bleed and gut the pig, and then wrap the carcass in cheese cloth and bag it in a canvas carry bag...... he said he actually enjoyed the experience .. . ...... but i think he enjoyed sitting around the campfire, with my sister, after the butchering was done, and gazing up through the tree canopy at the stars even more..... the last thing i remember about that night was laying down next to where my dad was sitting by the fire with my head in his lap.... i don't even know what time i fell asleep.... when i woke up i was in my hammock and under the mosquito net.... the fire was already out... . .. and it was beginning to rain .....it was pitch dark.... and the air was cool and sweet..... i never felt more comfortable anywhere... . .. . i fell asleep again until morning....
the next morning he and my sister left early, before daybreak, and took the sow my dad killed down to the jeep.... they drove it to waimanalo and delivered it to friends of ours who cook wild pigs for hunters in an emu..... dad and i stayed to continue hunting the next day.... she said that was another new experience for her boyfriend.... moving through a dense mountain jungle in the dark carrying a freshly killed wild pig... ... he may end up going native on us yet.... .. but for now he is still a mariner.... and a submariner at that.... still he did ok.... ..
end of part one...... to be continued......
actual pictures of the area we hunt in.... made possible by a recent dry spell....
and fyi... no.. i am not coming back to this forum... ever.. i am not even looking at or reading any of the rest of it...
i just edited these posts and added these pictures for my friends who occasionnally look back at my old hunting stories....
i hope you enjoy the pics.. . adios and aloha...
__________________ your world is yours, not mine... your dreams belong to you...
you may have touched the stars, but they were not moved...
and though you reach for me, i may not choose to hold your hand...
i may smile.. or i might turn away...........
that morning i woke up ready to hunt down and kill a wild pig myself..... we had coffee and peanut butter on fried toast for breakfast..... got our gear together and then headed out... .. there was a brief lull in the rain that had been going on most of the night.... the sun even came out for a few minutes just after sunrise..... but then the clouds closed up again.... and heavy rains began.... really heavy rains..... complete with thunder and everything.... .. every little low area became a pond and every ravine became a raging river....... but we went right ahead and continued up into an area we knew pigs had been in before during bad weather and began looking for signs..... we followed a narrow pig trail we were familiar with until it split... i took one side and my dad took the other....
as i walked down that trail in the pouring rain under the canopy of jungle trees i realized i was totally alone for the first time since we began this hunting trip..... i was by myself, in a primitive jungle, that wild beasts bigger than i am, call home..... i was moving slowly and as quietly as possible.. listening more than looking.... . i was wearing my usual green camo bdu pants, and heavy lugged boots.... and a ghilly suit top i made myself that looks like a bunch of rags and yarn in various shades of green and brown..... it makes excellent camoflage....
in the past i have actually crouched beside hiking trails, wearing my ghilly suit, where people walked less than 3 feet away from me and never knew i was there..... but this time there was no one else around... i was completely alone .... and though i have been up here dozens of times .. i even became a little scared thinking about it....... but only for a little while.... i reminded myself i have 6 arrows tipped with razor sharp broadheads in my back quiver, and a 40 pound longbow in my hand capable of putting those arrows deep into a pig, all the way to the heart..... ... i also knew that i had a razor sharp marine corps kabar knife in a scabbard worn sideways (apache - navajo style), for quick and easy access, lashed to my belt on my back....... and even though the pig has tusks, that are every bit as sharp as my knife, i still have 2 major advantages over him that assured me i had no reason to be afraid.... .. for one, i am smarter than he is..... and 2... between the 2 of us i am the only one who knows i am there..... and by the time he learns about that.... it will be too late.......
