Big River Hog Crossing..
Since I heard so many hog squeals, squalls and grunts when I hunted the evening before I drove in the direction of the river to check it out. I already know the lay of the land here. The river banks are straight up and extremely high. However there are two places where there is an angle to the bank and crossings have been there as long as I can remember. The crossings are deer crossings, narrow trails of tracks comes up the river bank and and over the edge.

The Duck and I have hunted on particular crossing for years and we call it the crossing at Big River. When I got to the familiar trail at Big River I did not find at all what I expected to see.

Instead of a deer trail that roughed up the ground lightly I found a deep furrow pounded into the bank and a 3-foot deep wedge cut out of the dirt at the edge. In reality it is a 60 foot ditch!!!

The river bank here at Big River is 60 feet high. The rocks you see in the top left are part of the the river bed. They are a high spot, which is one of the factors that make this a good river crossing. But those rocks should still be under water. This years drought has been disastrous. The river has completely stopped flowing. In the top right of the picture you can see green algae growing in the stagnant river water. Yuck.

These wild hogs are tough on the land. (I know, I've said it before, but the way they punish the land just amazes me.) If you want to get a truer perspective of what the hogs have done to this river crossing here is a pic of it that will fill your screen, Hog Trail At Big River.