Bear Quest III >>---> Start Your Engines

[Shaun]

Chapter 1 - Group "W" Bench to God Save the Queen.

Canada has a policy - no criminals allowed in. Since I am an American and one out of a hundred of us is in prison at any given time... Felonious gardening - or what the State of Iowa insists on calling Manufacture of a Controlled Substance - had me as an ex member of that one in-a-hundred club. I spent a pile of lucre and several months trying to get a TRP (Temporary Residency Permit) to enter Stinson Land.

Despite the efforts of my hired immigration attorney from Toronto, the required permit did not come through and I had to call Tom to let him know that I was unlikely to be able to attend. And call Nate to let him know our carpool plans were trashed.

I had one last hope which was to present myself at the border and see if the superintendent at the Detroit tunnel would review my case and grant me special dispensation. My legal beagle had not as yet even secured a commitment to talk to me from the man in question.

I left home on Friday morning with low hopes for the crossing and a back up plan to visit my folks in Ohio when I was turned back at the border. About 5 PM my cell phone rang as I drove through Michigan. "You can talk to Bob Genereux at the tunnel but you have to wait till the weekend traffic rush clears and see him after 8PM."

I killed a few hours in Detroit and plunged under the river and popped up in Windsor. I said a little prayer for God's will not mine, and followed directions to the counter where I met Mr Genereux. He allowed as my attorney had failed to send him any of the information about my application and started from scratch with the usual questions.

When I got to the part of the tale where my mom refused to become an American citizen preferring to retain her birth nationality and carry a green card, Mr Genereux perked up. "Your mother is a Canadian?"... "Your parents were married at the time of your birth?"... "Your were born on a US army base in Alaska?"...

The keys on his computer flew and he called a couple other officers over to read what was on the screen. "Mr Webb, there was a new law passed just this April... and everyone born of a Canadian citizen, in wedlock, outside of Canada has been retroactively - from the time of their birth - been declared a Canadian citizen. Welcome to Canada, you are a Canadian by decent."

After a few moments of confusion as I thought he said "by dissent" and I had not even told him my political views, I said, "God Save the Queen!"

I followed the "Queens Highway" also called Hwy 402 across the province of Ontario and watched the sunrise over Quebec. Dreams of socialized medicine, traveling the world on a Canadian passport, heck - trips to Cuba (wonder if they have bow hunting) danced in my mind. And I was in for BearQuest III !!!!!!!!!

 

[Kingwouldbe]

Shaun, that was to funny  

[Steve O]

Shaun! HAH! Good job, eh?  

[4runr]

Shaun, that was one of the best "stories" told so far. Happy as heck for you that you got in.


Doc, sounds like a good beginning to your's so far.

[Matty]

I cant do pics yet, I have Hundreds.  I'm still on vacation in NY (I know... who vacations in NY?)  LOL Anyway i dont have my wires and all so it will have to wait till next weekend. However I'll post my story tomorrow.. Goodnight all! and enjoy the reads...
Matty....AKA: "HEALTH FOOD DUDE"  

[jcar315]

Congrats Shaun on your new found Canadian citizenship!!!! sounds like it came in pretty handy right then and there.

[Shaun]

Chapter 2- The Hunt

I drove a long, long, long time and found myself heading up 155 north of Three Rivers (Troi-Rivieres, QC - not our archery supply sponsor). I had a dim memory of driving through the burbs of Montreal and noticing that I seemed to be digging up some high school French to read the signage in Quebec. The country started to look promising as the highway began to parallel a fine river.

 

Tom had given me directions to camp but I had to backtrack to the sport shop and ask Reme where the turn to dix (ten) was on the north side of La Tuque. About an hour later I found the sign that told me I was only six clicks from home.

   

I had a plan. I would drop the string on a bear at the beginning of this hunt, then spend the last several days fishing and visiting. Pretty ambitious plan for what Uncle Barry calls "a bear virgin." To be fair, I had sat two afternoons over fall bear baits in northern MN and another half dozen guarding spring baits in ID. But my combined total success for these efforts was one brief bear sighting and no shot opportunities.

