2016 Hunt Talk Bear Hunt

[devon deer]

I'm still not sure whether Randy is a genius, naive, stupid or foolish for offering this opportunity to feature amateur week, public access advocacy on his show, but I figured if he was crazy enough to offer we were crazy enough to try.

I reckon he is canny, he saw you work on Randy11's film didn't he?
Which was great, and of course you might have to give up your day job when Randy goes into politics!

I can't wait to see this film, i bet it was so much fun, and my friend is eager to try for a Bear in Montana soon.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Gerald Martin]

Thankfully, the schedules of our prospective stars were more flexible than the majority of the hunters so they were able to arrive in camp at the beginning of the week. We got camp squared away, shot rifles to confirm nothing had changed and headed out for a quick scout/hunt. Our late start only allowed us about 1/2 hour of good hunting light once we finished our drive. We split up with Ethan and Julie going one direction and Jeff Quigley and myself heading in another. Grand total of sightings for Monday nights hunt was a couple cow elk and a marvelous sunset.

I was running a couple of new lenses on this trip so I took the opportunity to try and help Jeff upgrade his Tinder profile picture. I'm not sure if his exasperation was over the fact that I hiked him up a ridge to look at trees, snow and a sunset, or whether he thought I had enough profile shots. Or he may have been trying to communicate that if there are any ladies looking for a lean, mean, bear killing machine, here he was, live in Montana.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Tuesday found us a bit more squared away and Travis Heater and Dave Crisp joined camp. That evening's hunt had Ethan and Julie trekking on a multi-mile eating marathon and Travis and Dave hiking up a steep closed road. Warm weather from an early spring had me thinking that the bears might be found up high near the snow line. Jeff and I pursued that theory and did see a bear, unfortunately it was about a 50 lb. dog sized yearling that was eating on the side of the road we were driving up. I didn't get pics as he bailed over the side of the bank.

We continued further up the road until snow forced us to walk the last quarter mile to our parking spot. Another half mile of hiking put us into a steep, rugged drainage that looked like it should hold a bear or two. Unfortunately, there was very little green vegetation and after glassing an hour, we made the decision to bail on that spot and head for another clear cut that was lower in elevation. We saw some promising sign on our drive to our next spot, but only saw a few more elk and mule deer before darkness settled in.

If memory serves me correctly, Ethan and Julie did see a nice bear almost a mile away from them but weren't able to get through the thick brush to where he was. Dave and Travis had a fleeting sighting of a bear that was across the valley on a different mountain than they were hunting.

Photo credits for the snowy scenery shots- Jeff Quigley

 

[Big Slick]

This thread is getting better, even after the hunt has been over! Thanks for the insider info, Gerald!

 

[jquigley]

I was there and I'm loving Gerald's serialized version.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Wednesday came and Jeff and I were ready for a change of scenery. More of the guys were due in camp that evening but they were getting in @ 4-5 pm and we wanted to be in the woods long before then. Ethan, Julie and Dave took another route in to try and get closer to where they had seen the black bear the night before. Travis had to run some errands in the morning and then he would meet up with Jeff and I and glass another part of the drainage we couldn't see.

En route, I took a little detour to show Jeff a scenic forest service road. Truth be told, I was running my mouth and took a wrong turn. I only went a mile before we turned around and headed back towards our intended destination. Now, I have a good excuse for taking a slight detour, but what I saw on what had been Jeff's side of the truck as we came up the mountain was completely inexcusable that he hadn't seen on our way up. Thankfully, my eagle eye spotted a rare and prized delicacy along the side of the road. photo credit-Jeff Quigley

After rubbing it in, that Jeff let us drive right past a whole patch of mushrooms we worked on perfecting our morel pickers crawl and proceeded to fill our new OYOA hats to the brim.

Truth be told, I like a good mushroom picking about as much as I do bear hunting and finding several patches along the road may have delayed our evening hunt a bit. When we made it to the main road, we were still putzing along with our heads out the side windows looking for shrooms when another rig came up behind us. I knew that he was probably heading where we wanted to go so I stepped on the gas pedal. It was a gut wrenching ride as we had to (sob) drive past a few more prime patches of morels. When we got to the trailhead the other rig hadn't turned off to follow us and Travis was waiting, wondering how in the world he beat us to the trailhead.

