May 2009: SOLO Alaskan Brown Bear

[Steve H.]

On one side of Otter Island is a seal haulout.  About three dozen seals were resting the day I took these photos.  The seals routinely pop up yards away from the boat when I am out searching for bears and curiously look at me, perhaps wondering what I would taste like.  Some of those three dozen seals are in the water as the rock they are currently lying on is inundated by the incoming tide.

 

[Steve H.]

Herring spawn over a multi-mile section in late April.  Many birds, fish, and mammals flock to and lap up the eggs.  Here is a close-up of herring eggs coating a strand of kelp.  The bears LOVE herring eggs!

 

[Steve H.]

In anticipation of a bit of down time, I again brought The Witchery of Archery, Toxophilus in Arcadia, and this time Moby Dick.  Ironically I saw humpback whales spouting and breaching as I motored to Otter Island.

Take home lesson:  Captain Ahab must get his whale and Steve must get his brown bear!

 

[Steve H.]

The first day of hunting I beached the boat and stood on a rock pile in that old favorite bay and glassed.  Spring seemed a bit late so I wasn’t even sure I would see a bear that day.  Soon a small bear popped out of the woods of all places about 100 yards away and re-entered the woods, reappeared and re-entered the woods again.  A couple hours later the bear reappeared further down and I took off to see if I could close the gap.

The bear dug in the sand while I waited back in a small disconnected treeline a hundred and fifty yards away.

 


The bear eventually started working along the river bank and looked like it may circle right to me but stopped and got a drank and went back to digging in the sand.  By the way, the trappers cabin I shivered a wet night in during the 2008 trip is in the far treeline of these two photos.

 

[Steve H.]

Every march I get to watch on TradGang as many of you go shed hunting while I am still engulfed in Old Man Winter's darkness.  Finally I got to do some shed hunting but my results were not quite what I had hoped.  It is always disheartening to see evidence of winter kill.  Here is a shed out Sitka blacktail buck that had made it until at least February.

 

[Steve H.]

But sometime you find exactly what you hope on a beach combing mission.  Foot prints of a good-sized bear poking around on one of my favorite beaches!

This year I had a 54# longbow, Douglas Fir arrows tipped with 160 grain Grizzlys.

 

[Steve H.]

A few days later I was able to get between that first day bear and the treeline.  Unfortunately it seemed as if that bear didn’t read the rule book that bears on this island were suppose to routinely feed back close to security cover.  I think this bear’s security cover was way out on the tide flats so she could see danger approaching and have plenty of time to react.  This bear looked as if she had had an exceptionally hard winter.  When bear go into denning they go in all chunked up and fat.  Their bodies feed off their fat reserves as the winter progresses.  When the fat is all used up they metabolize their muscle tissues next and if that runs out before winter ends they die.  I think this bear was in a race and just barely beat the end of winter as bones were poking out all over.  I say she because I saw her squat to pee.  The thinner head also suggested she was a sow.  Here she takes a nap in the sun right on top of one of my favorite boat beaching spots!  She is barely over a hundred yards away in this shot.  When she got up she stayed out in the flats giving wide berth to the treeline once again.

 

[Steve H.]

The next day I saw a dark brown bear, a little bit bigger that the dark brown bear mentioned during the 2007 and 2008 sections.  Guess where I saw him?  You got it, same place.  In slowly motored to shore, anchored the boat, and hugged the edge since it was sandy and wet grass and a quieter spot than usual.  I actually got to about 35 yards before he fed away and I had to duck into the trees.  The stalk fell apart from there but what an awesome coat this bear had and beautifully luxuriant as many bears are not.  The next day I once again had a chance at this bear and got to 30 yards or so but too much brush and not close enough although I nocked an arrow for the first time on this trip so we are getting serious now!

[BlackDog]

Thanks for taking the time to share. Keep it coming!

[pdk25]

I feel like I should be paying for this.  Thanks so much for the story and great pictures.

[Steve H.]

I got up and was having a Hungry Jack–morning and I settled down on a big chunk of basalt and read from Moby Dick.  I routinely glass the beaches from Otter Island in the morning.  In general I am a believer in evening is the time to bear hunt but I am increasingly observant anytime the tide is outgoing as bears will check the line of flotsam to see what has washed up on shore on the last lunar round.

I had seen that small bear almost every day and there she was again or what I thought was probably her on one of my favorite beaches about 2 ½ miles way.  She was not my dream bear but I had stalked her on several occasions knowing that the heart of my hunts were interacting with the bears and taking opportunities as they presented themselves.

I gathered up my gear and motored off and started to beach my boat in the small creek where I had photographed the same bear in the picture (above) but at the last minute decided against it as the wind seemed wrong.  I made a big loop in the boat and anchored it on a rocky strip of coast.

[Gerardo]

THESE IS GREAT     keep it coming

[Steve H.]

I worked my way along the high tide line until I saw the bear and I entered the woods and silently yet quickly slipped down a bear trail.  These bear trails inside the woods are always a bit eerie.  I find eagle feathers and skeletons, crustacean and mollusk carapaces that otters have drug to shore, and other signs of life past.

I had almost made it adjacent to the bear, still out on the beach but just outside the treeline, and I could see her enter the woods.  I was just a bit too far away so I had to quickly make up a few steps as she flowed deeper into the woods and up onto the raised isostatic rebound berm that I was on.

I nocked an arrow and took a couple more quick-silent steps as she cleared a tree at around 15 yards.

I drew and shot and MISSED with my arrow traveling right in front of her brisket!

NO-ugghh!

[Steve H.]

The bear acted like a bird flew too close but started working deeper into the woods, suspicion raised a notch.  I nocked a second arrow and when her head went behind a tree I quickly took about four more steps forward.

Smaller bears live in fear of larger bears and I speculate she thought the slight commotion could be another bear.  She lept up against a hemlock tree her claws raked the bark loudly as she searched for the cause of the commotion.

I drew again and buried my arrow up to the fletching in the muscle of her shoulder and she quivered and in moments fell backwards off the berm and soon lay silent on her last bed of evergreen.  The years were over that fast.

Not a large bear by anyone's estimation but a bear taken in a more personal manor I suspect will be hard to find.

 

[Steve H.]

Only about one bear in about 30 animals will have blond hair on bears I have observed on Chichagof Island.  Although the photos only hint at it, this bear has a golden head maned with blond and a blond saddle.

[Steve H.]

As small as she was she still had pretty substantial claws!

 

[Steve H.]

Here is the shot site.  I was standing by the liter in the trail. The bear was at the hemlock tree that the two shiny poles are leaning on in a "V" pattern.  The shot distance was 13 yards.

 

[Steve H.]

Here is the section of beach where she was on when I spotted her.  Otter Island is distant in the background.

I have come close to arrowing a bear on this section of beach several times over the years and if I would have had to guess where I would finally arrow a bear this would have been one of my two most likely spots and the second being the vicinity of the 2008 4-yard encounter.

[Steve H.]

Opps, forgot the photo!  (I take it back, Otter Island isn't visible in this photo)

 

[Steve H.]

And so it ends until it begins again!


Otter Island at low tide.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!