BEAR HUNTING BROTHERS, PART II: THE CHASE | Houndsman | Nathan Griffin

Nathan Griffin [like his younger brother] is a lifelong houndsman, bear hunter, and commercial turkey farmer in Pendleton County, West Virginia. On this 2nd part of our in-the-field, ride along with Appalachian bear hunting brothers we open with a riveting reading from the memoir of an early-1800's backwoodsman about a bear skin umbrella & hunting with a knife. As we drive the snowy mountain roads in search of a fresh track, Nathan describes various aspects of being a modern houndsman: from dog-work to being a good example, selective harvest and seasons based around wildlife management. We hear about sleeping in the woods, finding den trees, and a wildcat encounter in a rock hole. Of course a major part of any hunt is the food it provides and thus we talk of bear roasts, pies, meat handling and uses for rendered bear fat. And that's just about when we find a track! The dog box is thrown open and the howling dogs are cut loose into the cold mountains. While they lose the track in melted snow, we end up bushwhacking a thousand feet down a ridge to a bear in a tree where Nathan's hounds have joined another hunting party's and Jacob [from Part I] successfully tags out on a beautiful he-bear. From the mountains to the farm workshop, we come together around the Griffin family hearing from both brothers, a wife & their father about butchering, cooking and this truly American folkway. 

Reading from Fourty-Four Years of the Life of a Hunter by Meshach Browning. 

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