 

[Gerald Martin]

We didn't waste a lot of time and the three of us headed for a four mile jaunt to a glassing spot that Travis showed us. Of course we kept our eyes open for morels on the way.

 

[Gerald Martin]

On our way up the trail, Travis and I regaled Jeff with the tale of how a grizzly had bluff charged us in this very drainage a few years back. Travis and Jeff glassing at the spot of the bluff charge.

 

[Gerald Martin]

We didn't run into any grizzlies on our way up the trail, but we did have a very exciting encounter with a beautiful blonde colored bear that Travis spotted while hiking. The bear was only about 50 yards off the trail feeding in a swampy flat and was initially unaware of us. Unfortunately, three guys who are trying to get binoculars up, guns off of packs, cameras rolling and tripods set all at the same time, tend to make a bit too much noise and motion. Upon sensing the commotion, "Zach Morris" (Jeff's name for the bear given in retrospect) fled for the safety of the dense brush.

Each of us quickly passed the buck on who spooked the bear and I'm still pretty sure it wasn't me. In fact, as I reminded Jeff several times around the campfire later that week, he did have a legitimate, if brief shot opportunity. I blamed his lack of shooting on being a newcomer to hunting. If he had been willing to shoot through a relatively small tree of only 20" in diameter I think he could have gotten a bullet into the bear as he ran off. He had at least 2 or 3 seconds to get his gun off his pack and shoot before the bear spooked.

I could tell Jeff was taking my advice to heart and was letting the voice of experience sink in as we climbed up through the brush to our glassing spot.


Travis continued up the trail to check out some country we couldn't see.


Any lingering disappointment over the one that got away was quickly erased by the majestic views in this valley.

 

[JCS]

Gerald, nice pictures and story telling.

 

[Kiwi]

Great pictures, thanks for posting.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Part of the blessing of youth is the expectation that the best is yet ahead of you and the assumption that life will be better in the future. Middle age tempers that optimism with a realistic understanding that progress can carry a hefty price tag and some of the experiences you treasure will no longer be accessible in the future.

Jeff and I parked our keisters on a rocky outcropping and spent several hours glassing for bears and other game. It didn't take long for us to find the first wild mountain goats that he had ever seen. Even though the goats were over a mile away, we were mesmerized by their skillful and almost reckless navigation of cliffs, boulders, and snowfields. Two of the little white dots in this picture are mountain goats. I'm not offended if you don't believe me. I know what we saw.


Glassing the valley over the next couple of hours yielded sightings of white-tail deer, three more goats and a couple of black bears. Travis was another mile and a half up drainage and he glassed up a nice boar grizzly in the cliffs at the head of the valley and a cow moose in the meadow below our vantage point.

Upon seeing the first of the two bears we were immediately excited and started trying to plan our stalk. Before we left our vantage point, I took a long hard look at the bear's size, comparing his width with tree trunks and stumps. We could tell it wasn't a big bear but Jeff was not going to be picky for his first bear. We had almost made up our minds to go and try a stalk, when I picked out another black bear feeding in the avalanche slide about 100 yds above the first bear. It was significantly bigger than the first bear and I made the assessment that it was probably a sow and a cub. Another hour of watching and glassing them as they fed in and out of sight showed that they had no interaction with each other. That had me second guessing the sow and cub identification to thinking maybe it was a boar shadowing a sow. It would have been early in the breeding season, but not too early to be an unrealistic scenario. I never was comfortable with that assessment either and in the end we settled on the conclusion that it probably was a sow with a yearling that it was trying to kick out. At any rate, the smaller bear was gifted with the monicker "Steven Coalbear" by Jeff and we never made a stalk.


As Jeff and I soaked up the warm sunshine and glassed the surrounding hillsides, we swapped tales of life experiences and adventure we have enjoyed. Jeff's work at a former job took him to many different parts of the world, to cities of renown and distinction, while rubbing shoulders with "A" listers and celebrities that many people would be thrilled to get autographs from. Our stories that afternoon were punctuated by the excitement of sighting another animal and expressions of amazement at the grandeur of the scenery we were experiencing. I could tell the mountain was working its magic on Jeff and about half-way through our sit, he gave this conclusion. He told me, "You know, I've been all around the world and right now, I think this is my new, most favorite place in the world." I could see what would provoke such sentiment and I almost didn't have the heart to break the news to him.