in past hunts up here i always stayed very close to my hunting partner... which was always either my dad or my sister.... though i did a lot of the stalking myself and shot my share of the pigs we found... i still felt like i was relying on my dad and sister more heavily than i wanted to... .. today i wanted to do this totally on my own.... stalk, track down, and kill a wild pig without any assistance or cover from somebody else... . a solitary lone hunter.... or as my dad would say.. i wanted to be "a booger all by myself" ..... .. .. . so far my plan was working...... i was about an hour into the jungle on a narrow brushy pig trail... in a dense rainforest with a torrential downpour coming at me from all sides... dressed in a homemade ghilly suit.... blending in with the jungle around me... .. armed with a longbow and a kabar knife... arrows i had made myself tipped with razor sharp ace broadheads..... i began to feel like i was truly in my element....... and belonged there......
i heard the pig before i saw him ...... it was a snort just barely audible above the sound of the rain hitting the leaves in the jungle canopy.... i moved very slow and crouched down... almost crawling toward the place where i heard the sound until i saw of patch of black that looked out of place among the jungle foliage on the forest floor.... it was a furry black ear... it moved and twitched.. .. ..... and then i knew i had found my pig..... he was bedded down in the brush a few yards ahead of me, and below me beside the trail... .. i moved closer and took up a position off the trail where i could see him and had a clear shot at him if he got up to move.... .i also set up so i had a clear avenue of escape in case he charged me and came back at me .... . .then i waited and watched while the rain kept coming down in buckets..... with my ghilly suit pulled up over my head i was pretty certain he would never see me hiding in the brush..... with the heavy rain it would harder for him to smell me there as well.... now it was just a matter of waiting until he made a move and presented me with a shot at him...
end of part 2... to be continued with part 3.....
we finally had a dry sunny day up there.. in fact... a whole month of them... so i went up got some real pictures.... june 24,2010
at least now you can see some of what i'm talking about when i describe the area up there...
usually there is twice this much vegetation and it's very wet and dark.... like the painting above shows..
__________________ your world is yours, not mine... your dreams belong to you...
you may have touched the stars, but they were not moved...
and though you reach for me, i may not choose to hold your hand...
i may smile.. or i might turn away...........
(yeah i know... another silly sountrack... but this actually fits... it is exactly the way the jungle sounded at this point and time in the story.... it tales me back just listening to it.... )
about an hour went by... maybe more.... and then the rain stopped.... and soon after that the mosquites began buzzing around .then the crickets started chirping.. ... .. .. the nice thing about heavy rain, in the jungle, is that it temporarily pins the mosquitoes down and takes them out of action.... but when the rain stops, and all that is left is water dripping from the tree branches into the pools and puddles left behind, the mosquitos come back with a vengence..... i watched the spot where the pig was laying in the brush... now the whole top of his head was visible with his 2 black furry ears pointing up and twitching every few seconds....... . i could hear him breathing..... i could also see mosquitoes beginning to swarm around his twitching ears.... ... .
i waited.. .watching ... arrow nocked.... . . and then he stood up.... and just like a football fan standing up to stretch before going to the snackbar during halftime... this pig stretched.... arching his back and strethcing his legs back...... and pointing his snout up at the sky..he stretched and snorted... .... .he was about to move... . .. but it wasn;t going to be the kind of move he had envisioned... .. by standing and stretching he had already given me my clear shot... . ..
i had my arrow nocked from the moment i had taken up position in the heavy rain....... .. and now while the crickets were chirping and mosquitoes buzzing around i rose up on my knees and came to a full draw with my bow.... arrow aimed right behind his left shoulder....... i let the arrow fly and it made contact a second later, hitting him hard behind the shoulder and sinking in to the fletching.... it is a sound every bowhunter knows and loves to hear.... the satisfying thud of a clean and solid arrow shot, sinking home.....
the pig let out a shriek and squeeled then bolted forward, through the brush, away from the trail i had been on..... .. . instantly i was on my feet chasing him.... but i had little chance of catching him while he ran...... he disappeard in the brush ahead of me.. .. . . .all i could do was run and follow the bloody path he cut through the brush ........ .. . about 40 yards ahead of me... i heard a splash and the sound of something big thrashing around in water.... . .i kept running until i found a shallow ravine flooded by the heavy rain.... there in the middle of it..... surrounded by a widening patch of red water.... was my pig..... he was still struggling, trying to get his feet under him..... .. but stumbling and beginning to slow down... breathing hard and snorting blood out his snout...... . healthy he could have easily splashed through that water and climbed up the far bank and escaped.... but not with an arrow embedded in his heart...... he was finished ...
