Well guys, managed to get out there this weekend and finally make it happen. This dad & son team was taken out by "Dad" of the original "dad and son," the same man that took out Dave "BiG Boar" Marsh (RIP) for his first bear exactly 8 years before. Having read Dave's thread "rookie bear down," (link above) it felt like I was literally following his footsteps. I met him in the same office where he had met Dave all those years ago. I had similar thoughts to those Dave once did as I took in the business attire, the kind smile and soft spoken voice but was reassured by Dave's words and even then was completely unaware of how proficient this man would be in the woods. He told me his go to honey hole for bears was on the island but with it being a long weekend we're likely to spend more time waiting for ferries than hunting. He said he also knows of a spot on the mainland that should hold a decent population of bears but that he's never hunted there successfully and it is more of a gamble. We opted to roll the dice closer to home, made plans to leave Friday evening and confirmed that my 8 year old son would be able to join us for the hunt.
Friday morning came and the work day seemed to drag endlessly, I found myself constantly looking at the clock and anxiously daydreaming about the weekend ahead of us. Finally the time came to head home and finish packing up. We drove over to Dad's and helped him load up the truck, the whole time wondering if maybe we might be loading a bear into it on the way back. We drove to his boat and got it loaded up fairly quickly as we were running out of daylight fast. We made it to Dad's cabin just as it was getting dark and brought in our gear. He told us that we didn't have to wake up early as the bears like to sleep in but I still woke up at 630 and promptly made myself useful chopping firewood. An hour or so of that worked up quite a sweat in my hunting clothes and I began to worry that any bears would wind me from 3 cutblocks over. It also worked up an appetite, time for breakfast. One thing I can say for sure about Dad is that man knows how to fuel up for the day. I made some french toast for Blake and I and made a few extra slices for Dad, he wolfed those down and then started making some egg mcfuffin style breakfast sandwiches. He packed those away and then heated up a big can of stew and didn't leave a trace behind of anything. I was impressed. At about 1030 we loaded up the boat and motored our way over to our hunting area. Unload the quad, spend a few minutes troubleshooting my bow into his rifle clamps and we're on our way.
Immediately I'm seeing scat on the logging roads, a few piles here and there at first but in some places there are mounds every 30 yards. Made it up above the snow line and the green grass and scat petered out fairly quick so we made our way down to a lower elevation. Up and down the spur roads we go, scat and green everywhere but no bears in sight. Going down one particularly steep, rocky road I heard a bit of a pop followed by a cyclical hissing noise..."hey Dad, we've got a leak in one of the tires." Break out the seal kit and tire pump. While we work on fixing that I send my son back down the road to break apart a couple scat piles we had just passed and let me know what they're composed of. Man that rock got us good, Dad sealed the tire and we're still losing air quick. He doesn't think it will work and talk is shifting to what we're going to do for the rest of the day...back to the cabin, try and find a tire repair shop, hunting doesn't seem to be on that list, I can feel my heart dropping by the minute. Dad isn't a guy that gives up though and he tries again to seal the leak. One more try at inflating it as Blake comes strolling back up the road. He says the bears have been eating "yellow stuff" and I assume he means skunk cabbage as we've been seeing quite a bit of that in the cutblocks. The tire is inflated, Dad is looking at it questioningly and saying he doesn't know if it will hold but back on the quad and down the road we go.
Break out the seal kit and tire pump. While we work on fixing that I send my son back down the road to break apart a couple scat piles we had just passed and let me know what they're composed of. Man that rock got us good, Dad sealed the tire and we're still losing air quick. He doesn't think it will work and talk is shifting to what we're going to do for the rest of the day...back to the cabin, try and find a tire repair shop, hunting doesn't seem to be on that list, I can feel my heart dropping by the minute. Dad isn't a guy that gives up though and he tries again to seal the leak. One more try at inflating it as Blake comes strolling back up the road. He says the bears have been eating "yellow stuff" and I assume he means skunk cabbage as we've been seeing quite a bit of that in the cutblocks. The tire is inflated, Dad is looking at it questioningly and saying he doesn't know if it will hold but back on the quad and down the road we go.
Reply With Quote