Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Disabled hunters gain new access to Potts Mountain
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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Mark Taylor
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Virginia's Wheelin' Sportsmen group is looking for disabled hunters for some special adventures in the coming months. But those guided hunts on private land aren't the only new opportunities for mobility-impaired hunters in Virginia.
The U.S. Forest Service has upgraded a disabled sportsman hunting area on Potts Mountain in Craig County and is taking applications for keys to the area.
The access is a 3-mile-long gravel road that runs along the mountainside, near the Forest Service's public shooting range.
About a month ago I got a chance to check the area out, along with Robin Clark of the Wheelin' Sportsman, project coordinator Rod McClanahan of the New Castle Ranger District and Fred Wells of the Roanoke chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, which helped fund the project.
Potts Mountain is far from the game-rich private land that hunters will experience on the special hunts, but the area has potential.
Workers have cleared saplings and brush to create several open food plots along the road. At the end of the road are two fairly large food plots.
Disabled hunters, who must be non-ambulatory to qualify, will be issued a key to the gate and may drive into the area. To reduce the chance of spooking game at the final two open areas, hunters will have to park a short distance up the road and use their wheelchairs to get to the food plots.
Wide and well graded, the trails are wheelchair friendly. Clark, who was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teen, had no trouble zipping around the area.
Overlooking one of the larger plots is a sturdy wooden blind, which was built by Roanoke teen Scott Staley for his Eagle Scout project. McClanahan said the Forest Service plans to set up commercial blinds next to the other open areas. The commercial blinds should be up by the end of the month, according to McClanahan. Gradual ramps will make for easy wheelchair access into all of the blinds.
The Roanoke chapter of the NWTF, the umbrella organization of the Wheelin' Sportsman, helped fund the project. The NWTF also is helping fund a second Craig County disabled hunter access project that just got under way along Rocky Branch.
For information on applying for access to the Potts Mountain disabled hunter area, call the New Castle Ranger District headquarters at 864-5195.
As for the special hunts, Clark is looking for applicants.
Hunts in this region include a muzzleloader deer hunt in Botetourt County on Nov. 18-19, and a deer hunt in Henry County on Dec. 3.
The application deadline for the hunts is Thursday and slots are limited. To request an application or for more information, contact Clark at (434) 979-6154 or weeeelz@aol.com.
Deer shots sought
With deer season underway, we have launched this year's Internet trophy gallery through our roanoke.com Web site, where hunters can post pictures of their bucks -- or any deer, for that matter.
It's easier than ever to get pictures into the gallery.
Hunters can simply post the pictures themselves through the YourPix system used at roanoke.com for several other photo galleries. To find the gallery, go to the "outdoors" section at roanoke.com and follow the link to the deer gallery. The direct link is buckshots.buzznet.com.
In past years, shots of bucks typically have been pretty slow in coming during the early archery season.
I don't know whether the hunting is better this year or more people are getting digital cameras, but we're getting more shots up than normal for the early season. The deer include a tremendous 17-pointer killed by Brian Lytton of Pulaski on opening day and a hard-earned 4-pointer which Dale Wade of Christiansburg shot with a recurve bow.
If you're still shooting pictures on film, send deer shots to me at The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va., 24010-2491.
New state records
A couple of state-record fish have been confirmed in Virginia in recent weeks. William Milton of Castlewood is the owner of the state's inaugural sauger record, for a 2-pound, 7-ounce fish pulled form the Clinch River on Sept. 5.
The species, a relative of the walleye found only in the Clinch and Powell river systems, was added to the freshwater trophy fish program a few years ago but no fish meeting the 2-pound minimum had been registered.
Milton caught the fish on a live minnow. The sauger was just over 19 inches long, with a girth of 9 inches.
On the other side of the state, Arun Nhek of Newport News pulled a state-record sheepshead from the Chesapeake Bay on Oct. 6. The massive fish weighed 20 pounds, 12 ounces. The previous record of 19 pounds, 3 ounces, stood for just over a year.
Nhek was fishing on the Seagull Fishing Pier, which extends from the first man-made island on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Nhek was fishing near the island's rocks when the fish hit a piece of clam.
