BEAR QUEST II Spring BEAR HUNT 2 Openings

[JC]

Mile Marker 42 was in a familiar spot...it sat on the same creek as last year, only on the other side of the water. A ridge flowed down a hill to a small saddle-like area on the creek, with bear trails crossing the ridge and saddle like the hiking paths in a suburban park. The timber was thick and dark, with a small opening where the bait and my stand sat.



As luck would have it, the stand was the Cadillac of the Quebec woods. Eric had outfitted it with one of the API sling type seats that sat more like a recliner than anything. Maybe that's why I kept sitting there?....or was it something else?

Anyway, first evening was uneventful for bear, not a single black hair was sighted. However, it sure was good to be in the woods...and the cool temps were a far cry from mid 90's I had just been in a few days ago. I did watch numerous red squirrels fight and jockey for position in and out of the bait barrel, a snowshoe came in to check out what was going on, all accompanied by the constant, unnerving hum of a healthy mosquito and black fly population. I hope the guy who invented the thermacell is sipping some exotic concoction on a South Pacific island right now.

Back at camp I heard of all the nights activities, mainly that Jeff had already tagged out with his mojo combo. Others had sightings or opportunities...it was already shaping up to be a very active hunt. Don't remember what we had for dinner that night but I know I shoveled it down with a cold barely pop and I was already asleep by the time my head hit the pillow.

Sun 6/15: Daylight comes early that far North and East so we began stirring around 5:30am. Bear hunting is what my Grandfather would have referred to as "a gentlemanly pursuit," meaning, you didn't have to be up and on the stand an hour before daylight. We milled around camp, talking and getting to know one another, prepping for the day with coffee and cereal.

Most of the day was focused around prepping, traveling and cleaning up for bait runs. I'd like to take a minute to thank Tom, Allan, Eric, and Lloyd for all their work on the initial baiting runs and preparing and having the bait ready. This is a monumental task for this many stands for 2 weeks of hunting. Incredible effort that was rewarded by a full meat locker and many happy smiles.

A few bull sessions, some arrows flung and we found ourselves in late afternoon...gearing up for the night's hunt. As I climbed into my stand for the evening (I could have jumped up there but I was on vacation) I felt myself slowing down from the pace of normal life back home. It was a wonderful respite to simply sit and observe God's glory...with no more responsibility than to sit still and enjoy breathing. It's after a few hours like this in the woods that you really realize how un-natural our daily habits are as modern man...and how rejuvenating the return is to our more primal state.

Happy to just be alive and not shackled to a computer or cell phone, relaxed and overjoyed to simply be there, comfortable and enjoying the view of the woods and the beautiful Shawnee that lay across my lap...it just doesn't get any better. Wait a minute! It just did....a small bear's head appeared behind and to the left of the bait crib. It never ceases to amaze me how bears just appear out of thin air in places you had scanned just moments before. Their ability to walk in absolute silence is unparalelled in any animal I have hunted. It may be partly because this arborial region was mostly covered in thick most and soft loam but the bear's feet are a remarkable adaptation. I've heard all sorts of critters move through the woods/fields in my hunting career, and even big cats had nothing on these bears. If they truly wanted to eat you there would be nothing you could do about it...they'd be breathing on your neck before you had any idea one was in the county.

The small bear tested the wind with it's nose, timidly picking it's way around the crib, watching the bait...bobbing and weaving it's head at the barrel like an old doe does when she thinks she sees something and is trying to get a better viewing angle. Apparently, it didn't like the look of the barrel...turned and vanished as quickly as it appeared. It all happened so fast my heart rate did not climb until after it was gone.

I knew I had not been the cause of the departure, I hadn't blinked more than once or twice. Ten or more anxious minutes later, a black form reappeared on the ridge behind the crib. A few blinks more to insure it was not a mirage, I made out the form had two sets of legs. Were they BIG legs or did just not realize what part of the bear I was looking at? Surely that's not the same.....WHOA NELLY! The bear stepped from behind the shrub that had obscured the other half of it's ample frame.

[d. ward]

This just keeps getting better and better.........yahooooooo.... bowdoc  

[JC]

As many novice bear hunters realize the first few times they see a bear in a hunting situation, there is considerable ground shrinkage from what you thought was a monster and shot, to what you recovered. They just simply look soooo much bigger from any distance. Given that, I tempered my first flush of excitement...convincing myself it was not as big as I hoped and it was probably the same small bear that had visited the bait shortly before. The ball of black stood for what seemed like half the afternoon (maybe 5 minutes), staring in my direction but not necessarily at me. It didn't move, not a wiggle, not a sound...it just sat there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small black spot to the left of the crib again. NOW I knew it was two bears. No sooner did I recognize the spot when bear on the ridge crashed down through the brush at a ridiculous speed towards the other bear. It was incredibly fast...I caught glimpses of two black shapes for just an instant, then sounds of brush popping and mixed sounds that reminded me of the lions in the jungle scenes of old Tarzan movies. I couldn't hear much from that point as my ears were filled with a curious rhythmic "whooshing" sound...oh, that's just my heartbeat.

A few minutes later the large black form was back at the top of the ridge...just close enough for me to make up the lighter patch of brown that formed the muzzle as it stood out against the jet black body. This was definitely a bigger bear.