My optimism was based mostly on reading the reports from BearQuest I & II here on Pow Wow. It was reported that everyone, yes, everyone had close encounters with bears on these previous hunts. It was hard to believe from my limited bear hunting experience but it was written and trad archers are notoriously bad liars. So, I believed there was a bear with my name on it.

I arrived at camp about mid day running on one hour of sleep and a blend of coffee and energy drinks. A couple of the hunters declared that they were sitting out the Saturday hunt to get some rest. "Me too", I wisely said. After getting to know some new folks and rekindling some friendships with those with whom I'd shared campfires, we drew from a hat for stands.

I drew "The Point", which meant nothing to me, but I was assured that it was a hot spot. However, it needed a stand hung and I did not want to hang a stand and then hunt after making a ruckus. Again, it pointed towards getting some rest that first evening. But, as others sharpened broad heads, checked their gear packs, and began to arrange the evening hunt, my fatigue lifted and I felt that drive to hunt well up. There was another stand that was not drawn and it had a stand and was ready to go.

I was shown to this new spot "The Glove" and settled in - well harnessed to prevent a sleepy plummet of seven feet - and was soon watching red squirrels playing about the bait.

[Shaun]

I was nearly asleep when something in the primitive part of my brain sent the signal out for adrenalin. Suddenly I as WIDE awake!

   

This turned out to be what I later learned to judge as about a 130# boar. He hung around for about 10 minutes but never offered me a relaxed at-the-bait shot. I had heard that these relaxed at-the-bait shots were highly desirable and a patient person might get one. The fact that the bait barrel was about 4 yards from my feet not withstanding, I believed it might happen. Plus, this was my first extended sighting of a live in the wild bear and he performed some amusing antics.

You bear veterans know all about this stuff, but it was all new to me. I had read about "woofing", "teeth gnashing" and "charging" but reading about and experiencing... well, "Its like trying to tell a stranger about rock n roll." I had expected to be scared, real scared. But it was entertaining, almost comical. When the boar left it was rather sudden and it turned out to be precipitated by the arrival of a larger bear. This one was a sow with this year's cubs. They were the size of prize bears at the fair. These two little cuties shot up a tree on command of Mama Bear who then spent an hour trying to drive me off. I finally let her do just that as dusk settled and what a first evening it had been!

[bbassi]

Great story so far Shaun! Definitely made me laugh with that first part. So now that you're a Canuck, does that mean you didn't have to pay non-resident alien license fees? That would make the trip worth while right there!    

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Shaun I beleive a maple leaf flag is in order!

I see more hunting trips to Canada in the future!

Lets go kill some moose!

[hunt it]

Shaun, congrats on being a Canuck!! You can now move to the land of plenty and free health care! Next time you travel down the 402 HWY you better call me. My place is under 5 mins off the 402!

[Todweelz]

Great stories so far, keep them coming!! This post has me pumped   I'm leaving in the a.m. for a camp 3 hours north of Montreal... More pics. Todd

[tippit]

OK so now it's Saturday afternoon...camp set up and hunting gear all ready.  Do I go out and sit my stand or give it time for the bears to find the freshened bait.  I'm kinda 50/50 on this some years I can't wait to get out, other times it's nice to unwind from the long trip up.  Tom usually won't go out until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Finally the excitement of the rookie bear hunters is too contagious.  Besides Myron needs a guide to his stand on the water.  I had set my video holder on my tree when I baited so I grab my bow, pack, and video cam.  After dropping Myron at the Cove stand, I head the boat to the Moose Tower stand.  It sure feels like home when I land the boat by the old moose hunter's tower.  

 

First priority is get the Thermacell going and head net on til it kicks in.  We moved the Moose Tower stand this year a bit further in and in very dense cover.  Now you won't see a bear until it was almost on the bait.  I was excited cause in the past the bears seemed to hang up coming down the hill into the bait due to the openness.  