i waited until he stopped moving and was certain there was no life left in him... ... then i waded into the water... grabbed him by one back leg and dragged him out up onto the dry ground..... .... . he looked to be about 50 or 60 pounds.... pitch black all over.. furry... .. .. . his tusks were short, barely poking out from his mouth, but razor sharp nevertheless....... ..
at that moment i became aware of 2 things i had not noticed before..... i was breathing heavily... almost hyperventilating.... and my heart was racing, ... pounding, like it wanted to burst through my chest........ some of it was due to the brief sprint through the jungle foliage chasing my wounded pig... but the rest was pure excitement.... and intense satisfaction .... knowing that i had done this myself..... no one helped me or backed me up this time.... no one spotted this one for me and then helped herd him into killing range... ... and no one had to take a second shot to finish what i had started .. .. .. i took this pig alone......
without even thinking about it i took a deep breath and called out for my dad as loud as i could.... followed by... "i got one" ...... . for all i knew he could have had a pig ready to shoot at that very moment and i had just scared it off with my yelling.... but i didn't think about that until it was too late.... as it turned out he had already shot another pig and dragged it back into camp during the heavy downpour....... he heard me calling and called back .. ... .within about 20 minutes i saw him coming through the brush towards me....... i don't know which one of us was smiling bigger... but it would have been hard to judge..... .. .
end of part 3 .. .. . . to be concluded in part 4....
more real pictures from the hunting grounds... the one below is where the pig was hiding just before i shot him.... the one on the bottom is the creek and ravine where the pig ended up after he was shot and ran away.. . ofcourse there was a lot of water in it on that day... today it is kinda dried out waiting for the next rain storm..... ....
__________________ your world is yours, not mine... your dreams belong to you...
you may have touched the stars, but they were not moved...
and though you reach for me, i may not choose to hold your hand...
i may smile.. or i might turn away...........
we hung the pig up in a tree by his back legs, right there by the ravine i had pulled him out of... bled him and gutted him... and then i dragged him back to camp.... dad would have carried it, but i protested and insisted on doing it myself.... that is something my sister and i have done many times up there by ourselves, and i wanted to prove to him that i could do this totally by myself, if i had to .. .. . .. . .....
it began to rain heavy again on the way back .... by the time we reached camp it was another thunderous downpour... ... it made washing the mud off the pig easier.... getting him, and the other pig, into the cheese cloth and the canvas bag was just a step short of swimming with them at the beach....... finally when all that was done i cleaned up my bow, quiver, and arrows and stored them in a dry part of the shelter.....
then back out in the downpour i took off my ghilly suit top and washed it out in the pouring rain..... i cleaned my knife really well too, scrubbing it thouroughly ...(something i would be glad i did later).. .... standing there in my camo bdu pants, in a tank top.... under a torential downpour... muscles in my arms and legs pumped up and slightly achy from dragging that beast into camp.... i was feeling like the true warrior jungle girl.... like i could have come up here and done all this totally by myself with no one to help me.... not that i didn't love my dad being up there too, or didn't want him to be with me... ...... he is the whole reason i got into bowhunting and started doing this kind of stuff... .. besides i know my dad.. and i knew that he was just as proud of me at that moment as i was of myself..... it just felt good to know that i could do this kind of stuff on my own if i had to......
then i did something really stupid... ..
i tried to put my knife back into it's scabbard on the back of my belt...... i can't see it back there... so it is just a matter of carefully placing the tip of the blade in the sheath and sliding it in.... ... .. . easy enough if i am being careful..... well i wasn't being that careful.... it was pouring rain... my hands were wet... the knife was wet.... the scabbard was wet.... . while trying to slide it back into the sheath it slipped out of my hand and stuck me..... actually cut a deep slice in my skin about 4 inches long and 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.... maybe a little deeper ... (i can't see it without a mirror) .... . the razor sharp blade cut right through the seat of my bdu pants and cut me directly across the right butt cheek.. .. at an angle.... .... ... that's right... i feel stupid... at the very moment i was feeling this great triumph of having hunted down and slain a ferocious beast in the jungle all by myself...... i let a knife slip out of my hand and i stuck myself in the butt with it..... ok....... . there i said it... .. i feel stupid...
