Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion Sporting ASKickers 10 days

Well after 15 years I drew a bear tag. I have caught many bears over the years but this was different. I was about to attempt something that would have been impossible last year. I was going to do this old school on my mule and mostly alone.
Started out riding all the canyons I have been riding in for the last thirty years. I looked at them with a new appreciation I saw things that had never caught my eye in all the years I had gone up and down them in winter,summer,spring and fall. Red rock spires, arches and ruins and many more things.
I looked in every haunt and found a mother bear with two little cubs their tracks were only two inches long. I left her to her piece of the mountain. I found some young bears in the head of two canyons. I traveled up a canyon that had a narrow claustrophobic trail I usually avoided. Found what i will call a young couple in love. A sow and a boar obviously mating and having a good time, they were cavorting around and tearing the place up.
After seven days I finally found him, huge tracks with toes flattened out from the years of traveling the mountains in search of the best mast crops, the young elk calves, the fawns and berries.
I set out after him. On the ninth day I caught a young jet black bear early in the morning. I took some pics and let him go his way.
The next morning I saddled my mule and headed out with the rising sun. The air was crisp, the dew on the grass everything felt so vibrant and alive.
After riding for an hour the dogs winded something and broke into full cry and ran into the creek bottom. I ran my mule to the edge and looked done, It was big and brown but it was no bear it was a cow moose and she was not happy. I called the dogs off and started riding again.
After 30 minutes the dogs started cold trailing. I finally found a track it was the big bear, my heart started beating faster with anticipation. The dogs trailed him for half a mile and jumped him in the bottom of the next canyon. He stayed in the thickest darkest tangles of trees in the creek bottom. It was a hundred yards down the south bank into the bottom I listened to the battle raging on as he walked up the canyon refusing to run one step.
Sassy and I went up the south side to where the tangle gave way to some beaver ponds in hopes of seeing the bear. He saw me first and ducked back into the tangle of trees and started back down the canyon. The game was on once again we went clear back down the canyon to the meadow below. He stopped again sensing danger. He went back up through the thick tangle. I desperately tried to see more than just a glimpse of him. I dove half way down the bank and and got into the middle of the fight. Dogs were baying the bear and dogs were engaged in battle. The fight came my way, the bear broke through and we were face to face about fifteen feet apart my heart was pounding, the thought raced through my mind that I was alone and if I screwed this up no one was going to find me for days. The dogs pushed him up the bank by me, as he went by I leveled my old Ruger 45 long colt and fired one shot. It was over with abrupt quickness.
I was elated and at the same time sad. I was filled with emotion the day was one of the best of my life. I sat with the bear for about twenty minutes then started field dressing him it took me two hours, he was so big I could not even roll him without lying on my back and pushing with my legs.
I finally carried him up the hill and loaded him on sassy. My left hand started cramping I could not strighten my fingers out for fifteen minutes. Thought I was having a stroke or something.
Jumped on Sassy and started home. Cracked open a pint and started singing the old songs. Came around a turn in the creek and there was a chocolate bear looking at us. The dogs took after him he climbed right up a tree, I was laughing so hard I almost fell of my mule, I swear the bear almost fainted when he saw us in the creek bottom.
I made it back to the truck it had been a ten hour day on the tenth day of hunting. Three bear and a moose in two days, it felt pretty good.
Did I hurt you bet, but I got er done. Will I be able to do it much longer I don't know. But I do know one thing I had the time of my life, and spent some alone time in some of gods most beautiful country.
ETTE.
Darrel.
PS I took a lot of pictures of the country and the hunt if anyone is interested in either let me know and I will email you some.

Darrel,

I think there are many here who go on your journeys into the wilderness with you (albeit vicariously in our own heads) and I'm sure we would like to see all those pics to fill in some of the minor details that might be a bit hazy in our mind's eye.

Louise

Oh man - good horse, good dogs. Good bear - though sad! Pics please - all of em. Thanks for thrilling read - and the larf at the end was priceless. Good one. Thanks.

cool story. did you set out in the first place to kill a bear? do you make a rug or something from the bear skin? do you eat the meat?

I did if I found the right one. Yes he will be in my house, I have one in a museum. BBQ at my house.
ETTE>
Darrel

Hey Darrel
That sounds like a wonderful hunt. Congrats on taking the bear. That had to be such a great day, or 10 days of hunting.
Isn't it the best time when you finally get to be alone, just you, your dogs, and the prey that you have worked so hard to get. Just calming down after the chase, and paying respect to the animal. Its a wonderful feeling.

If you get the time, I would love to see some of the pictures.

man that is awesome, i hope you have a massive BBQ plate. thanks for sharing this adventure with us.