Ben is back, so I ‘m going to go ahead and share the Bear experience.
August 23, 2009
The early morning rain hitting the rain fly on the canvas roof was the alarm clock this morning, and the fresh scent of wet Aspin was as welcome as the perculating aroma of the more then darkened Folgers.
The night before, I had taken Tracy and Ben on a little ride across the mountain to show them around and give their mind and body a chance to acclimate to the altitude. The ride was a wonderful treat as I got to know Ben a little better and caught up with Tracy as well. During the ride, I decided I was going to take Ben to a favorite hole of mine that has been a great producer of elk.
As Ben and I left camp, we couldn’t help but noticed the increased spry in the animals as well. The deer were out in full force this morning. As we declined the mountain top that camp was located on, and entered the heavily oak brush covered bottom, doe, fawn, and buck all seemed to relish the wet grass as much as my pant leg was relishing the steaming coffee that couldn’t help but escape the spill proof lid of my “Kum & Go” 32 oz insulated mug.
The Jeep’s inline six sang its solitary tune and the BF All Terrains cracking and popping on the wet gravel was its band. Ben and I were mostly quiet during the ride as we took in the fresh air and fresher scenery. As we turned off on the two track that led to the spot we were going to hunt, Ben spotted a way nice 25 or 26 in 4x3 buck that was with a smaller buck and a few doe. I pulled down the road aways and decided to try my luck at a small stalk back up the road in hopes this buck’s IQ was a few points less then his rack measurement. A long story short, it wasn’t.
After many deer later, we finally reached our destination point.
The wind was good in our favor as we started our walk. We hadn’t walked more then a quarter of a mile from the jeep before I caught small movement ahead in a clump of Oak on the edge of an Aspin stand. A quick inspection through my optics revealed (in an exciting whisper) “Elk”… Ben’s eyes widened at the short but sweet word. I set Ben ahead of me and gave a few small chirps. They answered back a couple of times, but weren’t interested in joining our mock party.
We decided that we should try stalking closer and Ben took the lead. It was a pleasure watching him in his primal state of mind. Smooth, quiet and slow, we eased ahead. Unfortunately, the elk some how gave us the slip and we decided to let them be as they weren’t spooked at all. We continued on.
We got to the edge of the canyon we wanted to hunt and I chirped a few more times to no avail. I have hunted here too long to not know there weren’t elk in that canyon somewhere. Working my binos too the max, I eventually spotted a few in the bottom making their way up the canyon. Once again, the stars weren’t aligned quite right and the good wind we started with was now preventing us from any hopes of a successful stalk. We decided to let them be as well and try again later when we might have the “right” wind.
We started circling back to the jeep to try our luck else were and leave what we had here alone.
We made our way to the two track that would lead us right back to the Jeep. Once again, Ben spotted another buck in a small stand of Aspin, but it was too late as he was jumpy to begin with and he decided to get out of the country.
As we left that stand of Aspin, the road straightened and led to another. As we were about to enter the next stand, we heard a loud crash behind us and too our right coming from a lone Oak thicket on top of a knoll. I was in front, Gauge followed, Ben was in tow. Consequently, he was the first to yell “Bear”!!!!
I took a few steps toward Ben to survey the situation. As I did, I noticed a very large and very dark chocolate bear locked on to Ben and coming at him with every ounce of strength he had……
His fat rolled under his shiny coat as ripples roll on a perfectly still lake after the intrusion of an unwelcome thrown rock.
I yelled, “Knock an arrow and get ready for a fight, Ben!!!” Then I started yelling at the bear as I tried to follow my own advice. The bear started from about 250 yards out and was now approaching the 100 yard mark. I finally got an arrow ready and Ben was waving his bow back in forth above his head.
“HEY BEAR!!! HEY BEAR!!!! GET OUT OF HERE YOU (insert cuss words)!!!!!!” But he still kept coming. Ben was waving, Gauge was hackled up, and I tried one more time before it was an inevitable fight.
“HEY YOU (insert cuss words”)!!!!!! GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!!” At this point it was more of a plea then an order.
When the bear was no more then 35 or 40 yards away, he stopped in his tracks, gave us that beady eye, head swaying look, turned around and retreated back the way he came. THANK GOD!!!! The whole episode lasted probably 15 seconds at most..
We both wanted our hearts to beat that fast that morning, but not under those circumstances.
I will say, Ben handled him self like a seasoned bear fighter and stood his ground and showed his salt for sure.
I asked him why he didn't bother to get any pictures... He said, "Same reason you didn't! I think we both had a pretty good excuse!"
I did tell him that since I was the last in line, and the bear had to get through him and Gauge before he got me, that if the bear DID get him, I would have been a good freind and would have made sure to put him down. What are friends for?
Todd
Topic: For love of the game 2009... Utah, Here we came.. (Pg. 6) (Read 3327 times)