my dad didn't even know what had happened.... i didn't yell or scream... or cry... at least not yet... not at that point and time anyway..... i said... "daddy.. i think i just cut myself" and i went towards him and turned the recently offended area towards him for inspection... .. i felt more embarassed than hurt at that point.... embarassed that i had done something so stupid... i couldn't tell how bad the cut was.... .. .
dad looked at it and said in a very serious voice..... ... "yeah.. baby girl... i think you have" .... and immediately began trying to stop the bleeding.... i wasn't aware of it, at the time, but it was actually bleeding a lot..... my dad retrieved a suture kit that he always carries with him in the jungle.... i unceremoniously stripped off my bdu (there is nobody else out there anyway)... went under the protection of the canvas shelter and he went to work to fix the damage i had done to myself.....
it was not the first time i have had stitches.... and not even the worst most critical time... not by a long shot.... but it was the first time my dad ever sewed me up.... and unlike prevous times in the ER this time it was done without any anesthesia.... i wasn't in the least bit worried about my dad doing it.. he knows what he is doing ...... he has sewed himself up before after mishaps in the brush and also without the benefit of anesthesia.. . .. he did have a bottle of betadine though (a disinfectant) that he keeps in his first aid supplies, and he expended the whole bottle on my backside before going work with the needle and thread..... it burned ...... bad...
so as one of our most successful hunting trips ever came to a close.... and on the heels of the best most satisfying kill, i ever made on a wild hog, totally by myself.... under a canvas tarp.. in a torrential jungle downpour the quality of a monsoon... .. i was stretched out over my dads lap, ..like a little kid getting a spanking.. having stitches put in my butt on account of my own carelessness..... .. .. i started crying.... i tried laughing about it a few times..... dad was trying to get me to laugh about and to see the humor in it... telling me stories of dumb things he ahd done to himself like that.... . .but in the end i did more crying than laughing...... a lot of crying....
when it was all over i laid down... (on my stomach.. not my back) on the bamboo floor of the shelter, under the canvas tarp and had a mini-pity party over my recent misfortunes while the pain from suturing subsided, and my dad got all the gear packed and ready for us to hike back down to where my sister would pick us up later that afternoon..... she had left us her iridium satelite phone (the only kind that works up there) .... he used it to call some friends to come up and help carry the two pigs and extra gear down to the road.....
then later that day when his friends arrived and it came time to go... dad backpacked me out on his back so i wouldn't have to walk..... . ..i didn't protest or even feel embarassed about it .... i just buried my face on the back of his neck, hugged him tight, and thanked God i still have him .............
below is another one of the remote waterfalls i occasionally bathe in when we are up there...
it's dry in this picture but when we are not having a dry spell it has tons of water coming down
and a pool at the base big enough to submerge in.... .
this is razor grass..... the reason cullottes.. (or cluglottes).. and bare legs don't work in the rainforest... .
so here i am today..... laying across my bed on my stomach.... typing on my antiquated and painfully slow laptop...... (not going to be sitting in a chair today.... thank you) ..... occasionally gazing out the sliding glass doors, of our 39th floor apartment.. at what is turning into a beautiful day outside..... the sun is shining.... the ocean is gorgeous .... especially from up here...... i can see waves breaking and surfers having the time of their lives riding those waves in the warm and inviting hawaiian sun..............
i am stuck indoors today but i have the AC full blast blowing directly on me...... and yes... directly on a certain recently stitched part of my body that is now hurting like it never did yesterday when the reason for the stitches happened....... pain meds are just now starting to work again.... ..... planning on reading and playing the stereo... really loud if necessary...... and eating cheddar/jalapeno cheetos and dr pepper......... all day...... until somebody comes home from work that i can beg into giving me an emu oil massage......... .....
yes it is a very crazy life...... but i just happen to be very crazy.... some days more than others... . ..... so i guess i earned it.... ....
