Into a willow bar with a grizzly bear on a fall day

[chinook907]

Got dropped off for 8 days by myself back in the sticks hunting for grizzlies.
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Always amazed by what the better cub pilots can do.  Not a strip, just tundra, and not as flat as it looks.
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[chinook907]

Unloaded quickly, and then he's gone for the next 8 days.
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[Jayrod]

 

[chinook907]

Must have landed around 8pm. 
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And although its the land of the midnight sun, days had been getting shorter so I hustled to get the tent up, camp squared away, and filter some water, before the sun set ~10:30pm. Wasn't that hard but with the flight and scenery  I almost forgot the water part.
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[Ray Lyon]

   I’ve pulled up my stool. 

[Gator1]

Can’t wait for this adventure.

[chinook907]

Camp was far from spartan.
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But with a 65lb gear limit, camp was a 4-season 2 man (kindof) tent, sleeping on a simple ridgerest foam pad, an excellent 20 degree down bag, and a canister stove. 
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And way too much food.

[chinook907]

Before I dropped into the tent for the night of course I glassed the area for any critters.
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You can't hunt "same day airborne" but sure I want to see what's around.
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Spotted 2 grizzlies most of 3 miles away with the binos, a sow and cub.  A good sign.
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[Gator1]

To me the good part would be the 3 miles away. 

[nineworlds9]

Yes yes!! 

[Soonerlongbow]

    

[Boone the Hunter]

AAAAAAAGGGGHH!!!!!! Why did I have to open this before the storys done!! Killing me!! Your crazy! What happened?! Are you alive? Is a friend writing this as a tribute to you? What beautiful country! 

[Trenton G.]

This is gonna be good!!!

[chinook907]

Gator- yes it was nice to see them, but at a distance. I had thought about bringing an electric fence with me to put around camp.  Not for while I was there but when I was away.  Didn't want my food and shelter destroyed.  But I left it at home.

As it was, I was attacked in my tent most mornings and nearly every night.  By lemmings !
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The numbers of the little boogers had exploded.  They got into my bag of steel cut oatmeal, the raisins, and the powdered milk.  Incredible how loud the sound was of one of them crunching on the uncooked oatmeal.
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Not sure what it means but they left the mt house alone 
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Of course I shooshed them off but they always came back.
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[Soonerlongbow]

AAAAAAAGGGGHH!!!!!! Why did I have to open this before the storys done!! Killing me!! Your crazy! What happened?! Are you alive? Is a friend writing this as a tribute to you? What beautiful country! 

That’s EXACTLY what I thought too!!!

[Gator1]

You be safe.  This is going to be a wonderful adventure to follow.

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

I've walked tundra before... it is the definition of not flat!

Looking forward to this story.

[chinook907]

With all the hustle of getting things wrapped up at home & work, and the travel, sleep came easy.
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Sometime in the night a heavy fog had moved in, so the next morning it was socked-in in my valley(s).
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When it cleared around noon I was out, hiking upstream to a low bluff overlooking the main river and the willow covered gravel bars that were a part of it.  Our willows are bushes but generally pretty thick cover.
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I could see into some of them a bit and others not so much.  And also kept an eye on the benches and slopes around me.  Not many berries so the grizzlies would be digging roots and digging for different rodents.
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[chinook907]

I wasn't too far into my sit when a big old grizzly appeared out of the willows, crossing the river to the far bank.
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"He was big and bent and gray and old
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold" from Boy Named Sue best sung by Mr. Johnny Cash
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[chinook907]