Sadly, that game rich hillside that we were enjoying so much on a beautiful spring afternoon, is cursed to contain one of the richest copper and silver ore deposits in the western US. Progress demands to be satiated and the political bent on both sides of the aisle, support for the mine in the local community strengthened by the bonds of law, bring near certainty that the area will be developed within the next three to five years. Proponents point to the well-paying jobs delivered to the local community and the environmental safeguards planned to avoid disaster. Sure the mountain will always be there... but development of the mine means cutting in a two lane paved road into the next canyon downstream from where we were sitting with 24 hr. heavy duty dump truck traffic as they haul the ore from the shaft to the crusher.

The cost of consumption never seems high when it's someone else's favorite spot on earth that is dramatically altered for a lifetime. I had always thought myself fairly pragmatic about the need for progress and increased development to sustain a first-world standard of living, but this cuts deeply. Emotionally, intrinsically, sacrificing this mountain for bling and industrial metal, feels like throwing away grain and baking chaff to fill our children's bellies.

 

[Gerald Martin]

As the sun settled beyond the mountain we knew we wouldn't have enough time to make a stalk on a distant ridge if we did spot another bear. We took advantage of the last hour of daylight to navigate thick tag alder and braided streams back down to the trail. Experience that Travis and I have had in this area with grizzlies is always encouragement to start our hike out before total darkness descends.

On the way down, I let Jeff lead the way. He responded with gratitude and promptly led us through the thickest brush he could find. "Let's go this way! I know a shortcut!"


I'm fairly certain my explanations of Jeff's navigation and leadership skills will be met with indignant denial from said temporary navigator. Let's just remember who is telling this story and not quibble over minor details like who was suggesting to whom which route we should take....

 

[Gerald Martin]

We made it back to the trail, met up with Travis and hiked back to the truck without incident. There really isn't much notable about hiking out four miles in darkness so I won't go into detail. We did drive very slowly past the the morel patches Jeff and I had to skip over to beat the other truck to the trail head. Let's just say that morels are very difficult to find after dark while driving down a road. We did find a couple but I won't go into any detail or mention it as a point of pride that I was the one who saw them. I wouldn't want to appear to be boastful or lead anyone to think that I'm overly obsessed with picking morels. Really, I'm not a mushroom maniac... I prefer to think of myself as just a simple fun guy.

One of the most memorable parts about the Hunntalk hunt is late night camp life and food around the fire. It's usually 11pm-midnight until everyone gets back to camp and then lots of stories need to be told, dinner cooked and adult beverages enjoyed. That night we feasted on two giant tri-tip steaks that J.R. grilled over mesquite chunk charcoal and topped with the morels fried in butter and flour.

 

[Southern Elk]

You are quite the storyteller Gerald. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

[jquigley]

I would never imply that you were a less than perfect narrator. Though I do question your grip strength. I seem to remember you grabbing my trekking pole and promptly letting it go so you could enjoy the sight of me falling in the creek I had apparently directed us towards.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I would never imply that you were a less than perfect narrator. Though I do question your grip strength. I seem to remember you grabbing my trekking pole and promptly letting it go so you could enjoy the sight of me falling in the creek I had apparently directed us towards.

Au Contrair friend. It was the trekking pole that could not stand the strength of my grip and parted asunder upon my iron grasp. I had intended to spare any details that might have cast you in any but the most dignified light. Plus, I had forgotten about that. Not to worry, I already knew most of those words anyway.

 

[JohnCushman]

Hopefully I don't end up in this story and picture telling

 

[Gerald Martin]

Hopefully I don't end up in this story and picture telling

You don't remember the Cushmanisms we caught on camera this year? I'm just getting warmed up buddy.

 

[jquigley]

Hopefully I don't end up in this story and picture telling

You mean the stories of your gazing at me in my underwear? You already spilled the beans on that one.