So, i will tell you about Fri. I went up in the morning and found the bait cleaned again. I made two trips with a lot of bait. I filled the crib. Nathan was to meet me at 2 and showed up right on time. We headed up to the bait, hung his stand, did a burn or three, then as we were winding down the last burn, a houndsman with dogs came right through my bait. This was totally accidental, as it's illegal to run off of baits here in UT. He apologized as soon as he saw me, told me he would inform other houndsmen not to run this canyon, all the while trying to move his dogs down the canyon. It goes to show that there are classy guys everywhere. He was very polite and wished me luck. Nathan ans I got into the stands and waited.
At around 6:30-7 I saw legs moving through the timber, whispered to Nathan, "bear", and grabbed my bow.
At this time I should tell you the temps were in the low 40's. We were cold. As the bear emegered, it looked a little bigger than the other one, I was going to try to shoot this bear, one problem. I was shaking so bad that I thought I was going to fall out of the tree. The bear had a blackish belly and legs, and an auburn reddish back. It was a beautiful bear. It got to within forty yards, then turned and walked back up the mountain. I couldn't figure out what happened. The wind was right. Oh well, got to see another one! I looked at Nate with a huge grin and it was like looking in the mirror. I turned back, and there was "Blondie" forty yards away looking down at me from across the canyon. By now I was not shaking so bad, and thought to myself," when this bear comes in, take it!" This bear stuck around, between 30-40 yards for about ten minutes. It would start to leave then turn as the sweet smell of food would entice it back. Then turn to laeve again. It finally crossed where the dogs had come through and blew out of there like the devil himself was on it's tail. When Nathan and I got back to the truck, we discussed that we thought it was the dogs scent that had spooked those bears, but we weren't confident. We would find out on Sat. night if our theory was correct.
No pics from that night, I was really wanting to shoot a bear. But I found a way to rig my camera for SAt. So whan the video downloads, I will continue. Unfortunately, it might not be til Wed. night or FRi. So "bear" with me. Pun intended.