Finding a honey hole: Awesome weekend scouting!

[caddisguy]

I figured I'd write this one up, share the thought process and some inspiration.

So we hadn't really been out since bear season started except a camping with a rifle type scenario in an area that doesn't hold much in the way of spring bears. Our go to places in a few different MU's are no longer accessible. Couple of them might never be repaired. Between life / family stuff, access issues, was just about to write it off and sit on the sidelines for this year, first spring in 8 years no bear... maybe in the fall?

Then I get this text from an HBC member (anonymous informant, we'll call him Mr X for now unless he is OK with being outed) "Hey you ever consider checking out XYZ place?", "Oh and was thinking would be good for you to have a backup plan, here's another thought" ... "If there aren't bears up around there, I'll eat my hat". He gives me a lot more 411 on road conditions and such "It's not that bad, just looks worse than it is. Just wanted to give you a heads up so you see it and think what the F is this A hole trying to do to me"

Based on the intel and loads of it, we made plan B the plan A. Headed up Friday night. Drove up one road he said might be cool to camp, nice view and such. I drive up there and I'm thinkin... "what is this A hole trying to do to me" haha. Clearly he's not scared of heights? It was a nice place for sure, definitely going to camp there some night, maybe a summer night, but I still have about an hour before dark, gonna zip around and road scout and see if we can camp some place that looks like spring bear turf.

I'm zipping up and down roads/trails/etc trying to find something that looks like it would hold a bear pocket. Not spotting much in the way of grass, at least grass bears would be eating at, except one spot with a little bit that could be a starting point. It's getting dark anyway, gotta pick this up tomorrow. We park the jeep and caddisgirl is setting up the Jeep nest. I notice the grass has been hit, then I notice some bear scat. Okay well that's something. Time to hunker down for the night.

So we just settled in the Jeep, I notice a tick crawling on my hand. Yay? There's ticks here? I was only out of the Jeep for a few mins and 20 mins later one is on my hand? I hold my hand out the window and grab my tick exterminator (lighter, to only be used with unattached ticks) and give him a dose of the BIC treatment as I am hearing the night hawks swooping around and messing about. Yep, I'm thinking we're close to something good. Oh crap, another tick, this one is crawling on my arm? How'd they get there. I give it the lighter treatment and had caddisgirl check my all over so I could sleep without being paranoid.

Wake up the next morning, we hike up the "road" just up from our camp. About 500M up, we're seeing patches of grass on the side that have been hit pretty good. Starting to get a little excited. Then we come up on a big pile of scat, slightly oxidized but mostly green. Holy smokes. We might see a bear today. Walking along, more hit grass, hummingbirds zipping around and messing about, everything is telling me we're on the right track... then we come across the next pile of scat... 100% green and stinky from a few feet away. I'm sure if it was a couple degrees cooler it would have been steaming. I'm almost certain we're going to see a bear about any minute.

We walk this road for about 7km, same deal the whole way, just a bit of grass here and there on the sides, some of it hit. One thing bugging me is that we've seen scat from presumably 3 different sets of plumbing. There's not enough grass on this road (and really the only one we find with patches bears would eat) for 3 bears, let alone 1 to be hanging around there. If we do see a bear, I suspect it's going to be on the move and maybe stopping for a nip here and there. Primary feeding area has to be somewhere else. There's something big going on here but it's hiding. Looking down the bank and such there's a mix of swamp and meadow, but still not much green. I can see a bear hanging out in that type of place maybe 2-3 weeks ago, but not now. Still, we note it and figure out access strategy for if we can feasible recover a bear if we drop one down there.

Rest of the day was just more of the same. Walking back and forth along the "road". At one point, taking a little rest at "camp" (we moved our camp a ways up the road we are seeing the sign) 4 quads roll up, presumably local peeps. They'd been ripping around the area most of the day and late the night prior, just having a good old time. They stop and make sure we're okay (got the front tires rolled up on rocks to level it for sleeping lol) ... they note the rifle and ask if we're hunting back there. I told them I was poking around a bit back there, just casual rifle stroll type thing, but done for now. They're like, "Oh we're so sorry! well you are going to go back and hunt later?" ... I say "yeah maybe in an hour or two I'll pop back there again" ... "Ohhh no we won't go back there. We don't want to disturb your hunt". Okay we feel like we are in the twilight zone or something. I'm like "oooh! it's not problem really. It's a road, it's meant for driving on and we're just casually poking around. Keep goin!" ... "you sure....?", haha you get that idea. Was like the pinnacle of Canadian bush courtesy right there.

