Circumstances and a great and very understanding wife has allowed me to hunt a lot more than I should the last dozen years or so. I find myself a bit jaded at times without the enthusiasm and anticipation for the upcoming hunt I used to experience when my hunting time was limited.
That all changed when Jay arrived at my house on the day before the hunt. His enthusiasm and excitement were infectious and I felt the old anticipation of the hunt coming back.
We shot our bows, ate and stayed up later than a good host should have allowed a tired traveler too.
Friday we packed up, picked up Steve at the bus terminal and met up with Doc, Whip and JC at Doc’s place. The brotherhood of traditional archers continues to amaze me. People from different backgrounds and locations bond as quickly as superglue.
Doc’s basement is a bowyers dream. He has more bows of all different types than anyplace I have seen.I could have spent the entire week there, and not seen them all. We flung a few arrows and our gracious hosts Doc and Molly treated us to a fine meal. After a nap we were on the road to meet the rest of the crew in Vermont.
The rest of the journey up to camp has been well written by JC and others so I’ll fast forward to the drawing of stands for the first night. Although I do have to add that Bowdoc would take another chapter to describe.
I drew the Roller Coaster stand. A first year bait that had a big bear on it. I believe there was a sow taken off the bait in week one and a larger bear seen.
The tracks at the bait were large and for two of the three days I sat that stand, the barrel was torn out of the crib and rolled down the hill.
No sightings the first two nights prompted me to move the stand to another tree. Early on the third night, I briefly saw a very nervous or agitated bear come and check the tree that the stand had been in. I could hear sticks breaking and had nervous small game at the bait for the rest of the evening, but the bear never showed. I was back in the stand at daylight on the following day. The barrel once again torn from the crib and down the hill. I sat for three hours, no bear.
There was another drawing of stands that had opened up that afternoon. I drew the Bird stand where Jay had taken his first bear, and had other lifelong memories created the previous evening..........
Topic: BEAR QUEST II Spring BEAR HUNT 2 Openings (Read 40426 times)
