We had no intentions of hunting over the weekend, we had a busy weekend helping out with the local 3D archery shoot and shooting in it as well. It made for long days and the kids were bagged by the time we would get home. Saturday was the first day of the shoot. We did 2 rounds where Kyle, Pheonix and I shot and Easton trucked along. This was Pheonixs first full weekend shooting and she did really well. Saturday was her best day. She hardly missed a target and only lost one arrow. Kyle of course had a good day and I did not lol. I busted up 2 arrows...just wasn't my day. We were proud of Easton too. It was his first shoot walking the entire thing. He never complained once and had a lot of fun. Sunday was a good day for me shooting. Kyle decided not to shoot and just walk with Easton so the girls could shoot. After our round Pheonix spent the rest of the day shooting in the Kiddies Corner. Pheonix was a little more tired and was having a harder time on Sunday, but she still did very good and had a lot of fun.
After shooting all day on Saturday we went home to have a late lunch/early dinner and Kyle threw out the idea to go for an evening bear hunt. Just somewhere close to home. So we packed up the kids and rifles into the jeep after our meal and took off. Once we got up to the area we decided on we just slowly trucked along. No one had been up the road in the last few days which made it nice to know we were the first up there. As we came around a corner Kyle slammed on the breaks and there was a massive bear. At first Kyle thought it was a color phase black bear, but when he stopped and turned you couldn't miss that he was a grizzly bear. He jumped off the road only 20 yrds off the road and stopped to watch us. We sat and watched him as he slowly made his way up the hill away from us. He was a very healthy bear. Nice color, glossy coat and good weight. Once he was out of sight we continued on. Only about a km away we seen a big health cow moose. She didn't give us a chance to get a look at her, she ran and didn't stop. We continued on. After seeing the grizzly I wasn't feeling very optimistic in seeing a black bear.We went for about another hour and we seen a young bull moose. Then around the next bend in the next clearing Kyle stops and tells me to get out. Confused i grab my rifle and jump out. He points down the hill in the clearing and leaves with to park the jeep. I look down and at the bottom of the clearing is a black bear. Lounging in the green grass, munching away. While I was trying to decide how to rest my gun, Kyle already had his rifle down with the bipod. So I asked to use his since it was already set up. I laid down with his 7mag and got lined up. Squeezed the trigger and it rolled down the hill. I was so excited and so was Pheonix and Easton. Kyle went down to make sure it was ok to take the kids to see it. It was a very steep climb. I had to carry Easton down and help Pheonix. After we started to skin it we remembered there was a grizzly in the area. So Kyle told me to take Easton back up to the jeep and keep and eye out for any more bears and Pheonix wanted to stay and help. I packed Easton back up the hill because it was too steep for him to climb. Once Kyle and Pheonix started making their way up I buckled Easton up in the jeep with the heat on (he was cold) I walked over to help Pheonix. She did really good climbing the steep hill all on hands and feet. As I was walking over to them I heard a loud crashing in the bush above us. We all stopped and watched. I didn't see anything but Kyle seen two figures take off, wolves. So we quickly got Pheonix and my bear loaded in the jeep and speed off towards home. 
It was a fun filled, busy day and I was so happy the kids got to enjoy every bit of it with us. Pheonix was so excited she got to be there for this bear because last year she and Easton stayed with Oma and Papa. She was vibrating. My bear turned out to be 5 feet, the same size as my bear last year. I am very happy with it!
Nikita