Was surprised we didn't see a bear yesterday with all that sign, but the big discover came today. This is BETTER than a chance encounter with a bear on a road/trail in an area that holds bears. I decide to walk up this steep little washed our spur that looks like it goes no where. I'm thinking I see where it ends in 70 yards or so and I can see pretty much all the way and nothing. Maybe I'll get a better look if I walk up 20 yards and so I do. I notice fresh grass hits... so fresh I break off a tip and compare the two for confirmation. There is no difference. That nip just happened. I am intrigued enough to keep walking up, even though it looks like the trail ends. This isn't what it seems. There's something big going on here

I get to what I thought was the top and sure enough, just thick brush all around. What if there was a switchback or something? It's pretty flat way up here, giant bench. I noticed fresh broken over saplings with hair on them (boars dating website equivalent). I am convinced there is a hidden honey hole now. I plow my way through all sorts of brush and trees and find this ally of grass... a strip around 20 yards wide that goes for around 50-60 yards. Every bit of it is fresh hit, scat all over. I'm in disbelief. I'm pretty good at identifying bear pockets, I know when I see one and I have found quite a few.

This is already by far the most impressive spring bear area with the most activity I have stumbled across. I keep going down this strip that also looks like it ends, plow through some more brush and and I think I'd almost call it a dang field. All of it freshly grazed. Everything is fresh nipped. Some dandelions flowering, and hundreds in bud stage getting ready to flower. I'm not even sure it ends there, but at this point I back out. I don't care of there's a bear in here now or showing up any minute, this is better, gift that I know will keep on giving, I gotta hoof it back to camp and get home, but I think you all know where this is going. Trailcam going up and most likely bear coming out next weekend. It will be cool to see just how many different bears are grazing there.

So there's a scout story, start to (almost) finish, how to visit a new area and locate a confirmed spring bear honey hole in one weekend. Hope someone finds this inspiring/encouraging/etc. I know I did. All this hiking, cardio, heart pumping, fresh air, excitement. I haven't felt so good in 6 months. I feel so alive and my brain is filling up with happy chemicals. Amazing what a little exercise can do haha. Can't wait to get back out.

[Salty]

Great write up caddis! Thanks for taking us along really enjoyed that. Hope I didn't scare you too bad :-o Just doin my part to share a bit about the underutilized areas of region 9 :mrgreen:

[ElectricDyck]

I'm excited! Sounds like you owe buddy a big thankyou. We're staying a little more local this year, hope we have the same luck in a new to us area.

[walks with deer]

Great write up caddis! Thanks for taking us along really enjoyed that. Hope I didn't scare you too bad :-o Just doin my part to share a bit about the underutilized areas of region 9 :mrgreen:



Glad to here you got out caddis guy....

[caddisguy]

Glad to here you got out caddis guy....

Lol ya I feel a century younger. I could feel my heart beating and I even sweated :D

And I'm all excited for next weekend. Friggin Region 9 is no joke.

[caddisguy]

Great write up caddis! Thanks for taking us along really enjoyed that. Hope I didn't scare you too bad :-o Just doin my part to share a bit about the underutilized areas of region 9 :mrgreen:

By chance we had extra undergarments

[Squamch]

Woo-hoo! Looking forward to more stories and trail cam pics!

[caddisguy]

Woo-hoo! Looking forward to more stories and trail cam pics!

Should be pic heavy a week from now. Tried to convince caddisgirl to go back in today to snap a pic two, even said I promise not to shoot any bears. I was serious but she didn't believe me, says next week. Alright, giddy up. I'm not wipped I swear, she's just smart.

[walks with deer]

Glad to here you got out caddis guy....

Sometimes getting out and stretching the legs is better than getting an animal...

[MRP]

It’s not awesome,,,, it’s priceless

[Salty]

By chance we had extra undergarments

Hahahahaha
After a couple or ten trips it'll be a lot easier on the nerves. My wife was none too impressed first time I took her up there. Now she's happy when we take the time to get up there to her favorite mushroom picking spot :-D

[IronNoggin]

Excellent adventure and write up!
Felt like I was right there alongside you!
Well Done & Congrats on The Find!
Looking right forward to the next install...

