rcar
06-11-2014, 11:21 PM
At 11:30 today I threw in the towel on a horrible work day and decided on a last minute bear hunt. Living in West Van the only real option was Squamish at this time. I have only hunted there once in the past 10 years...way too much pressure and yahoos for my liking....but it is mid week and I have no choice...
I decided on the far ends of Mamquam for an evening hunt. After a bit of a drive that trashed the paint on my truck I decided to get out and walk a few cuts. I saw a few tiny dumps from yearlings but that was it.
Got back in my truck and drove the road until the end at the dam. About a half mile from the dam I spotted a huge bear walking the road. Decided to spot and stalk on foot. After about 10 minutes I came up to the dam but no bear. On my way back to the truck I saw huge tracks over my boot tracks coming towards me and then off to my left above me I heard something. Jaws snapping and all pissed off about 40 feet away was the bear I was tracking...except he had circled back and was tracking me....and it wasn't a black bear.
I had the rifle chamberd and on safety and the scope dialed back to 3.5 so it would have been an easy kill shot or defend shot but I never even raised the gun. I just looked at him stunned. The huge black bear I thought I was tracking was a Grizz who doubled back on me and tracked me and just sat above me as I walked back to the truck.
What an amazing animal. It was less than 20 yards away and all the hair on its back was raised! It just sat on the ledge and looked pissed off. Here is a photo of the road I took just before I saw him and decided to get out and track him. You can see there is not much room for a bear to hide.
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc412/raycarson1965/UpperMamquam-1.jpg
This was definately a male Grizz. My guess was a 3-4 year old.
Great to see they are coming back to the coast.
On another note I was really surprised to see how tiny the road was all the way to the dam. I would have never guessed there was such a huge construction site with full security cameras off such a tiny access road.
I decided on the far ends of Mamquam for an evening hunt. After a bit of a drive that trashed the paint on my truck I decided to get out and walk a few cuts. I saw a few tiny dumps from yearlings but that was it.
Got back in my truck and drove the road until the end at the dam. About a half mile from the dam I spotted a huge bear walking the road. Decided to spot and stalk on foot. After about 10 minutes I came up to the dam but no bear. On my way back to the truck I saw huge tracks over my boot tracks coming towards me and then off to my left above me I heard something. Jaws snapping and all pissed off about 40 feet away was the bear I was tracking...except he had circled back and was tracking me....and it wasn't a black bear.
I had the rifle chamberd and on safety and the scope dialed back to 3.5 so it would have been an easy kill shot or defend shot but I never even raised the gun. I just looked at him stunned. The huge black bear I thought I was tracking was a Grizz who doubled back on me and tracked me and just sat above me as I walked back to the truck.
What an amazing animal. It was less than 20 yards away and all the hair on its back was raised! It just sat on the ledge and looked pissed off. Here is a photo of the road I took just before I saw him and decided to get out and track him. You can see there is not much room for a bear to hide.
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc412/raycarson1965/UpperMamquam-1.jpg
This was definately a male Grizz. My guess was a 3-4 year old.
Great to see they are coming back to the coast.
On another note I was really surprised to see how tiny the road was all the way to the dam. I would have never guessed there was such a huge construction site with full security cameras off such a tiny access road.