Lemon drops, mountain tops, and bears.

[geno]

I would like to see that cold weather.95 don't cut it for me.

[PaPaFrank]

WOW!  Took me awhile to let all that soak in...Thanks a lot for sharing fellas...Great story and beautiful pictures!!  

[Charlie Lamb]

With time to kill we made the best of the opportunity to explore these mountains that seemed so strange to me.

The mountains of my youth were arid and except for downed timber little covered the forest floor save the usual huckleberry carpet.

These northern Idaho mountains were anything but arid.

When Ted Fry had told me they were rain forest I have to admit to a moment of doubt. How could that be? I'd wondered.
   

But rain forest they were...indeed! Everything was covered with moss of one form or the other. Underbrush grew rank on the precipitice mountainsides. It would be easy to get lost in these hills if it weren't for the very rugged nature of the mountains.
   

I believe that the trees in this forest, red cedar, fir and others were bigger than anything I'd ever been around.

Notice how Curtis just disappears in the cover.    
   

On one of our little exploratory trips Curtis and I found this forest giant tipped over. It was hollow inside and we imagined it would make a perfect den site for a bear.
 

[W.Tim]

Great read and GREAT pic's  

[Killdeer]

   

[paleFace]

having withdraw's!!!! more, more, more.....              

[Charlie Lamb]

Notice the stuff that Curtis is holding in front of his face?  Those ain't leaves! That's some kind of moss or dead tree recycling growth. Like I said, moss and stuff like that were everywhere.

In the process of making a new addition to the story. Thanks for being patient.

[Charlie Lamb]

Did I mention that we ate a lot? LOL We sure did and for the level of activity going on I'm sure I put on a few extra pounds during the hunt.

That first day back at the bait after the rain was a long one. We went in around 1 p.m. and stayed until about 9 p.m. which was when it got too dark to shoot where I was... some of the blinds were more open and the ambient light allows for a slightly longer stay.

I was pretty stove up from all that time on a stool waiting for a bear.
If I've learned anything over the years, it's that you should never grow complacent when on stand.
If you do it will be that very moment when the target animal will show up... don't ask how I know that.

The wet conditions and warming temperatures brought out the nemisis of all bear hunters everywhere... mosquitoes!!
They weren't as thick as I've seen them in other places, but I suspect that was just because of the conditions in that place at that moment.

I'd made the disconcerting discovery that my Thermacell unit wasn't functioning correctly, and without "Off" or any other insect repellant, I was at the mercy of the bloodsuckers.

Since I had on my heavy hooded camo jacket, I simply cinched the hood down tight, pulled my fleece neck gaitor up over my mouth and nose, put my hands in my pocket and peer out through the space that was left. It worked just fine.

Here was the veiw I had most of the time I spent on that stand.
 

[Shaun]

I know about the lemon drops, but I was there. How long you gonna leave em guessing?

What you said about the soft approach to advertising trad archery is so true. When I first learned that we would be sharing camp with a couple of riffle hunters, I wallowed in resentment and self pitty for about a minute, then did the old cranial rectal extraction and got on with life. As usual my fears were unfounded and Ty & Ty were one of the highlights of the hunt. They were witty, genuine and full of homespun wisdom. Dang fine hunters too. The attraction of grown or at least older men playing with bows and arrows was too much for them to resist. Couple of converts created.

Quotes: Ty Sr "Ready? I'm like lunchmeat - always ready!"  Ty Jr "A blow to the head like that and you'll be getting coloring books for Christmas for the rest of your life!"

[Charlie Lamb]

Meanwhile down the mountain a long ways, Paul was having encounters with the bear that had come to be known as "Big Black" and Shaun was having his own sightings.

One thing you'll notice when you're bear hunting and a thing you should pay attention to.
You may have visitors other than bears at your bait station.

In my case, at this particular bait, the visitors were Columbia Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks. In Wyoming it had been Gray Jays (camp robbers).
They not only provide some intertainment during the long vigils, but they are also an early warning system of sorts.

If you are sitting there and all the little critters that have been hanging around suddenly leave, it's a real good idea to be extra alert... a bear may be about.

It also pays to pay attention to the woodland sounds, as squirrels are very likely to tell on an approaching bruin.

In Curtis' case there had been a snow shoe rabbit playing around under the bait ball that hung near the bait pile.
When the little hare suddenly alerted and stared off into the timber and then just as suddenly left the area, Curtis knew to pay close attention to where it had been looking.

It wasn't a big surprise when his bear strode into view.

[Charlie Lamb]

Well Shaun, to tell the truth, I kinda let the gumdrop thing slip away. Here it is...

Curtis is real fond of Lemonhead candies... little lemon flavored gumdrop hard candies. He usually has some in his duffle on any trip. At least he has on the trips I've shared with him.

He'd very generously tossed several of them out in front of him at his bait site and when the bear came in it was distracted by the new and apparently appealing sweet treat.
I believe the bear was reaching for a lemon drop when Curtis sent a razorsharp Sasquatch broadhead into his armpit.
Is that fair????

[Charlie Lamb]

When we were back in Wyoming we'd taken advantage of the opportunity to shoot ground squirrels. I've shot literally thousands of the little buggers and think its about the most fun a guy can have.

