I went to the river expecting it to be nice and wet after last nights rain. What a surprise, it was bone dry down there. THe rain must have totally missed this area. I let Nitro hunt by The Big Tree for a while. No strikes so I drove up the middle of the filed until I found the gas guns. I cut him again and walked around for a little bit. I heard him open in the woods so I drove out the end of the field and back down the road. He was treeing when I parked. He was a little weak. When I got in there it was the usual jungle. Nitro was on one tree, the coon appeared to be in the next tree over, but they touched up by where the coon was sitting. Who knows for sure? Anyway I got the coon out of the tree and watched Nitro try to fight it. Just like his mother, he's not a killer & the coon ran off. I grabbed Nitro and moved rather than let him try to work this any more. He was pretty overheated.
I drove back through the corn and near The Big Tree I put him on a hot one. I figured this would be fast so I didn't worry about him being hot already. Well, this coon was a tricky bastard. I actually saw him several times running across the picked strip to the standing strips. finally he came down the picked strip heading for The Big Tree with Nitro not too far behind. Unfortunately I was parked right in the way. The coon jumped back into the corn right in front of me. Nitro bailed in son after. Then the coon came out, circled a bit and ran back up the picked strip away from me. Nitro began to lose it after this. He was dead tired and wasn't making any headway, but wouldn't give up. I thought about walking him up to where I had seen the coon go, but it could have easily been 3/4 to the trees if he kept going that way. I figured it was best to just catch Nitro and get that one another night. Anyway, not bad for a young dog, just the kind of summer night on the river that will make him a lot tougher in the fall.