Hi all,

I just got back from an exciting hunt in southern kamloops. We had one missed opportunity on a beautiful 3x3 and saw three moose including a beautiful bull courting a cow.

Now my questions - we were hunting some mule deer in a very dense forest.. as we pushed through the bush we encountered a very wet dog like smell (what I always assumed to be bear). After about 5 minutes we took a rest in an area with only about ten feet of visibility. Shortly after catching our breath we heard loud stomping .. shortly after this we heard loud grunting. It was clear we had a frazzled bear within about 20-30 feet of us (that we could not see). We decided to slowly leave the area and continue our hunt elsewhere. We had bear tags but were not overly interested in taking one at this point in the trip.

Would you have continued to hunt the area.. investigated the bear.. or left the area?

Second question is what was the smell? Shortly after we found ourselves in an amazing moose habitat and smelled the same exact aroma that we encountered when we bumped into the bear. Do they smell the same or could we have coincidentally smelled moose near the bear? It smelled exactly like a stinky wet dog..

Thanks for any feedback!