Another Spring Bear Adventure...

[BromBones]

Now, where to start... from the middle?

This hunt promised to be a good one regardless of what animals were or were not harvested. The group would consist of myself, my dad, and two of my uncles - one with his son, and the other with his son and daughter. We had 5 grizzly tags between us and enough blackie tags to void the entire valley of black bears.

A couple Saturdays ago, my dad and I rolled into camp around lunchtime after a long drive through the night. My uncle and cousin had come up a couple days ahead of us, but were out and about when we made it to camp. We set to getting unloaded and organized (sort of), and would have time once we finished to have a quick nap, some supper, and head out for an evening look. There was a little... err, big surprise waiting for us at camp as we soon found out.

Packing some coolers around to the shady side of the shack to store, there was a blue tarp folded up with a couple chunks of firewood sitting on top. Give it a kick, hmmm soft... feels like a hide... unfold it and there was a grizzly hide salted and folded up. The rotten buggers weren't fooling around - two days and they got a big boar down. Dug out one of the paws to have a look - definitely a big bear with a nice set of rakes on him. We covered it up again and went back to work. The boys finally showed up at camp and gave us the story - one I'll relate later on when I get the pics to go with it. They had already seen three grizz - one big, one small, and another one which was now staying at camp with us.






As you can see above, winter still had a grip on the valley, but the hot weather forecast would change that over the week. Until things really start to green up on the slopes, the bears in this valley would always prowl the river bottoms, and walk the old roads grubbing for the roots of their favorite plants. This year was no exception as our first evening hunt showed there were grizzly tracks everywhere in the bottom, and some good ones to boot.

The first morning hunt showed fresh sign where a big grizz had come out of the river and made a 15km march up one of the old roads during the night, and most likely headed back into the timber for his daytime rest. We marked where he called it quits, and planned to maybe catch him late that evening if he continued where he left off - we stayed out of the area to keep it quiet.

[835]

Type faster!!

[coach]

Great start, BromBones. Looking forward to the rest of the story and pictures.

[fester]

looking forward to the rest of this.

[nolimits]

Good start. Can't wait for rest of this story.

[BromBones]

Back at camp around 11 am for a bit of grub, and the boys were up and around though a little slow, maybe from their continued celebration the night before. They had managed to heat a frying pan though, and in a few minutes we were stuffed full of hotcakes, eggs, and bacon. After a nap, I grabbed my pack and me and the dog hiked out to a nice vantage point where I planned to sit and glass for the afternoon.



Stretched out on the lake shore with the binocs and spotter up, I spent a couple hours gawking at the sheep and goats which had come onto the bare slopes to feed. Also spotted a grizz down close to timberline. I watched that bear for about half an hour, and although it was a decent size, I was 99% sure it was a sow, and with that I gave the bear no more attention. 5 pm rolled around sooner than I expected, and as much as I hated to leave my spot, I eventually shouldered my pack and wandered back for a little supper.



After a heap of moose steak and spuds, my dad and I got our gear together and jumped on the atvs to head back to where we had last seen the bear sign from morning. It was about 9 pm that night when we caught up to some new sign - the bear was out again for his evening wander - tracks crossing back and forth where he was doing some excavating for grub. At one point the bear had went back down to the river, so my dad stopped headed down to see if he could spot the bear on the river. I continued on up the road, and didn't get half a mile when I saw his tracks had come back out. I came shortly to a wide bend where the river joined the road, and spotted movement probably a km ahead of me. Quick look in the binocs showed it was our grizz - walking and feeding without a care in the world.

I hopped off the bike and snuck up on foot a little closer. A few minutes behind the binocs showed he was a good shooter boar, tall and lanky with a big noggin and a perfect hide - black on the legs, brown sides and back, and a blonde head & ears. The wind was perfect and with him walking away, and the noise of the river, a brave fellow could have walked up and smacked him on the ass.

I'm not quite that brave, and although a bit mentally unstable, I decided against the swat on the bum tactic. I let him be for now and with the dog at my heels, we scurried back to the bike, started it up, and went back to get the old guy as he had dibbs on the first good bear if he wanted it.

[BCbillies]

Keep it comin' . . . I took the morning off work and have lots of time!

[BromBones]

I found my dad coming up the bank back to his bike, and with a wave and a point back to the direction I had just came, he got that I had seen a bear and hopped on his ride and we headed back towards the bear. We pulled off the side where I had stopped earlier, grabbed our rifles and loaded up. Teling the dog to 'heel', the three of us began moving quietly up after the bear.

There were some sharp drops and hollows nearby that the bear could have been in and been out of sight, so we moved slowly and glassed the edges so as not to move up to quickly and come out on top of him. What seemed like an hour was more like 10 minutes of creeping ahead and watching. The dog knew we were on to something as well, with his nose down and tip-toeing ahead like and old coyote sneaking into the chicken coop. Couldn't help but chuckle when I saw him. But now back to the kill...

I noticed movement on the left about 150 yards up, and a check in the binos saw that there was the bear, down in the gravel tearing up some roots. My dad saw him about the same time, and slid up the bank to our right and chambered a 220 grain A-Frame in his 8 Mag. If the bear would come out broadside, he'd have a good rest and a good shot opportunity. I hunkered down in the open and watched the bear through my binocs.

The bear came out shortly, perfectly broadside. He paused with his head up in the air and I whispered, "Shoot!!", but before dad could settle the crosshairs, the bear turned an continued walking, so we continued on after him. The bear was walking into the wind so we had no issues staying about 100 yards behind him while he walked. There were many times again where he'd drop off the road to dig some more, and then pop back out giving us only a split second at a broadside shot. This little game of cat and mouse carried on for another 10 minutes. It was now about 10:15 pm, and shooting light would end in a few more minutes.

[835]

Hey where are the pics for this installment!!!!!

[35 Whelen]

And......and..........