i finaly got my internet back i know it is a little late but here is the story.
i met these two fine men here on trad gang they responded to a trade a hut post about some pigs. well their turn came first and i had planned a prince william sound bear hunt out of a skiff. well the day after they showed up in kenai we drove to whitter and to my suprise it was still winter in there. we gave it a shot anyway with a 4 hour run in 30kt winds and 4 to 6 foot seas we made it to our destination. lucky for us their was a cabin that was reserved but due to the weather the people didnt show so we had a place to dry our stuff and hide from the rain and wind.
we stayed there for two nights after some scouting and thought the bears were just not out yet. there was still 4foot of snow above tideline. so the day we packed up the weather cleared and water smoothed and we left for the kenai peninsula.
once again we lucked out and found a cabin that wasnt reserved, we didnt spend a single night in a tent. the first evening on the lake we walked up a river valley and to no suprise there was a brownie looking around, he came up twards us and showed no fear, we had time to snap a few pics then run him off.
later that evening we began glassing some burn area on the side of the mountain, we spotted a smaller black bear and atempted a stalk but the burn area was full of downed trees and 3 year old birch and willow, it was a noisy aproach to say the least.
further up the mountain we glassed numerous bears over the next few days 16 to be exact, but we could not find a way up around some drainige cuts, the second to last day we found a steep ridge that led up to prime spring foraging, as soon as we crested we were on a bear, this one eluded us three diferent times without so much as joging. we spent the rest of the day sidehilling the mountain we had seen the bears on. we spotted a few other and one extremely large one. the day took a scary trun when trying to cross a snow damned ceek matt went through and almost under the snow pack. the rest of the day was spent walking to camp wishing we had been there five hours ago.
the last day came and we decided to go back to the same are we had chased the bear the morning before. we sat in the same spot for a half hour when matt spotted a bear working its way down a ridge 500 yards away. we watched it for a while and decided that if we could get a chance matt would shoot. we atemped to move itno a better vantage point when the bear made it to the valley below us. our movement must have made the bear curious and it climbed one of the thee trees in the valley when we saw this we ran to that tree. the bear was not happy, it began woofing drooling. mat took a shot and the arrow glanced off a branch, he nocked another and shot again this one stuck the bear, what looked like to be a good hit the bear roared and then began climbing down the tree, it seemed to be looking directly into out eyes. i told matt that if that bear put one foot on the ground i was going to shoot with the rifle. matts last try landed dead center, the bear went stiff then came the fall, about 10 foot of crashing and the bear was dead when it hit the ground.
we looked over his kill then went and found tom who was hunting the other side, we all skinned and boned out the meat, then packed it down the mountain to the boat. the rest of the evening was full of what iffs, what if matt had missed what if it had gotten out of the tree and the what if I would have missed, who knows. but i bet it would have been bad.
we looked for another bear that evening for tom but we failed, the next morning we packed up and headed out.
now it is my turn oct 15 i am flying down to texas to take on some pigs and deer, this is the first time i have been out of state to hunt and should be a great time,
thanks tom and matt
Topic: spring bear trade a hunt results. pics added, story added (Read 2451 times)
