| We adopted a policy that we have practiced since long ago never to inflate what reasonable expectations are about our hunt quality. That policy is put into practice by illustrating the benefits and consequences to as many facets as we can about our hunts. Late season quail hunts do have adverse weather effects the most significant of which that affects the hunter is road conditions.
Pictured above and below are the best and worst road conditions to expect during a late season quail hunt. These pictures are from January 14. The road above, a gravel road, is easily trafficable during any portion of the winter. The one below, a low maintenance county dirt road, is trafficable when frozen or dry.
A county dirt road truly is dirt alone that makes for mud when the snow melts or rainfall occurs. With low annual precipitation these roads are mostly dry throughout the year. However, it takes only a 1/4 inch of rain to make this road un-trafficable. If that melting snow/ice or rainfall occurs during any one hunt trip it will require the hunter to locate on our membership issued maps the gravel roads to access our lease land. In most cases mud road conditions will require extra miles to travel around. In the worst case of some of our more remote areas such roads when wet will prohibit easy access to our hunting land. During conditions of freezing night temperatures with daily warm-ups above freezing many dirt/mud roads will be easily trafficable until mid-morning or as late as early afternoon. Once the sun warms them above freezing they continue to degrade until they become impassible. The snow covered road conditions shown in the picture above are easily trafficable leaving the only conditions to be cognizant of would be any drifting. The bottom line for quail hunters is that winter road conditions will not stop a hunt, they may cause increased walking as parking spots may not be ideally located near the better habitat areas and trailers should be left at the motel or not brought at all. |
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