__________________ your world is yours, not mine... your dreams belong to you...
you may have touched the stars, but they were not moved...
and though you reach for me, i may not choose to hold your hand...
i may smile.. or i might turn away...........
What an AWESOME story....WHEN are you going to listen to me and write a book.
And, I have to admit, (and I'm sorry) but I SCREAMED laughing at the mental image of you cutting your butt. I feel sorry for you, but the way you told it is HILARIOUS!
Hunting magazines would pay for your work. Seriously.....write. it is your gift.
What an AWESOME story....WHEN are you going to listen to me and write a book.
And, I have to admit, (and I'm sorry) but I SCREAMED laughing at the mental image of you cutting your butt. I feel sorry for you, but the way you told it is HILARIOUS!
Hunting magazines would pay for your work. Seriously.....write. it is your gift.
.
She should write a book
__________________
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Isn't having a smoking section in a restaurant like having a peeing section in the swimming pool?
Loved the story! You are a very good writer. I agree, you should submit that story to a hunting magazine.
I laughed too at your mishap also, your Dad sewing you up, he should have spanked you while you were in that position LOL
In the middle of a rainforest, no one around except wild animals you are hunting, you folks are kinda goofy. Sounds like fun. That's a compliment! I am always getting myself into strange situations too..
Thanks for the advice on Boar hunting. I will get a hunting license, they have free classes. Without the license, I would have to butcher the boar we kill, and I don't want to do that. The Meat Shop won't butcher "illegal" pigs. Your tips to cut the pig up if he is too heavy to carry back is appreciated.
We have many friends like us who buy organic meat sometimes, who also want to go out and kill a few pigs. A couple from our church has wild boards on their property, they can be dangerous as you know and many people up their way love others to come and kill them off. It will be a drive and a hike, I hear the pigs only come out at night. We will give much of the meat away.
__________________
2Ti 2:24-26 the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
"if the trumpet give an unCertainSound what shall the righteous do?" www.CertainSound.com
no... sorry..... that area ruins cameras..... too much moisture .... when we go up there we have to hike in pretty far through dense and muddy stuff.... we don't carry anything not absolutely necessary... . coz what goes in has to be carried back out plus whatever we kill while we are up there.....
i hiked up there once before, years ago, with a waterproof disposable camera... and took pictures of that area.... .. most came out ok...
but then once we went over the crater rim and descended down into the crater itself it got really dark and foggy and no pictures came out at all..... i haven't been up there with a digital camera.... but then that is the kind that would be ruined up there instantly... .....
i am not posting pictures of my stitches.. ...
but i will post these... pictures taken very close to where our shelter is...
i am not posting actual pictures of that coz you never who might be looking
at this trying to figure out where it is for less than charitble reasons....
even in paradise and the remote rainforest jungle security is a constant concern....
__________________ your world is yours, not mine... your dreams belong to you...
you may have touched the stars, but they were not moved...
and though you reach for me, i may not choose to hold your hand...
i may smile.. or i might turn away...........
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this weeks' pig hunting adventure....
and i went up into the ko'olau rainforest to bowhunt for wild pigs again..... this was the first time my sisters boyfriend had ever gone bowhunting... (he is a navy officer on a submarine based out of pearl harbor, ...... went along basically for the experience )... . ..
... that's right... i feel stupid... at the very moment i was feeling this great triumph of having hunted down and slain a ferocious beast in the jungle all by myself...... i let a knife slip out of my hand and i stuck myself in the butt with it..... ok....... . there i said it... .. i feel stupid... 
..... planning on reading and playing the stereo... really loud if necessary...... and eating cheddar/jalapeno cheetos and dr pepper......... all day...... until somebody comes home from work that i can beg into giving me an emu oil massage......... 
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