May 28 Black Bear Hunt

We decided to head out for a bear hunt after picking up Pheonix from school. The weather wasn't the nicest, being a little chilly with rain. We headed for an area called St.Marys which is a steep area with very thick vegetation and lots of Grizzly bears. The animals were definitely out moving, we seen lots of mule deer and whitetail, elk, 3 mountain Goats, a grizzly and a black bear.

We got up into the back where there are lots of slides. We came across the grizzly travelling the road, he was a big bear and didnt like us startling him and ran up into the thick trees and disappeared from sight. We continued on until we couldnt go farther thanks to an avalanche taking out the road. So we turned around and started back tracking. Going back we took our time and made sure to glass the slides. We finally found our first black bear hunting at home. He was a beautiful mocha color and was eating half way up the slide by a creek. I decided to try and pull a stalk on him with my bow, I was a little nervous at first because this was my first time pulling a stalk with my bow on a bear, and I was by myself with no gun. Once I started hiking I started to focus more and the nervousness melted away. I fought my way up the slide over snow and ice and through thick alder brush. I got up to 50 yards from him and it looked like he was going to feed his way down towards me, so I kneeled under the branches of an alder brush and waited. Everything was working in my favor, the wind, the rain and the creek helped cover my sound and scent. Out of nowhere he spooked and scooted out of sight. I stood up and instantly took a look around for any grizzlies that may have scared him. Nothing. So I crossed the creek and climbed the bank to see if I could spot him. The other side of the bank was much thicker with vegetation and I couldnt see him, so I decided I wasnt going to play hide and seek with a bear and made my way back down.

Little did I know Kyle had been watching everything from the road below and could see the bear still. As I was 3/4 of the way down movement caught my eye, it was Kyle climbing up. I met up with him and he told me that the bear was still there and I was only 20 yards from it when I had climbed up the bank. So we went back and again couldnt see him in the brush, until he moved and I caught his movement. It was to late, we had startled him and he ran for the trees and stopped at 45 yards and watched us. After a stand off that lasted about 5 minutes he slowly turned and disappeared in the trees.

We headed back to the road and continued on thinking to myself...if I had my rifle id be packing out a bear, but that is the nature of bowhunting and what makes it such a challenge.