I knew Curtis would fall in love with it and he did.
Now in Idaho we had a whole new species of ground squirrel to chase and I was up for the game.

I'd shot Thirteen Lined ground squirrels in the past. The little ground squirrels in Wyoming are the Richardson's variety and the squirrels we found in Idaho were the Columbia Ground Squirrel.

The Richardson's make the Thirteen Lined look tiny and the Columbia makes the Richardson's look small. I was eager to add the big Columbia to my life list.

Once we got started I knew we'd have to pry Curtis loose from the squirrel shooting. Like myself, he is a small game addict!

For whatever reason I don't have a single picture from the day we set aside for our ground squirrel adventure. I should be shot.

Ted took us to a place he called squirrel hill. It was a large open meadow on the top of a mountain. With small patches of native timber scattered here and there throughout the meadow it was an idyllic place to hunt.

While I suspected that the sport would be rather common compared to hunting the little "gophers" of Wyoming, I was in for a surprise.

Easilly four times larger than their cousins across the mountains, they were every bit as jumpy and lack nothing in the department of quickness.

I found that out on my very first shot.

[PV]

Here's one.

[Puma Tom]

Hey Charlie + Shawn
 Great story and photos.
 Is that Valley foods ? with all those mounts.

[Littlefeather]

Yea, never leave home without your trusty Lemon drops. Never know when they may come in handy.

Some pics: The Guides not so trusty steed.

   

Something that will haunt me till Fall.

   

The newest Traditionalist to our camp preoccupied with other things.


   


Shawn discussing culinary masterpieces no doubt. Cooks gone wild!

   


Beargrass blooms. The sweet fragrance of all the flowers in the forest is incredible.

   

[cjones]

Keep it coming guys! Loving this. There hasn't been nearly enough "Lamb" storytellin lately.

[Charlie Lamb]

Those Columbia Ground squirrels were something else and for this old midwestern boy, they looked like they belonged in a tree.
That would have made them even tougher, for although I do a pretty good job of shooting groundsquirrels, I have a dickens of a time hitting tree squirrels.
No figuring that one out... just the way it is.

I spotted my first Columbia not long after I entered the meadow. I'd seen Shaun stalking along the eastern edge, so I went west.

Not far from the end of a long dead fir which lay like a long finger pointing the way, stood a squirrel.
It was a figure from right out of the pages of one of my archery magazines... my hero Chet Stevenson had shot them often near his Oregon home.
I promptly flubbed the shot and with a chirp the squirrel was gone.

Usually I'll try to sneak up as close as I can on ground squirrels... or any squirrel for that matter.
It's a reasonable plan, but not always the best strategy

That proved to be the case this day. I'd ease up to within "gimme" distance and watch the squirrel duck my arrow.
My shooting was right on, the squirrels were just reacting too fast and were gone when the speeding missile arrived.

I suppose a quieter bow would help, or a quieter arrow, or less visible arrow or ideally a hand grenade... I'm pretty good with those.
  :D  

I nailed my first squirrel of the day at a solid 15 yards and others even beyond that. It seemed to be a much better plan as the squirrels were much less jumpy and would sit while the arrow sped in.

It's so true of so many game animals. We thing that by getting right on top of the game that we increase our chances of success and in reality we can lesson those chances.

In this case the squirrels were reacting to the movement of the bows limbs and that happens with deer as well. No way to eliminate that.

That movement does become less noticeable or at least less threatening to game the further you get from it.
In the case of the squirrels, 15 yards seemed to be the majic line... I've found it to be the same for deer and the more skittish the deer are in an area, the further that distance is.

I've seen super spooky south Texas deer that would be easier to hit at 30 yards than at 12 yards...at 12 they aren't gonna be in the same place as when the arrow was released. Guaranteed!!

With several more squirrels in the bag I headed to my bait that afternoon brimming with confidence... and I'm sure that if anything had come in it would have been toast.

[Charlie Lamb]

CK reminded me of something that I just have to comment on. Mushrooms!!

They were everywhere... well, not EVERYWHERE, but where they were, they were just thick.

We had morels for breakfast in our scrambled eggs and almost every night in one form or other. With some meaty Coral mushrooms thrown in from time to time it only added to the feeding frenzy around the supper table.

Look at the picture Curtis posted of Ty senior. That's an armload of coral mushrooms and the guides were bringing in equally large batches of morels.

Kinda makes me sick when I think I didn't find a single mushroom at home this year... or course I'm the world's worst mushroom hunter.  

[Littlefeather]

Ahhhh, dreaming of ground squirrels... The siloutte gracefully outlining the horizion line where the ground met with the edge of the sky. Squirrel hill was an awesome little place where the steep edges met with the lush green ridge. I love the way it streched out across there for what seemed forever. You could see those squirrels intent on our every move even at great distances. It was the long shots that made it all so much fun. When you pick one of those guys off in excess of 30 yards you've accomplished something, even if it was just a lucky shot.    

CK

[Doc Nock]

Great Stuff... (sigh...)  

CK,

Ain't "luck" when opportunity intersects with lotsa practice?