Kootenay Nordic Sports
10-17-2011, 11:55 AM
This season for us has not turned out very good so far as first our horse pack trip into the flathead fell through, I had knee surgery and my son rolled his ankle . This has left us with short walks from the truck with the occasional longer hike if the terrain is suitable. Of course this suits my Dad just fine as he is able to walk with us. We usually leave him for a few hours as we hike and he does short walks or snoozes in the sun as the day warms up.
Sunday found us doing just this as my Dad had a snooze in the truck and my Son and I were sneaking into a newer clear cut to have a peak around. It was about 2 in the afternoon and we were in a spot neither of us had been to before . About 100 yards into the cut we come across some Elk sign so we let out a few cow calls to see whats around. We wait and listen and soon start to make our way up through the cut towards what looks like a ridge in to see if we can't catch something unaware on the other side. The wind was in our favour as we slowly moved through the cut.We were aiming for a small cluster of pine trees with a little under brush around them. The ground was a little crunchy so we took our time. About 30 feet from this little group of trees I bent down to check out what looked to be an old bear track. It was frozen still so I stood back up, two steps later all hell brooke loose as the was loud woofing and animals moving it seemed like everywhere. I said Bear to my son and he responds GRIZZLY! A very large Sow and older cubs are moving fast. I surprised myself with how fast I got two more 300 grain Barnes stuffed into the 45-70 ! The bear had now moved about twenty feet to our left and both of our Rifles were up and ready for action.Thank God the Sow had a different Idea, she turned her head towards me and if her shoulders would have followed I would have shot.At this point she was about 40 - 50 feet away and I had already decided that if she even made a move in our direction that we were way to close to be playing around. She look at us for a second and then they hightailed it over the ridge . At this point we stored to retreat, but the ground was so strewn with brush and logs that we could not back away so the boy backed of about 40 feet and then he would guard and I would catch up to him. We did this the whole way back as a friend of mine got mauled in a similar situation long after the bears had run away.
I found out that Mackenzie my 15 hear old son is great under pressure! Calm and collected. I was proud of him.
No game but happy at the outcome!
Dave
Sunday found us doing just this as my Dad had a snooze in the truck and my Son and I were sneaking into a newer clear cut to have a peak around. It was about 2 in the afternoon and we were in a spot neither of us had been to before . About 100 yards into the cut we come across some Elk sign so we let out a few cow calls to see whats around. We wait and listen and soon start to make our way up through the cut towards what looks like a ridge in to see if we can't catch something unaware on the other side. The wind was in our favour as we slowly moved through the cut.We were aiming for a small cluster of pine trees with a little under brush around them. The ground was a little crunchy so we took our time. About 30 feet from this little group of trees I bent down to check out what looked to be an old bear track. It was frozen still so I stood back up, two steps later all hell brooke loose as the was loud woofing and animals moving it seemed like everywhere. I said Bear to my son and he responds GRIZZLY! A very large Sow and older cubs are moving fast. I surprised myself with how fast I got two more 300 grain Barnes stuffed into the 45-70 ! The bear had now moved about twenty feet to our left and both of our Rifles were up and ready for action.Thank God the Sow had a different Idea, she turned her head towards me and if her shoulders would have followed I would have shot.At this point she was about 40 - 50 feet away and I had already decided that if she even made a move in our direction that we were way to close to be playing around. She look at us for a second and then they hightailed it over the ridge . At this point we stored to retreat, but the ground was so strewn with brush and logs that we could not back away so the boy backed of about 40 feet and then he would guard and I would catch up to him. We did this the whole way back as a friend of mine got mauled in a similar situation long after the bears had run away.
I found out that Mackenzie my 15 hear old son is great under pressure! Calm and collected. I was proud of him.
No game but happy at the outcome!
Dave