The staring match continued. It did it's best to see something...I did my best to be nothing. To my right, the tops of the brush moved in the small clearing, it was all I could do not to turn my head to see what new visitor was bound for the bait. This was yet another bear, certainly bigger than the first but probably not the size of the second. My eyes were beginning to get sore from all the strain of looking back and forth from one periphery to another. A bear's head poked above the brush, maybe not standing but certainly in the process, to look towards the bait. Again the big form bolted from the ridge and like a freight train derailed at high speed, it barreled unhindered through the thick brush of the cut-down/clearing, pushing a wake ahead of it that surely was the third bear fleeing for it's life. A few guttural growls, teeth pops and branch snaps later, all was quiet, leaving the area silent and empty.

[gregg dudley]

Come on JC!  You are killing me with the slow play!  I am leaving on vacation in the morning.  Help your brother out!

[fatman]

[Doc Nock]

Just cause he "quotes" Charlie, doesn't mean he has to tell stories as s-l-o-w- as Charlie!  

[Kingwouldbe]

Now JC, does Miss Kim have to put pieces of chocolate chip cookies on the keys so you can start typing    :p     LOL

[Doc Nock]

Guess to be fair, boys, he HAS been away from his boys and his bride just a while...maybe he needs some family time, eh?  

[Tom Phillips]

There is quite a bit of interest already for BEAR QUEST III next year.I will have to do a post soon once I finish putting away all my gear and clean up my notes from 2 weeks hunt.
   
           Have a Good Weekend

[JC]

Dadgummed ya Tom, ya done gone and let em eat the filling afore they got through the cake! Ya ruirned it!

Any way...as I was saying....

[JC]

I saw the big'un three or four more times that evening. It came as close as 10 yards but never gave a good shot. At one point, I had both the bear and the barrel in my same field of view...the bear was substantially larger. So large, in fact, that it looked like it might get an arm in the barrel but little more.

The bear spent some time pretending to look at the barrel but it really spent most of it's time eyeing me in the stand. It would yawn and stretch, seemingly oblivious but all the while at least one eye carefully peeled in my direction. DANG but it was a big sucker...I'd glance from it to the barrel as it moved in and out between the branches of the tree that was between it and me.

After a few minutes, the obvious "cock of the walk" wandered up the ridge and sat, watching me from it's haunches. I'm sure it had no clue what I was...but it knew I was something.

The light continued to fall until I could no longer see the lighter patch of hair from the muzzle that marked it's position in the lengthening shadows.

[JC]

I slipped out of the stand well after dark, to meet Lloyd on the road. He was waiting, and a bit concerned since it was well past dark when I dragged my adrenaline ravaged frame to the truck where he waited.

On the way back to camp Lloyd graciously listened to my tail of enthusiasm as only a fellow hunter would. He knew of the hear pounding excitment of which I spoke, and reveled in it's purity as if he were there himself. Ahhhh, to be with kindred spirits who understand our simple ways....

That night at the fire I recounted the tale, in addition to others...and of course there were bears to be skinned but it would wait until tomorrow.

I think we had some of Kip's finest Cajun quisine that night...it could have been another, but either way, it was as fine a viddle as a feller could slap against his tounge. Between the excitement of the big bear, the heavy coppery/sweet aroma of the bears on the skinning table and the smoke from the campfire, I was intoxicated by the aroma of a hunting camp. It was good to be in my element after so many dull days away....

[JC]

Mon 6/16: I don't remember exactly because all the days sort of run together...and I'm terrible about not logging my journal but instead enjoying the moment and savoring each experience as it happens.

We awoke to a new day, bears to be skinned, tracked, dragged to the table. I don't rightly know how many we skinned in the next few days but there were a few.

I enjoy the skinning, as some enjoy the dragging and tracking. It seems as if it's my comfortable spot in camp. I'd rather track and drag, as it was with Tippit's memorable bear Sunday morning...but I also enjoy the adavistic pleasure of rendering a whole critter into usable parts. Yes, it's somewhat morose to those outside our clan...but for those who have tasted life to its very end, and seen the life blood as it drained from our harvest there is nothing to justify. You understand the sights and sounds and even smells that fill us with the same primal satisfaction as it did thousands of years ago.

After my time at the skinning table, I slept. The quick nap of a content simpleton. Not more than an hour, but plenty enough to rejuvinate a predator. I awoke to the smell of a late breakfast...

One of Bowdoc's infamous 60 egg omelettes



a pile of backstrap that would even make the Lord smile at it's perfection


and homefries the likes of which a sodbuster would turn in his plow for.


Dang but this was a fine hunt

[JC]

Yawwwwn....I guess ya'll are probably bored by now.

Oh well, it was a good story while it lasted....

[Danny Rowan]

JC you are killin me here,LOL.

Danny

[meathead]

Ohh how I remember that breakfast.

[JEFF B]

iam about to hit the sack hear in nz. bugger this will have to wait un till tomorrow :wavey:night all.
wolfman jeff

[Guru]

JC, You're doin' great bud....

[d. ward]

first week guy's....doing what they do best.....bowdoc

[JC]

No belly scratchin needed bro Curt     just draggin it out in Lamb fashion.

Full of fine food, we planned out the days baiting detail.  

Another round of baits, perforating the foam bears and target blocks, a nap here and there...late afternoon rolled around quickly as we busied ourselves at our own pace.

I saw nothing tues evening, except the red squirrel Joe had posted...it would scamper up the tree every evening to sit with it's chunk of Dunkin's finest...seemingly comfortable with my presence in the stand after a few days.

The sun set on another peaceful day. As I watched it disappear through the treetops above me whose bases formed my stand, I counted my many blessings.

 

Wednesday 6/17: We awoke to a good rain. It had rained almost every day since we arrived, but only in mild afternoon thunderstorms. This rain looked like it was here to stay. As the day before, there were plenty of small chores to help with but also plenty of time to just hang out and hear others hunting tales.