Day 2 Sunday



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Stories : Backcountry Black Bears ~ Day 2 >>

Day 2 Sunday - riding in - first hunt

This morning we ate breakfast and loaded the horses, then we spent the next four and half hours in the saddles packing into our hunting camp. After getting into camp and getting settled in it was time to head out to our different stands. After just getting my land legs back under me I found myself back in the saddle behind Larry Whitlock and Benton. This little ride became rather exciting when my bow hit some brush and the arrows popped out of the quiver and rattled, spooking the horse (Joy was her name). Joy lunged forward smashing into the back of Benton's' horse. After this happened twice I'd had enough excitement on a horse. I ended up using a different horse the rest of the week and discovered that things went a whole lot more smoothly if I took the bottom limb off my recurve before getting on the horse.

Once I made it to my bait site I began looking for the tree stand, and would have never seen it had it not been for the yellow tie rope hanging in a tree. My eyes began to rise up the tree looking for the stand and my gaze kept rising higher and higher and higher until finally with my mouth hanging open I spotted my perch at the top of the sky. Ok perhaps that is an exaggeration but I have spent many long hours in tree stands and this was certainly higher than I had ever wanted to be perched in a tree. My first reaction was "You've got to be kidding", but once I made my way into the stand I found it to be a good setup that would keep my cent well above the bears. (The picture here shows Larry standing out in front of his tree - Larry is about 6' tall).

BEAR

After settling into the stand and preparing my gear I settled into the wait. At 7:40 I heard my first bear approaching from behind my stand. At it turned out there were two bears coming in. As the bear reached a spot directly beneath me it scared the other bear off before I could get a look at it. The bear was brown and not having much experience at judging bears I decided not to shoot this bear since it was the first night and there seemed to be at least two bears hitting the bait. I took out my digital camera and shot him with that instead.

As this bear was visiting I must have made a small noise that must have got his attention. Shortly after taking this picture the bear became nervous and seemed to have looked right at me before he slowly moved off. Once darkness settled over the country I climbed out of my tree and had just reached the trail that would take me back to camp when I heard something large coming up the trail. Needless to say my adrenaline climbed up the chart until I realized I was hearing a horse approach. As it turned out it was Ralph, Larry Whitlock and Mike on their way up to Benton who had shot the first bear of the trip. Benton had seen three different bears for sure and five sightings in all on his first night and had taken his first bear.
	Benton Christenson Taken with a Hoyt Intec Easton 2216 Superslam arrow Savora 100gr broadhead 12 yard shot 20 yard recovery

Day 1 Saturday - driving up Day 2 Sunday - riding in - first hunt Day 3 Monday Day 4 Tuesday
Day 5 Wednesday Day 6 Thursday Day 7 Friday Day 8 Saturday - Memories