31 May 2007
May 31, 2007 - Day 5 in Alaska - Day 1 Hunting Bear
Posted by Darrell under: Alaska; My Journal .
Check our pictures from May 31!
Caleb and I awoke at 7:00am. It gets daylight at about 4:00 am which means there is only about 5-6 hours of dark. We went outside, relieved ourselves, and headed back to our bunks to await Chad’s waking. Chad awoke at about 10:00 am (he is on Alaska time) and fixed a nice bacon and eggs breakfast.
Meanwhile, Pam set up some fishing poles for Caleb and I to catch Dolly Varden. It didn’t take long and we had fish on. Caleb caught a really nice one that weighed several pounds. While we were doing this a posse of Eagle gathered in the trees on shore. It was a real treat being able to feed the Eagles. Literally!.
I then went ashore and practiced shooting my bow. I was dead on out to 50 yds and was shooting about 90% at 60 yds – which Chad said made him feel a lot more confident (and made me more confident to boot). I decided to take this opportunity to relieve my bowels and headed into the forest. It was an eerie feeling being alone in the dense foliage looking at HEAVY paths all around me. I felt like I was being watched (and might have been). I might decide to forget modesty and just start using the bucket on the back of the boat.
We then set crab pots – one for Caleb and one for I. When we returned later, at about 11:30 pm and in the dark, we had caught only 1 crab. We moved one of the pots. Maybe tomorrow will be our crab day.
After setting the pots we left to troll for King Salmon – which was uneventful. No bites, but we have several more days for fishing. When we got back to the main boat, Pam had us come over to look at an otter that was hanging out nearby. The otter would go under and come up a couple minutes later with fish – which it would drag up to the rocky bank and promptly eat.
At about 4:30pm we set off to start trolling for bear. We motored down to another bay, St. James Bay and after glassing from the skiff for a while decided to try a hike down to a grass flat that couldn’t be seen from the boat. After about 30 minutes of hard hiking we arrived at the flat and were surprised to be staring at a wolf about 80 yards away. It was awesome to see a wolf completely in the wild and we watched him for a while. Then Chad climbed a huge tree to get a better look at the perimeter of the flat.We were surrounded by bear tracks, bear scat, and moose prints. Most of which seemed really fresh. Caleb and I both were really excited!
Chad said we should head back to the skiff and we embarked on a 30 minute hike back to the skiff. We were close to the peak of low tide and the water had retreated more than a quarter mile. The Alaska tides are amazing and scary. If you are not careful you could find your boat completely high and dry. While loading the boat we noticed something swimming across the bay towards us. It was a seal and he swam to within about 40 yards. Awesome!
Once we left this spot we headed for a sand flat that Chad duck hunts. He had never bear hunted this area or even seen a bear here – BUT he had a good feeling about it. On the way we saw a porpoise. Again, really awesome!
We arrived and anchored the skiff. Once we hiked over a little rise – Chad froze. About 300 yards away (and across a small inlet) stood a massive black bear boar. Chad said it was the biggest black bear he had ever seen and I don’t think he was kidding. He was almost giddy with excitement.
We returned to the skiff and moved it about a ¼ mile to get on the same side of the inlet as the bear. We stayed close to beach and below a small rise so the bear couldn’t see us and started moving towards where we thought the bear was. We finally worked our way up into some trees and were about 100 yards from the bear. Chad said it was a nice bear, maybe not the biggest he’d seen, but a good 7 ½ foot black bear with a perfect coat.
We had Caleb set up in the tree with a camcorder and then Chad and I started trying to work our way around the bear. It was tough as there wasn’t any cover. We ended up crawling several hundred yards and once again found ourselves just 100 yards from the bear.
Amazingly, from our new vantage point, we saw the original bear. He was about 300 yards off just laying in the grass munching away. There were two different HUGE bears within a few hundred yards of each other. Caleb never saw the second bear with the camcorder.
We didn’t have time to think about bear #2 though because we were already stalking a nice bear. We were pretty much in plain sight and every time we moved and made any sound, no matter how slight, the bear would stop and look up directly at us. We would freeze – no matter what position we were in – and the bear would eventually go back to munching grass. It was awesome. Chad finally decided to hang back and let me keep trying to crawl within range on my own. I could never get closer than 55 yards. After 45 minutes I realized that if I was going to take a shot, this would be as close as I could ever get. I rose up on my knees, expelled my breath, drew my bow, put my 50 yard pin on the top of the bears back directly behind the front shoulder and released.
My arrow went directly over the bear’s back – probably grazing hair. I was devastated. Just seconds earlier I had been completely confident and now I had missed a beautiful bear. The bear ran about 10 yards and then resumed eating. He wasn’t too worked up. We spent the remainder of the evening trying to stalk close enough to get another (and hopefully closer) shot to no avail. We got within 60 yards a couple times and 70 yards most of the time. I didn’t want to risk wounding him or spooking him.
So as darkness fell, we decided to call it a day. Tomorrow we will return and hopefully he will be there. After a 30 minute skiff ride back, the time it took to check and move our crab pots, and to make dinner, we finally ate dinner at about midnight. We then sat around a fire with the Crowes and had some great conversation. Off to bed at about 2:00 am.
Caleb and I are on Alaska time now. Tomorrow, we hope our bears return because we sure will!
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