May 10, 2008

There just may not be anything prettier than early spring in the mountains.

A few years ago, my father discovered something that has changed all our lives - archery hunting for elk in the Idaho mountains. When September rolled around, there was no doubt, Dad could be found right over the ridge from where that picture above is taken. That’s a long ways away from civilization, but it’s a great place to be. Soon after he started elk hunting in this particular canyon, he found that this canyon is crawling with hairy brown critters - but not the ones he was hunting. Black bears, and many of them color phased, were plentiful in the canyon. One trip he took with my brother, Todd, they saw seven bears! He’s had numerous close encounters with bears, but I’ll save those for him to tell. It wasn’t long before Dad decided to try and do something about the over population of bears in his elk hunting canyon, and he put in for his first bear tag. After a few years of unsuccessful draws, he finally got his first tag in 2006. Idaho doesn’t allow the use of dogs or bait to hunt bears in the spring, but this unit seemed to hold so many bears, it didn’t seem like that would be much of an issue. After seeing so many bears in there during elk season, he thought this would be the easiest hunting he’d ever done - and so, he decided to undertake the hunt with his bow. He saw several bears during the season, but always just out of bow range - and on the last day, he picked up the 7mm Weatherby. It was not to be.

The following year, Todd put in for the unit as well as Dad, and then this year, Todd was successful in drawing a tag for spring bear. Fittingly, he took Dad with him on his first trip out in late April. A heavier than usual winter was still very evident with drifts still piled up over four feet deep in places. They were only about a mile and a half from the pickup when they spotted a color phased bear. Again, fittingly, Todd used Dad’s 7mm - even though Dad shoots left handed, putting the bolt on the wrong side for Todd. This was time for revenge. They viewed the bear from across the draw and decided it would be about a 300 yard shot. Brush between them and the bear prevented them from getting any closer. I’m not sure what prevented them from getting the range finder out of the pack, but that’s the way it goes. Todd’s shot filled the air all around the bear with dust, prompting Dad, who was running the camera, to believe Todd had scored a hit. After tracking the bear across several snow fields with no sign of blood, though, they concluded it was a miss. Later, when we slowed the video down, dust completely engulfs the bear in front and back - an obvious sign that the shot was short. The range finder was pulled out after the fact, and the shot was determined to be 400 yards. Perhaps just enough difference to cause the miss.

I had a tag for an Oregon spring bear, so I took the next weekend to go hunting so that Todd could finish some work. But, I found my unit unaccessible because of snow, and didn’t get any hunting in at all. So, we decided that the following weekend, I’d take the camera and follow Todd on his bear hunt. We had great aspirations of getting up early to be up on the mountain at first light. But, as aspirations sometimes go, we had stayed up a bit too late the night before playing with our brand new niece, that 6:30 had rolled around before we finally got on the road. First light was already happening, and we were still two hours from parking the rig at the trail head. We got up on the mountain by 9:00 and still felt good about the day. Well, at least Todd felt good. I had never seen a bear when hunting, so I was skeptical, still, but didn’t want to say anything to Todd! I’d spent a good many hunting seasons in this canyon when I was a teenager, but after being an Oregon resident for so long, I had forgotten the sheer beauty of the place. A fire had burned through the canyon in the Fall, and the soil was rich for growing lush green grass and the wildflowers were in full bloom. Snow was still spotty here and there, and Todd was commenting on how he’d never hunted in here without seeing a bear. I nodded my head, “uh huh that’s nice.” I was skeptical, still.

We hiked higher and higher. The snow that seemed to be far away at the pickup, was now all around us. Todd spotted a big turkey strutting his stuff while we ate lunch. I was runing the camera, and couldn’t find it. Such is life for the cameraman! At least this cameraman. We watched elk and deer feed on the new grass. It looks like it could be a great year for the game up in this canyon. The deer, especially, were everywhere! We kept climbing, and came across the place where two weeks prior Todd and Dad had run into the four foot drifts. There was no snow, now. It is amazing what two weeks of warm weather will do. We climbed higher, still. Now we were getting into snow fields and drifts, again, and finally, Todd decided to start descending. We were overlooking a huge meadow full of grass and wildflowers with a draw running down the middle of it that was full of brush and sparse timber. It looked like prime bear habitat. We walked down the ridge a ways and came across some fresh bear scat. We continued to hike when Todd put his rifle up to look at what he thought was the eight thousandth dark colored rock he’d checked out with his scope today. All of a sudden he hissed, “That’s a bear, Tom!” I was just starting to think about what I was going to write for my blog - about how we didn’t see any bears and this and that - so I was slow in responding. “Serious?” I asked, stupidly. Of course he was serious! One thing hunters know - you don’t joke about this sort of thing! I finally picked the bear out of the brush, and Todd started to jack a shell in. I don’t know if the bear saw me or heard the shell getting jacked in, but it took off back into the brush. We were dissapointed, because once a bear goes into the brush, you hardly ever see them again.

We decided to go into the brush after this bear, despite logic that told us it was useless. As quietly as we could, we crept down into this bears turf. Suddenly, Todd motioned he saw the bear. It was behind some trees on the opposite hillside, now, and we decided to get above the brush and see if we could get into position for a shot. Now things were happening fast. I was right on Todd’s heels with the camera when Todd noticed the bear in a lumbering run up the slope a ways out from us. It was nearing a lone pine tree that would take him out of our line of vision and give him a free pass to the other side of the ridge.

“How far is that?” Todd asked as a shell was bolted into the chamber

“You can do it.” I answered - because I like to be very vague as to not be the cause for misjudged distance!

I was trying to find the bear as it made its way closer to the tree. I was still filming blue sky when the Weatherby barked. I caught a glimpse of brown rolling down the hill through the camera lens. “Oh, yeah! you got him!” I yelled.

Todd, visibly shaken, said, “Tom, that was the best shot of my life!”

We were happy boys at the moment! I took out my range finder and ranged the distance at 400 yards - the bear on a run from left to right with inches to spare before it got behind the tree that would take him out of sight and over the ridge.

A complete skinning job - neither of us had done that before, so it took some time - and we had our bear and were ready to head out. Todd had his first bear, and I had become a believer. There are bears in this canyon!

Todd with his color phased black bear.

As we hiked out, we were about a mile from the pickup when we were walking down this ridge and Todd stopped and pointed. There was a bear chomping grass less than one hundred yards from us. I got down and filmed it for about fifteen minutes. I’ve never seen an animal consume grass like this bear was doing. When we got over there after the bear had left, it looked like a lawn mower had been through the area!

It was awesome to share the experience with my brother. Springtime in the mountains is about the prettiest thing I think I’ve ever seen, we got the huge adrenaline rush from shooting a bear without the aide of dogs or bait, and for me, I got to see my first bear while hunting!

This bear had this awesome white patch on its chest. It was a beautiful bear - and shot in a beautiful place.

Todd’s 2008 spring bear.

• Bear hunt
• Everyone Has a Bear Story
• Bound and Determined
• Episode 5 - Winter Mule Deer Hunt Part II
• Episode 5 - Winter Mule Deer Hunt Part I

May 13, 2008 | 9 comments | Huntin' Stories | By Tom Sorenson

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