Friday Night:
I'm really going to miss those beautifully, long summer nights... Bailed on work in the afternoon and still had time to make a loop of the trail cameras. There were the familiar bear muzzles on the two cameras near swamps but I also had two sets of good body shots. The monster black bear was at the camera only 12 hours before I pulled the card. The smaller color phase bear had been there two weeks before I arrived.
This was all very exciting but I had no illusions of success on my first bear hunt. In six years of Washington fishing/hunting/hiking/driving, I had seen a grand total of one bear (North Cascades National Park, we were browsing the same blueberry patch). A further damper on expectations was that my pre-trip game plan was already toast. I had assumed the service berries would be at peak ripeness and that I would just spend the weekend standing guard over acres of berry bear bait. Instead the few berries that the birds had left were already dehydrated... As I crawled into the bed of the truck for some shuteye my only consolation was that the choke cherries were looking pretty ripe and might taste better to a bear.
Saturday:
Meandered aimlessly for about an hour until I heard some Jurassic Park worthy crashing coming from inside the wetlands. I kept expecting to see the tops of trees swaying it was that loud. Instead what I found as I got closer was that a big black bear was tearing down cherry branches and shredding dead logs. All I could see was glimpses of black within deep shadows while I stood out in the bright sun on a stump about 40 yards away. If he had sniffed something tasty just a few yards in my direction I might be singing the praises of bear lard in my pastries but he was slowly moving deeper into the cover. I tried a predator call (unhappy bunny) but perhaps because he had never seen or heard a rabbit, that was a flop. I needed some time to bring the heart rate down and steady the nerves so it was time to stalk the chipmunks.
The rest of the morning was quiet and I eventually went back to home base to continue thinning out some of the younger trees. For the evening hunt I opted to try sitting within earshot of the wetlands with a good view just in case a bear went into the open.
I waited until dark with no activity to be seen or heard but what I found out three weeks later was that I got into position about 15 minutes too late. The big bear below had been feeding at both 1:30pm and 5:45pm within 100 yards of my shooting stump...
Sunday:
Tried to recreate the magic of Saturday morning but I was immediately distracted by a small herd of elk moving up towards the wetlands for a morning drink. While trying to capture some of their calls, two elk calves came skittering around the corner and pulled up at 15 yards, completely un-flustered by my presence. Even after they turned and headed back for mom, the herd was unconcerned and I got within 30 yards of what will be a legal spike elk in late November. Much wiser was the lead cow who started a sharp bark when she spotted me.
The wetlands were hosting no thrashing monsters so I continued wandering, looking for other areas of heavy activity and comfortable in the knowledge that I would be able to hear my quarry before I was busted if I kept the wind right. In keeping with the ungulate theme, I next ran into some does and their fawns. They had heard me and all were snorting and stomping back and forth as they tried to figure out what I was.
Eventually, I conceded that it was getting too warm for bears and decided to walk a property line I hadn't made it down to before. As I was sitting on a stump, eating zucchini bread as all hardcore hunters do, I was stunned to see a smaller, color phase bear ambled across the clear cut (after review, possibly the bear shown in the first trail cam picture). Even in that moment of disbelief I was trying to calculate how that bear had not been spooked by my travels (below in yellow). All of my research and mental checklists went right out the window as I scrambled to try an off-hand shot. Thank goodness I completely missed high as I am not steady enough to be trying that kind of shot past shotgun range (and preferably with a shotgun). The bear looked over his shoulder to see what had just smacked the dirt and he continued to quarter away from me at a walk. That shot kicked my brain back into gear and I tried to find somewhere where I could steady myself and take a high percentage shot. The bear gave me the slip and I was left to ponder all of my mistakes. Thoroughly disgusted with myself, I made a bee-line for the truck and headed home.
That five second sequence has been haunting me ever since and I can only hope it has scarred me enough that I perform better next time. Writing this post has been the first time I stepped back enough to realize how epic the rest of the trip turned out.
P.S. - The Truck
I snuck a mention into the last few posts but the truck is a big development that deserves a sidebar. This summer we abandoned 12 years of being a one car family in favor of having some more space and to leave the family a towny car when I run for the hills. I was drawn to the F-150 for its light weight and relatively gently guzzling engines. I wanted an even smaller engine to go with the bench seated, long bedded, crew cab but as the truck wholesaler explained it to me - I was looking for a double horned unicorn. We ended up with a 2017 model that gets almost the same mileage as the Subaru but can hold a small army and all of their tactical gear while dragging a tank. We added the high shell to make it a comfy camping rig and I'm looking forward to utilizing it often this fall.