45freezer
10-22-2018, 01:56 PM
So...took my 9 year old out for a weekend bow hunt and a couple questions arose over the weekend.
Got to the bottom of the mountain bright (more like dark) and early Saturday morning and as I pulled in to where we usually park I spotted a group of chickens 30 yards away...no not ditch chickens, farm chickens. Nobody around, crown land, not shy at all. Not sure if this is normal but was the first time I've seen that out in the bush. Oh well, we're looking for something a bit bigger and blacker.
Slowly made our way up the mountain with camp on our backs, some crazy steep sections but the kid was a trooper and didn't complain at all. Bumped a doe about halfway into our hike but no action other than that. Set up camp for the night while he searched for dead standing trees, it's starting to get a bit chilly at night and a good fire would definitely make or break things. First time trying trioxane as a fire starter, don't think I'll use anything else from now on. Dehydrated mac & cheese, a couple rounds of smores and we're ready for bed.
Woke up around 3:30 freezing cold and brought the fire back to life, was going to go back to sleep but the stars were so clear I set up the camera for a time lapse and boiled some water for a coffee and oatmeal. Love the early morning silence of the mountain and glad I can get out and enjoy with my son it even if it's not as often as I would like.
Wind was fairly consistent so I took a stroll and got set up for first light while the boy slept. The squirrels were extremely active but that's about it. Back to camp to throw a couple more logs on the fire, warm up and make the boy some breakfast.
Packed up camp and began to slowly make our way back down the mountain just as the wind started to blow back up at us. The hike down went a lot quicker than the way up and a few hours later we were closing in on the truck with no action whatsoever on the way down.
Having been up since 3:30 I was pretty tired and let my guard down on that final stretch which for the most part is generally pretty devoid of wildlife...I caught myself staring at the ground while walking and looked up to see a decent sized bear 50-60 yards away standing in the middle of the path staring at me broadside. Had my bow in hand but my trekking pole was in my release hand, I stopped walking and slowly went to place my trekking pole on the ground to free up a hand to get an accurate range on him.
As soon as I crouched to put it down he turned and ran about 30 yards down the road and cut into the bush. Fairly thick stuff and I lost sight of him right away. Immediately blew some distress calls to see if I could get his interest again but he seemed set on crashing off into the timber. Spent the next half hour or so trying to call him out and get another glimpse of him before we had to head back to the city and drop the youngster off at his moms, the bears instincts prevailed though.
Sometimes hindsight is 20/20 but other times it's even more blurry than it was to begin with. Definitely some concrete lessons learned...stay focused at all times, stay ready to get a range/shot off at any given moment and don't listen to anybody that says there's no point hunting bears in the morning/early afternoon. Last night I couldn't help mentally going over the scenario though and what I could have done differently. In retrospect, distress calling was probably a bad idea and only educated him to calling, also I wasn't able to listen and get a better idea of where he ran to...another lesson learned.
I considered maybe I should have stayed totally still until he began walking again and let him relax so I could try and put a stalk on him. Also could have tried dropping down on my hands and knees and pretending I was a bear myself. I've heard of people treeing bears, might be a bit unorthodox but I guess it couldn't have hurt to take chase barking like a dog. Hard to know what exactly to do when you've never experienced these situations first hand, the one bear I have shot had no idea I was there and walked right into shooting range while giving me what seemed like all the time in the world to get set up. I know knowledge comes with experience but thought I would see if anybody here has any insight on what I could have possibly done differently in case a similar situation comes up in the future or any advice on tracking this guy down in the future...this can be a very busy area on weekends and I highly doubt he would be spooked out of the area on my behalf. Also curious about the chickens, I know pigs are fair game when they're on crown land without any farmer around but haven't heard anything about chickens.
I don't think many people would go grocery shopping if as soon as they finally found what they were looking for it ran away before they could get it in their cart, this is exactly what keeps me coming back out for more though. Not having any kind of real mentor really makes this the ultimate puzzle, glad there are resources like this to bounce ideas off people that have been doing it for years. Will certainly be back out trying to catch up with this guy over the next few weeks, hopefully he doesn't get turned into pepperoni before then.
