Alberta Bearhunt - Day #5
Woke to a lot of voices in camp and got dressed for breakfast. When I got to the dining tent I found that I was the only one up, and it was only 7:00 AM. The other guys must have been too excited to sleep in, but smart enough to look at the time and just stay in their tent B.S.ing. Got the fire going and read for a while until Eric got up and started breakfast.
Jeff took the new guys down to check the river baits while I "supervised" Eric skinning the wolf before we brought it to the country store for freezing. While Eric started lunch I took the quad and cut some firewood. When Jeff got back from the river we headed "in country" by quad to check baits while the other guys went to set up a second stand at the border bait so Little Richard could try to film Dave. We spent a lot of time in the morning taking more pictures of the wolf and Little Richard with his bear skin.
On the way to the "Poplar Grove" stand we checked my bait and found it had been hit! I was right, he did come back.
We re-baited and set the logs back on the crib before heading further into the bush. We also found the ?Poplar Grove? stand hit hard and re-baited it. That gave us four active baits for the evening hunt, and meant that I'd be hunting again.
Back in camp we set about the serious task of naming all the stands. My stand had previously been called "Dean's List"; however I got approval to change the name to "Third Chance" as I was sure my bear was going to give me one more opportunity if I hung in there. On the winter road, the next stand after mine was "Poplar Grove" followed another six miles back into the hills by "Too Far Gone". On the road by camp we had "Camp Stand" where the bear had been stealing bait, "Lobo" where the wolf was shot, and "Little Red Ridding Hood" at the end of the road where it met a huge beaver pond. Then there was "Border Stand" up off the highway close to the NWT border and six stands down by the river that we decided to name later when they got active. With that piece of business behind us we had another great dinner and got dressed for the evening hunt.
Dave and little Richard headed north to "Border Stand" where they hoped to see the bear hitting that bait and get film of the shot. Big Richard decided to kick back and unwind from the wolf excitement of the previous evening.
They all decided that I should hunt the "Poplar Grove" stand as there was still a large bear there and I hadn't hunted the past two evenings. This was perhaps the best remaining stand, and I really appreciated the sportsmanship displayed by these guys offering it to me. Jeff and I headed out with a plan. I wanted to check my "Third Chance" stand on the way to "Poplar Grove" to see if the bear had been bold enough to come in again mid day. If so, I wanted to keep hunting there and leave "Poplar Grove" for the other guys who had started there.
Besides, the big boar at "Third Chance" and I had some unfinished business to attend to!
When we got to "Third Chance" we found that the bear had been back. The bait hadn't been hit "hard" but it was hit, and I wanted to hunt there.
Even if I wasn't going to get a shot, I wanted the piece of mind of seeing that bear and proving to myself that he was not mortally wounded from our last encounter. Jeff dropped me off after re-baiting while I got set up and in my stand. We wanted the bear to think this was just another feeding run if he was close enough to hear the quad (which we suspected). I settled in for what I expected would be a long and basically uneventful evening.
At about 9:00 I heard the crack of a stick behind me and slowly came to a standing position. A few minutes later I saw him approaching, it was "my" bear! He was the same size (large), with the same markings and coloration on the muzzle. He also walked with the same slight limp in the right front leg which I had seen each time in the past. There was no question, this was the same bear and he looked as healthy as he had from Day #1.
There was one difference however; he was in no hurry to come into the actual bait site. For an hour and a half he slowly circled the bait stopping now and then to pick up a meat scrap previously left behind and chewing it to keep busy. He had me pegged at under thirty yards the whole time so I dared not sit or swat the hundreds of huge mosquitoes that had come with the first warm day of spring. They were having their way with me as I hadn't needed bug dope thus far and didn't bring it with me tonight (that wouldn't happen again!).
Finally at 10:30 he came sneaking in toward the crib. He approached from the back side, always facing me, and pulled a piece of beaver out of the back of the crib and left with it as quickly as he could. He wasn't comfortable at the bait, but he wasn't going to give up the free lunches either! He stopped at about thirty yards and lay down to eat his prize in sight. I had no shot, but figured that sooner or later I'd get my third chance.
Twenty minutes later I heard the quad and watched the bear's reaction. He kept eating until the quad was in sight, then picked up the remains of his lunch and ambled off toward the swamp behind the stand. Only after he was out of sight and the quad had stopped by the bait, did I quietly get down from my stand and load up for the trip back to camp. Jeff was somewhat surprised that it was the same bear and that he had come back, during day time hours, to the same bait. It showed the benefit of hunting previously unhunted bears in a true wilderness setting.
Back at camp we shared stores of baits checked and animals seen, but there were no "successes" for the day. Tomorrow holds out a lot of promise however, as we now have four very active baits with established stands, and we know that at least three are being visited by trophy class boars.
With excitement at a high ebb we all retired early for the evening making our mental plans for the day ahead. See you then.