The 40 minute pepperoni bear

[45freezer]

This won't be a super photo heavy thread like they usually are. I've received criticism about photos being too graphic for a public forum before so I'll mostly stick to the story this time despite having some interesting photos of the damage properly tuned arrows are capable of inflicting. Pour yourself a coffee (or bourbon) for this one though!


So last season I had gone out a few times in April but was too early. I went out again with my son on May long weekend and found no bears but loads of one to two week old sign. We went out again in June and I tagged my spring bear then but from what I had seen the 2nd weekend of May should be a real party in the burn I hunt. It seems as though I was right!


My 2020 spring bear season began last Thursday. I had loaded up my pack the night before with the intentions of taking Friday off, I planned to leave work early Thursday so I could drive the 3.5 hours to my hunting spot, make the hike up into the bear sanctuary, drop camp and hunt the following 3 days, returning Sunday. The ultimate game plan was to rinse and repeat every weekend or two until I connected. I filled up a jerry can, made sure I had everything I needed to be fully self sufficient for both the hunt and the trip there and back and made the drive up in the early May heat with Ted Nugent's "Fred Bear" playing in the background for a touch of extra good luck.




I arrived at the trail head around 3:45, I knew I should fuel up before starting my hike so I powered back a blueberry bagel, pounded back some water, refilled my bottle from the creek and took a quick inventory to triple check that I had everything before hiking in. I locked up the vehicle, strapped on my pack and at 4:20 I started the grind up to the top of the same burn I had hunted the previous spring.


It's a relatively short hike to the top, only 2.5km as the crow flies up an old fire road but it's steep in sections and really overgrown. The first km is very damp, shady alder patches with a lot of elevation gain and in my experience the bears don't hang out down there. With a pack full of gear and the steep nature of the terrain it generally takes me 20-30 minutes to cover that, once I'm passed that the terrain opens up quite a bit and that's where the burn begins. Imposing stands of towering ponderosa pines scarred by a fire that blazed through over 16 years ago dominate the hills up here, many bearing claw marks from countless bears over the years. At the right time of spring it's not uncommon to find "bear piles" every 20-30 yards as well as winter moose nuggets with the odd spring moose patty thrown in for good measure. The cutblocks are filled with mule deer droppings and in spring the muley does are dropping fawns in the area. Just before I hit the bottom of the burn I spotted some discarded bottles and trash at a pullout and took note, figuring if I came out empty on Sunday I would load that up and bring it with me. I broke the alders and began to feel the sun at the base of the burn, it was a beautiful afternoon but I figured it was pretty warm for a bear to be out right now, for the time being I would just focus on getting to camp, making a water run, then hunt the evening and get some morel/shed hunting in come morning.


About 50 yards past the base of the burn the thimble berry bushes start and they provide a bit of a tunnel with some pretty lush grass. I saw right away it was all nipped down. Another 30 yards and I saw a good sized loaf on the ground, not crazy fresh but from the past few days for sure. I walked about 20 more yards and was approaching a bend in the fire road which would begin to bring me up above the bottom of the burn. The road has 4 switchbacks, gaining elevation the whole time. There are stands of ponderosas, cutblocks with "Christmas tree" reprod as well as alders and thimble berries lining the roads with grassy landings here and there. As the road began to curve I noticed a black shop glove on the ground and thought to myself "hey those are the same gloves I use, someone must have processed one here recently." As I was shaking my head at the fact that they couldn't be bothered to bring out their trash with them and making another mental note for the way down I began to hear what sounded like the initial static of a lighting bolt to my right. I looked up and through the brush I saw something black shimmying up a tree under 30 yards away. Hmm that looks like a bear...already though?? I nocked an arrow and slowly walked to my left and cleared the brush. I must have bumped the bear off the road and it ran to the timber and hit the closest tree...maybe it's a sign my beard is getting a bit long and I'm starting to look like a hound dog.

The sound I heard was it running up the bark of an unburned pine, the black fur against the lighter bark stood out and I could see that it wasn't a huge bear. I watched it staring at me with drool pouring out of its mouth, it huffed a couple times and popped its jaws at me, 2 or 3 times it tried to climb down but I was able to scare it back up each time. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to shoot this bear and I had to be sure there were no cubs around, this was most definitely a "pepperoni bear" as they say and I knew it was either a young boar or a sow. I listened carefully and watched the surrounding trees just in case for what seemed like an eternity but I was in no rush. I didn't necessarily want to end my hunt already but I also knew there was a good chance I could hunt the 3 days and only see sows with cubs or nothing at all, don't pass up anything you would shoot on the last day right? Especially when you have two tags and you're in the fawning zone. I also considered the pack out, this would be much easier than a big slob from the top of the burn with all my camp gear. After a while of facing off and listening to the stillness of the forest aside from the bear's occasional huffs and jaw popping I decided I would take this bear, I have 2 tags anyway and with a bit of a top up to the freezer I can be much more selective with my second tag...