I was settled and hunting in my stand at 4 PM.  It would be dark around 9:30 PM so I had plenty of time to enjoy the birds and squirrels.  Then at 6:00 PM, I saw black movement and heard branches breaking...I had my hearing aid turned all the way up    Finally a real nice bear was on top of the crib tearing logs off but not wanting to come around front.  I judged it to be between a 175-200# bear.  My camcorder was rolling.  

Then from under my stand which is about 8 feet up and 6 yards from the crib came the most breath taking sight I'd ever seen on seven previous bear hunt!!!

Does anyone know how to load video footage from a digital tape on Photobucket    Doc

[Grant Young]

C'mon Doc- I didn't even hear the whole story in camp. Tradgangers, you shoulda seen Tippet's bear- it was only a hair smaller than the grin he wore when he brought it in. Congrats again Doc.  GY

[Barry Wensel]

I find this very interesting in Jeff's thoughts on bears holding up and not entering the bait set-ups because it seemed too open. I was thinking the exact opposite. My bait was much more open, surrounded by low understory. I saw 33 bears and most came in multiple times. The one night I traded stands with Randy and Thomas, which was a tighter set-up, I noticed four bears circling and not wanting to commit because the area surrounding the bait was so thick they couldn't see well and felt uncomfortable. My theory was with the breeding going on, the big boars on the prowl and with the pecking order, I thought the bears felt much more comfortable being able to see 50 yds. or so to the barrel. Approach to determine if there was a brute there already that could whup his arse. If there was they would circle and take turns, but if there was a smaller bear on the bait the bigger would run him off and take it over. I also noticed if the big boars came in with a hot sow he would hold back and let her go in to feed while he'd circle to keep any other boars at bay. Then after she fed he would slide in to feed. Real gentlemanly! At least that was my read on it... Maybe I'm wrong in theory though as Jeff got the biggest bear too.ha. bw

[leatherneck]

I think you said it in your post Barry. Through my very limited experience, I've speculated that if a bait has a big, aggressive boar in the area, then the other bears are apprenhensive about coming in. Cover not being an issue. If there are no dominant bears, then they come right in. Not sure if this is true but that has been my experience.
Now, lets hear some more good stories.

Mike

[RRock]

Come on Doc, I'm getting older waiting!

[tippit]

Barry,  The Moose Tower has been good to me through these past 8 years.  It seems to be quite different from the Resurrection stand in that bears would come down the hill behind the barrel but not want to come in.  Maybe it was because of the water behind the tree stand but I think more because they would be on eye level coming down the hill.  Most bears there were taken near dark.

The placement of the new Moose Tower evolved more because that was the spot were 3 arrowed bears ran to & died.  Plus Tom liked it  

Back to my story:

I will try to down load the video of Saturday night...but full steam ahead anyway.  A few minutes after the first bear came in, I had the biggest bear I'd ever seen in the woods of La Tuque come under my stand and go right to the barrel  :eek:  Now it became evident that the first bear was a sow and being bred by Mr Big. She had two distinct bite wounds on her back as  proof of his affection or determination.  Now he was 5 yards from me sitting in front of the barrel completely covering up a 55 gal drum!  He wasn't disturbed and eat very nochalantly...But not one good shot opportunity.  Yea there was the over the hip shot...ask Steve about that one and there was the in the barrel shot..ask JC about that one.  Being a veterinarian and obsessed with anatomy, there was no way I was going to take a risky shot and wound the best bear I'd seen.  So he eat for 5 minutes and was gone.  The sow stayed for an hour, returned for another half hour and finally left at dark...thankfully cause that allowed me to slip out quietly.  I showed the video back at camp and immediately everyone tried to black ball me from the bear pool   :mad:   Heck all I did was take some pictures of a big bear...not as though I shot it.  But I would spend the rest of my week if needed to get a chance at Mr Big...Doc

[jcar315]

Cant' wait to read more.....

[leatherneck]

Now Doc, these little segments of the story just ain't right. Especially for a man that just had elbow surgery and can't even shoot a bow right now. These stories are all I have! So out with them fellows.

Mike