A bear hunt alongside Virginia’s Blue Ridge Parkway was a harmful rescue mission final week when the hunter’s pack of hounds acquired trapped in an icy hole. First responders with the Glasgow Volunteer Fire Department have been capable of rescue all six of the searching canines over the course of two days, and the hounds have been reunited with their proprietor on Thursday, Dec. 29.
“It was a mess,” says Fire Chief John Hill, who led the rescue effort close to Glasgow, Virginia. “We live in a region where people are outside all the time, and we’ve rescued a lot of dogs in the past. But this was some of the most treacherous stuff I’ve ever been in.”
Back-to-Back Rescue Missions
By the time Chief Hill acquired the decision in regards to the trapped bear hounds on the afternoon of Dec. 28, the division had simply completed rescuing one other searching canine. According to a press launch on the GVFD’s Facebook web page, the feminine hound, named “Bradley’s Hardtime Bonus”, had fallen right into a cavernous gap within the floor the earlier night whereas searching together with her proprietor. By the time the volunteer firefighters arrived on Wednesday morning, Bradley had already spent the night time underground.
Hill tells Outdoor Life that the rescue was easy. Five firefighters confirmed up, and considered one of them was lowered into the opening with ropes and a harness.
“She was so excited to see her rescuer descending into the hole where she spent the night,” the division explains within the publish. “The crew from Rescue 2 was able to quickly bring her back above grade with no injuries. She expressed her gratitude with tail wags and licks!”
Little did the rescuers know that this mission merely a warm-up. Compared with the duty they have been about to face, saving one hound from a gap within the floor was a cakewalk.
Trapped within the Wilderness
Hill works full-time as a Ok-9 handler for the native police division, so he’s a canine lover at coronary heart. He’s additionally a former bear hunter, and he’s conversant in the Thunder Ridge Wilderness from his days of operating hounds after black bears. Located off the Blue Ridge Parkway alongside the Appalachian Trail, Hill says the wilderness covers among the steepest and rockiest floor within the space. It’s not simple to achieve or traverse, particularly within the wintertime, when the National Park Service closes the Parkway to automobiles. So when he acquired a name final Wednesday about six hounds that had gotten trapped within the wilderness the night time earlier than, he knew the canines have been in actual bother.
“The [hunter] called and tried to tell me what was going on,” Hill says. “This was the second day the dogs were trapped in there. He had tried to go in to get them that morning, but he fell on the ice and broke his tailbone.”
The hunter, who lives a pair hours north of Glasgow, defined to Hill that his pack of 10 hounds have been operating a bear that Tuesday afternoon. The canines had chased it properly above the path and so they ended up in a treacherous patch of ice-covered rocks. Only 4 of the hounds made it via, and his GPS tracker confirmed that the opposite six have been nonetheless hung up within the hole.
It was after 3 p.m. on Wednesday when the hunter contacted the fireplace division, which meant that Hill and his crew solely had about 4 hours of daylight left. It would take them at the very least a pair hours to achieve the canines on foot from the closest trailhead, so Hill got here up with a greater plan. He known as up the Park Service and had somebody unlock some gates so they may drive on the Parkway. But between the snow and the deadfall overlaying the highway, it was sluggish going. Hill says they needed to clear at the very least 20 timber earlier than they reached the closest level to the canines.
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“The dogs had GPS collars, so we put those coordinates in, and from that point we were only about 250 yards away,” Hill says. “But Thunder Ridge is straight up and down, and there was an inch-and-a-half of ice on every rock up there. The place where these dogs were, they call it Dark Hollow because the sun never shines in there.”
Down in Dark Hollow
Wearing ice cleats and harnesses, Hill and the opposite seven firefighters slowly labored their method up the mountain after which down into Dark Hollow utilizing ropes. The temps have been hovering within the 20s. As they adopted their GPS unit towards the hounds, the rescuers yelled and tried to get the canines to bark however they wouldn’t reply.
Hill was frightened that they’d gotten there too late till he lastly noticed the hounds. They have been nonetheless alive. Two have been caught in a single space, with the opposite 4 trapped additional down within the hole roughly 80 yards away.
“Picture big cobblestones covered in ice. It was slick as it could be,” Hill says. “We could never have gotten in there without cleats and ropes.”
After staging at completely different factors on the steep hillside, the rescuers have been capable of rope up the closest two canines by dusk. As a lot as Hill needed to get the opposite 4, he weighed the dangers and determined towards it. They must comeback the following day.
The solar was shining on the Blue Ridge Parkway once they returned to Dark Hollow the following morning, and the hunters joined in to assist with the rescue. By noon on Dec. 29, the remaining 4 canines had all been roped up from the icy hole.
After greater than 36 hours with out meals or water, the hounds have been chilly and exhausted. Fortunately, none of them had suffered any main accidents. And whereas Hill was glad to reunite the canines with their proprietor, he additionally pulled the hunter apart to ensure he knew the hazard he had put his hounds in.
“I don’t know how long they had run before they got trapped—I’m sure they were worn out before then,” Hill says. “But the hunter that I used to be, we never ran our dogs that high on the ice. The guy coming up here, he just had no idea the terrain he was getting himself into. We had a conversation about that, so I don’t think he’ll be doing it again.”