And KUDOS Salty!
Sharing like that is what it's all about!
Respect!

Cheer,
Nog

[Salty]

Excellent adventure and write up!
Felt like I was right there alongside you!
Well Done & Congrats on The Find!
Looking right forward to the next install...

And KUDOS Salty!
Sharing like that is what it's all about!
Respect!

Cheer,
Nog

Thanks for the kind words Nog and you're right, you've got some whiskers around this place you know what it used to be like.. all about the sharing of info, ideas and general bushology. Its what makes us tick. Its what makes me happy.

But I'm here to tell you caddis earned every morsel of his discovery. Its tough sledding out this way right now man. I wanna say 80% of our roads have been severely shit kicked thanks to November 15th, 16th. I unfortunately (?) have a bad case of wonder lust. And being retired I've been just about everywhere a 4x4 should consider, a long ways each direction of home. So I saw his post asking about a couple roads (turned out they're washed out) so I sent him a text of a couple I know that survived and definitely held bears. Glad he chose this one, my favorite actually, but for deer as the Mrs. won't eat bear so i don't normally hunt them.

Anyways enough blathering, gonna sit back and enjoy the fruits now :-P My suggested spots are too far behind by the sounds of it yet with this cold spring. But dude's found another spot on his own several kms away from where I thought would be good. I admire team caddis because they find an area and they ****ing work it! I've admired the spot from afar and pondered hiking in there some day but haven't got a round tu-it. Pretty awesome its even got lots of ticks to make him feel at home. hahahahaha Don't think I've ever read a boring team-caddis thread and this'n is shaping up to be a gooder :mrgreen:

[caddisguy]

Excited about the whole scenario. I regret not taking a camera or phone yesterday morning when I found the hidden "field". That would have been nifty to show.

Pretty big fluke to have found that. Different mood, even slightly less inquisitive (or less desperate?) or less energy might not have bothered even starting to walk up there. Blacktails, sure, I can see myself playing that card, no stone unturned. Bears, not so much. Who the heck would expect to find a large grassy bear feeding pocket inside old growth treeline way up a steep old slash that doesn't contain so much as a single blade of grass itself. If that "dead end road" (that actually switches back into it) didn't have the odd patch with a tiny nip here and there, no way I ever would have found that.

Same deal if we would have taken a bear the day prior, it would have been done and over. I recall a brief convo via inReach... "dude we found a few piles of scat already and there are ticks crawling on me. This looks promising!" ... he's like "Man that's awesome, only down side is you might be coming home with a bear before you have a chance to actually explore around". Wise man that Salty :D

Plan is to head up there on Friday. caddisgirl says there's no way she can take Friday off work so we can head up Thursday. Tried to convince her there's something in the labour laws about days off for this kind of scenario, but she's not buying it up. "Tell them I said so" isn't flying either... so, we'll be heading up there after work Friday. Should still have a good 2 or 3 hours to hunt it. The thermals should be blowing down pretty good by then. The thermals are a tad strange in that area though, coming from a couple different directions and shift around a bit. It's possible I could have a bit blowing my scent into the approach. Day should be mostly good no matter what. Scent might go up when I initially pass by from a long ways down below but not when I'm actually going up and switching back in. Also looks like it might be plenty cold enough at night to hang the meat and not have to worry about ice or rushing home.

Probably going to stick a couple trailcams up there for fun. It would be cool to know just how many regulars there are around there. Although with rut time starting up, some of these bears might start wandering off in search of some lovin which could throw a bit of a wrench in this. On the other hand, if there's an estrus sow feeding in and around there, could be even more action. Either way, cruising bears still gotta snack, it just might not be as condensed or predictable.

Edit: Just scooped up 2 more trailcams, so there will be some cool bear footage out of there for sure. Not going to put them up until just before we leave to head home after this next trip (because scent) Will be extra neat if it's pointed at a "leftovers" type deal like we did in 2019. Dang I should have hung my sweated up t-shirt in there last week and they'd be over it by now

[caddisguy]

Alright so this one feeding spot I labelled a honey hole, might have got a little bit overzealous. While those wide "hidden" washed out grassy switch backs are a good feeding spot, turns out this is still a somewhat active quad trail. Still a great place, just downgrading the honey hole status to "maybe honey hole up until mid May and just a pretty decent spot after that". Nonetheless we still got into some action up there.

