Tuesday saw the rain fade away and the sun trying to make an appearance. The slop left behind made travel difficult and treacherous, and I am taking just about trying to make it to the dinning trailer. We all managed to get our bows out for some more target practice before determining which camouflage pattern worked best for mud.
Ryan and I decided the Ladder stand deserved another visit and back into the woods we went. The breeze was still shaking branches and tree limbs but the trees were not moving quite as much this evening so I knew bears would be out. About 9 pm I had my first visitor. A small two-year old black bear that was finding it's way in the world without it's mom for the first time. A sign that the sows were kicking out their youngster and entering into their heat cycles. The boars would be out cruising sows now and less interested in bait barrels, unless of course a hot sow was at the barrel. I enjoyed watching the little fella for about 45 minutes and decided to call it an evening and left the tree stand.
Joe had much better luck than I did counting 16 bears in and around his stand throughout the evening including a sow with 4 yearling cubs. He saw a couple he said he would be willing to shoot on day 5 or 6 but nothing that made him excited for day 3. Tim had a couple visitors but no arrows flew from his bow that night either. Back at camp we waited for the return of David and his group. At 1:30 in the morning when they had not yet returned a recon party went out to find them.
THE GREAT RECOVERY
The rivers that need to be crossed to get to many of the stands had become so engorged from the heavy rains the previous day that log piles blocked their return. As it turned out, Dave shot a bear that evening as did Mike. As Mike's bear was quickly recovered it was loaded into a trailer tub hitched to an ATV for transport back to the main road and waiting truck. In the process of crossing one of the rivers logs became lodged up into the ATV preventing it from moving any further across the river. The tub trailer began floating sideways in the current. Mike and Dave jumped into the icy water trying to save the tub and its contents from ending up lost down river. After righting the trailer and keeping the bear inside it, David began working on freeing the ATV from the partially submerged logs.
Grabbing his guide pack, David began digging out his hand saw only to have the other contents of the pack spill into the current. He managed to save most of his belongings but did not find the saw he was looking for. Being ever resourceful, David produced his Leatherman Tool and extracted the 4 inch saw blade, kneeled down in the near freezing water and began sawing his ATV out of the log jam with both hand underwater to the elbows. After managing to cut away the logs impeding the vehicle, David stood up shaking off the cold and wetness, smiled that smile that never leaves his face, and said "Well that was fun". That is one tough little Canadian bear guide folks. Off they went further down the road crossing more water holes and mud bogs that should have stopped most sane people in their tracks. They all arrived back in camp safe and sound near 3am soaking wet, covered in mud, and Dave hit the rack only half undressed too tired and cold to finish the job.
Dave's bear was recovered the next morning, his first bow shot bear. I will leave it to Dave to fill in the details when he can get to his computer.
Mike shot a large boar tipping the scales at just under 400lb and had a solid 19+ inch skull that will probably end up closer to 20 than 19.
Topic: 2012 Spring Bear Hunt Thread (Read 4323 times)