Got to the bottom of the mountain bright (more like dark) and early Saturday morning and as I pulled in to where we usually park I spotted a group of chickens 30 yards away...no not ditch chickens, farm chickens. Nobody around, crown land, not shy at all. Not sure if this is normal but was the first time I've seen that out in the bush. Oh well, we're looking for something a bit bigger and blacker.
Slowly made our way up the mountain with camp on our backs, some crazy steep sections but the kid was a trooper and didn't complain at all. Bumped a doe about halfway into our hike but no action other than that. Set up camp for the night while he searched for dead standing trees, it's starting to get a bit chilly at night and a good fire would definitely make or break things. First time trying trioxane as a fire starter, don't think I'll use anything else from now on. Dehydrated mac & cheese, a couple rounds of smores and we're ready for bed.
Woke up around 3:30 freezing cold and brought the fire back to life, was going to go back to sleep but the stars were so clear I set up the camera for a time lapse and boiled some water for a coffee and oatmeal. Love the early morning silence of the mountain and glad I can get out and enjoy with my son it even if it's not as often as I would like.
Wind was fairly consistent so I took a stroll and got set up for first light while the boy slept. The squirrels were extremely active but that's about it. Back to camp to throw a couple more logs on the fire, warm up and make the boy some breakfast.
Packed up camp and began to slowly make our way back down the mountain just as the wind started to blow back up at us. The hike down went a lot quicker than the way up and a few hours later we were closing in on the truck with no action whatsoever on the way down.
Having been up since 3:30 I was pretty tired and let my guard down on that final stretch which for the most part is generally pretty devoid of wildlife...I caught myself staring at the ground while walking and looked up to see a decent sized bear 50-60 yards away standing in the middle of the path staring at me broadside. Had my bow in hand but my trekking pole was in my release hand, I stopped walking and slowly went to place my trekking pole on the ground to free up a hand to get an accurate range on him.
As soon as I crouched to put it down he turned and ran about 30 yards down the road and cut into the bush. Fairly thick stuff and I lost sight of him right away. Immediately blew some distress calls to see if I could get his interest again but he seemed set on crashing off into the timber. Spent the next half hour or so trying to call him out and get another glimpse of him before we had to head back to the city and drop the youngster off at his moms, the bears instincts prevailed though.
Sometimes hindsight is 20/20 but other times it's even more blurry than it was to begin with. Definitely some concrete lessons learned...stay focused at all times, stay ready to get a range/shot off at any given moment and don't listen to anybody that says there's no point hunting bears in the morning/early afternoon. Last night I couldn't help mentally going over the scenario though and what I could have done differently. In retrospect, distress calling was probably a bad idea and only educated him to calling, also I wasn't able to listen and get a better idea of where he ran to...another lesson learned.
I considered maybe I should have stayed totally still until he began walking again and let him relax so I could try and put a stalk on him. Also could have tried dropping down on my hands and knees and pretending I was a bear myself. I've heard of people treeing bears, might be a bit unorthodox but I guess it couldn't have hurt to take chase barking like a dog. Hard to know what exactly to do when you've never experienced these situations first hand, the one bear I have shot had no idea I was there and walked right into shooting range while giving me what seemed like all the time in the world to get set up. I know knowledge comes with experience but thought I would see if anybody here has any insight on what I could have possibly done differently in case a similar situation comes up in the future or any advice on tracking this guy down in the future...this can be a very busy area on weekends and I highly doubt he would be spooked out of the area on my behalf. Also curious about the chickens, I know pigs are fair game when they're on crown land without any farmer around but haven't heard anything about chickens.
I don't think many people would go grocery shopping if as soon as they finally found what they were looking for it ran away before they could get it in their cart, this is exactly what keeps me coming back out for more though. Not having any kind of real mentor really makes this the ultimate puzzle, glad there are resources like this to bounce ideas off people that have been doing it for years. Will certainly be back out trying to catch up with this guy over the next few weeks, hopefully he doesn't get turned into pepperoni before then.