So we show up late Friday afternoon and wait a little bit for the thermals to start coming down and we slowly creep up there. First thing I notice is some tire tracks heading up there. Next is a fresh green pile of scat that is run over which tells us there was a bear there in the last several hours and that a quad also went up since then. No big deal. From our experience when bears hear a quad they just dash into cover and wait for it to pass by then pop right back out and I'd wager the quad just turned around at the top.

Well we get up top where it switches back and see that they have cleared all the brush into the first switch back, so it's significantly "less hidden" now. To our surprise, the quad actually got up passed the deep washed out ruts going down the trail. That must have been sketchy, even for a quad. That's as far as the quad went before turning around at the next grown in part. I smell bear very close by but I'm not going to enter the steep impenetrable mess where it's coming from. Losing play right there to begin with, plus recovery might not be doable. It's just not an option.

I think we poked in and out of "the spot" a couple more times throughout the evening, our go to strategy when initial attempt does not reveal a bear, poke in and out just like we feed there like a bear would, lay down scent over a period of time and get any bear nice and confused, question whether we "are there" or "were there", eventually they're going to roll the dice.

For a good laugh: (skip this paragraph to get back to hunting) Heading back to camp, we see a couple hunters, guy and a gal walking toward us. I was pretty sure I knew who it is right off the bat. I'm already cracking up a bit... "Hey... I don't I know you... that you, ____?" ... I think I see him shaking his head in disbelief. Alright so back story on this one. Met this dude some years back at another one of my bear spots. Been messaging each ever since, often joking around finding each others honey holes, BS'ing and fibbing about the places we go. About a month ago, he goes up to check XYZ place and makes mention of it because it didn't seem viable. I haven't a clue whether it is or isn't, I've never been there and probably never will) but I'm telling him I have and that I found some wicked honey holes back in there. Thursday he's taunting me how him and his friend (he's trying to put her on her first bear) are heading up there first thing Friday. I'm like whatever man, you'll never find my honey holes. Friday morning he's messaging me... "we're at your spot now, just having a snack before we head up and shoot all the bears". I'm like dude, you must have Star Link because ain't no reception that far back. He starts going on about putting GPS trackers on my jeep and such. I'm joking with caddisgirl about all this on the way up, how they think we are going to XYZ place, but all this punking each other we do, be funny if we run into them one day, thinking about what we'd say. "Ohhh uhhh, you mean this isn't XYZ road? Dang, I thought it was, must have read the map wrong". We all have a good laugh about the whole thing and his GPS trackers. Apparently they'd been off and on the highways all day and all the spots they tried going to were closed down for road work and such. Now they finally find a place hunt, then surprise. Good laugh all around... "guess we gotta keep looking for a place to hunt". I'm like you can camp and hunt around here. They poke around a bit and opt to look for turf that isn't caddis infested.

So next day same deal, we hike up with the thermals doing down. Bear has been through there but not present at the moment. Trailcams go up at this point. We're thinking with all the quads ripping around below, it's too spooky for bears to be munching away unless the thermals are going up, probably feel more confident that no threats are coming from below, but when thermals are going down, can't be so sure... so game plan is we go explore and hike around in behind, plan to come down from up above as late as possible before the thermal switch which was 5pm the day prior.

We go on a nice good hike up the mountain down the other side, this quad trail actually goes all the way through, sort of anyway. I'm not quite sure if a quad has been up that far in some years with the amount of overgrowth and deadfall, but wouldn't be half surprised if they do actually bust through by summer. With time to kill, we put our blacktail hats on and check out some mossy old growth timber, everything all covered with lichen that just has "huge blacktail bucks dying of old age" written all over it. We explore a bunch of the game trails and then off to enjoy some of the amazing views from a plateau down on the other side. I'm sending messages to Salty. Dude guess where we are?! He's probably thinking damn caddis stop screwin around up there and go get after a bear ffs haha. Dark clouds and lighting rolling in, these storms have been brief but we're a ways away, good time to get off the plateau plus gotta hoof it down quick like to make it back to the feeding pocket by 4:30'ish as planned.

Alright, time to hike back down and come in from behind/above while the thermals are still going up. If our hunch is correct, this oughta fool em. Sure enough, right where we figured, we spot a bear munching away. Trying to get a good look but with all the dips, curves and such, plus ya'll know how thick Region 9 is... time for a good old fashioned stalk up, I'm just keeping low and ducking down whenever it's facing my way. caddisgirl is getting a lot of this on film, as are the trailcams. About 15-20 yards away now giving up some good broadside opportunities. Shoot or pass?

https://i.imgur.com/dnF8i3z.jpg

[caddisguy]

So, here's a better look. Already had a laundry list of reasons to pass long before, but still wanted to see how close up I could get just for practice. Small bear and thinking a sow? Lastly it was missing a hind paw and had to hobble around. Seemed to be doing alright considering. I'd wager it's been in tricycle mode for some time, has the hang of it and is set up on this grassy area with a primary and secondary places to retreat to (exactly where I had smelled bear the day prior) ... growled at us too at one point, pretty intimating for a small bear haha. I figure this thing will live on for some years.

Got a bunch of good footage of the missing paw and such, will get some more posted up at some point. Probably head back in there this weekend and see if we can turn up another bear without bothering this one too much.

https://i.imgur.com/R3tx5aO.jpg

[ElectricDyck]

Cool cool, bears are insanely tough can't wait to see the footage..

[Salty]

Good stuff caddis!

I had a weird one like that back on the coast. Pretty easy to hunt without seeing anyone up there. Except the same damn guy that I ran into like 4 or 5 times in different remote places 60-80km apart. lol Randomness isn't quite so random sometimes...

[caddisguy]

Had a little fun with the video editor last night, maybe too much fun. Anyway here's video, little bit of stalk footage from caddisgirl's cam as well as some from the trailcams perspective... trailcam part has a really good shot of the leg situation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgAU499J2m4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgAU499J2m4

[j270wsm]

Missing more than the paw, looks more like 1/3-1/2 it’s leg. Crazy how tough animals are.

awesome thread and video

[caddisguy]

Holy big boys are out

[upperleftcoaster]

Holy big boys are out

i got my big boy June 3 last year in my region 9 honey hole; It is time. Go get ‘em!

[caddisguy]

So we're finding this little spot definitely holds a few bears. I was starting to question myself after just seeing the one 3 legged bear on the first real go, but on the other hand, no way that one bear could be covering so much distance hitting that amount of grass, plus all the variance in scat piles.

Seems like the busy quad weekend last week was only a May long one off. I talked to a local (only quad we saw all weekend) rippin around with his 80+ year old mother in law (who definitely digs going for riddes) then once again later with his wife. Had a good long chat. They'd been up that road back in the day, but nobody has busted through in years despite the odd one poking in the first switch back.

First thing we noticed, the place we camped last time, a bear tore the ground apart, unearthing a bunch of wood that was buried there rotting and just tore everything apart. Left some decent holes and a big old pile of scat a few yards away. Would have to do some leveling to tuck the jeep there now haha.

Couple new bears on the trailcams. One cruised by 3 hours before we passed by there on Friday. Other one looks like a tank by my Region 2 standards. Figure he's the one leaving most of the sign.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTtnF_leUw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTtnF_leUw

Heard a bear walking around the Jeep a few times during the night. Didn't want to try to see it and spook it off, so I just listened getting a little excited. Guess I must have got nice and used to it. Apparently caddisgirl woke up at one point with a bear walking around, tried poking and prodding at me to wake up but I was out. Not surprised, I was getting by with just a few hours a night all week. Surprised I even woke up before 8, figured I'd probably sleep until 10 or maybe noon.

Anyway inspired by these bears around and seemingly some good ones, we pounded the area all day. It felt more like a blacktail hunt than a bear hunt. These bears don't seem to spend more than 20 minutes on the best pocket and seem to always travel into the wind/thermals. Tried the whole get up high, even other side of the mountain type deal and hit the best pocket right before the thermal switch. No dice. Found a few new nooks and crannies with broken saplings and hair.

Sat for a couple hours one place, tried calling with a blade of grass and we heard steps coming from down wind but then nothing. Also heard some munching just like you hear in the video coming from down in a thick drainage, but no visibility or approach.

Gonna try to get out there again soon. Having a ton of fun and good exercise. I figure next time we'll try working a circuit that will have the wind in our face whole way through and pick up the pace vs still hunting. Figure other than that pocket, grass is few and far between (it gets hit the whole way though) it doesn't stop a bear for long, plus there are all sorts of rotten stumps to go after grubs and boars are cruising for sows. Been a learning curve but thinking we might still be able to cross paths with a good one if we get out for another weekend or two. Having a friggin blast either way. Probably one of my favorite all time hunting trips this last one.... but maybe when I get the Kammy Lake sheep draw (I know a guy) that will be just as new and fun ;)

[Salty]

Looks like you're getting dialed in caddis and having a good time at it! Some cool footage there...

[caddisguy]

We walked right into a gooder around a blind corner / hill surprise at 6-7 yards a few hours ago... some commotion there ... all parties involved had a good startle. Trailcam footage picked up a fair bit of the story.

Bear has been hitting that pocket most if not every day this week so tomorrow will be interesting.

[caddisguy]

Dear HBC Diary,

We had an interesting one this weekend. Rolled up there Friday night and hiked up bear mountain to caddis ridge. We're trying to snake through the grown in alders into the feeding pocket, trying to make as little noise as possible. Paying more attention to weaving through branches the last few steps than looking for bears, turns out we missed the one that was appearing about 6-7 yards from us on the blind corner partly concealed by a little mound. It was like when a grouse flushes by your feet, except add a couple hundred pounds. The bear bolted down hill and I know it was going to head behind us to wind us. Thinking pretty quick, started back down for the intercept. No dice, it already got in behind us and headed down into thick stuff on a steep incline.

Went on to check the trailcams, then headed back down to see if we could find that bear feeding in plan B and C pockets. Poke around until dark, no dice. We settle in joking around about the commotion we just went through while looking at the trailcam footage. At least three (maybe 4) different bears, all good by my standards and at least one bigger than anything I'd ever taken.

Next day, we poked in and out of all popular grass hangouts. Spent the evening, 4:30pm until 9pm "sitting" in one spot overlooking the place that seems to see the most activity. It was painful... steep place to "sit" (and sitting in one spot for more than 30 minute is tough for me... moving at a snails pace, I can do that, but ass planted is a tough go) but we had dug out some trenches that resemble deer beds lol

Settled in for the night again. We had a visitor. Despite engine idling, talking, some music and such, friggin bear starts messing about in and around camp. Came and went, I feel asleep but caddisgirl tells me there were a few more after that.

This morning is where it gets the most fun. I know caddisgirl is not a fan of me shooting bears on pack-up-day aka gotta-work-next day, but I go to check the trailcams while she's sorting the jeep to head home. I "joke" about shooting a bear and she tells me to go for it. Serious? Well it's a lottery ticket but I'll play it. Maybe she's figuring we have been up here a few times and despite bears all over, no bears down this won't be any different.

I go hike up to caddis ridge, nothing there, check trailcams, nothing. Head back down to the main "road" and radio caddisgirl... "nothing going on up there, I'm going to walk a little north"...

So I'm walking along. This "road" in the last couple weeks has become more of a bear tunnel. This section is all overgrown, every so rarely a quad comes through. Once in a while there is a "clear view down into thick brush". Still decent grass on the sides as this runs north/south. I'm walking along and here some loud cracking, guessing maybe 10-15 yards down from me. Wind going north for a change this time of day, overpowering the regular thermal action, I scurry about 30 yards down wind and wait, looking and listening. Maybe something is gonna pop up and start munching some of this grass on the sides....

...so speaking of grass on the sides, after some waiting I decided to snap off a piece of grass and start with the wounded critter call. I pull off the perfect set, nothing... so I repeat, and repeat again. I'm confident about being down wind and such, it's probably forgotten about hearing my footsteps and catching my wind and there's no way it could slip in behind me without making a whole lot of racket.

NOPE!

About 30 yards down wind from me I hear some crashing around. I'm still thinking cool... some action going on here. Some more crash-crash and it's getting closer. What the heck... this isn't how I imagined it at all. You know, I just figure blow out on grass right, bear gonna just pop right out on the trail, give me the perfect broadside shot with a nice safe hillside for a backstop.

Clearly didn't think this whole deal through, let alone really think much at all. I hear a burst of crashing reminiscent of the last time I was charged by a bear, right toward me and I'm walking backwards quickly. This thing isn't going to pop out on the trail 10, 20 or 30 yards from me. It's lining me up to bust through onto me. I'm backing up quickly remember the last "open" area (area where I can see the down the trail I'm on and see about 15 yards into the line this bear has chosen)

Then the huffing starts. This thing sounds right cheesed off. I'm still backing up in a waddling fashion keeping bear level to the ground, ready to shoot from the hip. Crash-crash-crash, it just closed the distance again, like 15 yards in a couple seconds, right back on me. It's huffing away while I'm doing by backwards waddling. Once I picked up another 20 yards and could still hear it huffing, I tossed the bear safety manual and ran like a track star that last 30 yards where I'd have a bit of an opening and maybe a couple seconds vs 1/10 second to react.

So I waited there a bit until I heard the bear start making off in a south west direction, still hearing the odd huff. I radio caddisgirl "might be a large angry bear heading your way... I gotta him all worked up and he's super p***ed"

Well, I learned a few things on this one. Last bear charge I had was 2017 I think. That was just a bad bear. I didn't ask for it. Not sure if I'd call this one a charge, but man that was a pretty long drawn out ordeal. Difference with this one was I 100% signed up for it this time. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes I guess :D

Anyway, here's this weeks footage... lots of nice bears in there. I might still have one weekend left, albeit solo, unsupervised without recovery and pack out support. Should be interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYsqAkIbBpE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYsqAkIbBpE

[high horse Hal]

Ha! might have been a doozy if he had you figured as food
You do like the thrills, tfs

[caddisguy]

Ha! might have been a doozy if he had you figured as food
You do like the thrills, tfs

Not sure if he had me figured as food or was just being cranky and territorial, fed up with my interruptions, creeping around being spooky as such. Though black bear attention spans, who knows, maybe both. Always seems to me black bears don't even know what they are going to do from second to second.

Dose of adrenaline can be fun once in a while. Makes for some fun memories and stories but hunting and just being outdoors is exciting enough. Could do without the bonus thrills. I'd write it off as bad luck but when I think about it, it does seem self inflicted. I should probably take up backyard bird watching.

[Salty]

Backyard birdwatching. Hahaha. Yeah, I don't think so. You can watch birds while you wait for a bear :) And, I see there's a little blacktail scouting in the mix already too ;) Good times....

[caddisguy]

Somewhat anticlimactic ending to all this, but good wrap up tying loose ends and putting new stuff together. Feed pockets we were seeing all the action and having some good chances, those bears have moved on. Food is grown in all over so no need for bears to hang around with those creepy caddis folks to make a living. Just a big bobcat showing up on the trailcams

That pushed us (caddisgirl made it out! I think she felt I should have supervision after the incidents last week lol) to explore a bit more scouting around for late season bear action. Probably did a good 25km on the boots yesterday alone. Sounds like a lot for scouting, but 25km in a 16 hour shift is slow enough to take in a lot of detail. Loop circuit to boot, no backtracking.

Ended up poking through to that area Salty said would be good and sure enough that's where the action is now (probably would have been 2-3 ago on average but weird year with conditions behind) Decided before we head home today, circle back and drive that one scouting for sign and just plain old places to camp. Found a fair bit of both. Fresh green scat, tracks all over, nice new grass getting hit heavily up high there. Seems they like that a lot better than the knee high stuff below where a lot is going to seed.

Found the remains of 3 legged Tripod bear. Looks like she was shot May long. I feel somewhat responsible as I believe (intel from locals) that was the next day after we spooked that bear a few times. On the other hand, given the calibre and attitude of some of those other bears, bullet was probably the best way to go!

2022 Spring bear hunting is in the books for us. First year in 8 years no bear, but by far our best spring bear season in terms of opportunity, exploration and exercise (where we normally take bears seems pretty darn boring now after working this area) and just seeing more bears and larger bears around than we normally do. Late start, mistakes, exploration investment/overhead meant no bear this time around but we're all set to pick this up right out of the gate next spring. I cant friggin wait... we like this new playgroud better than our other spots for so many reasons 8-)

[BeerMan]

Great thread caddisguy. You don't always have to connect, but man you sure learned a lot in that area. To bad about the Tripod but like you said, bullet was the best way to go. Thanks for a good hunting read!