Well rested after making an early night of it, we were up and ready to hit it hard Thursday at 4:30 AM. Gary had gotten over the "beaver fever" and was ready for coffee. We headed out into the main channel for a couple miles then made our usual round of Portage Bay. By 10:30 or so, we hadn't seen anything but a blacktail deer and everyone was hungry so Paul suggested going back to the cabin for a while.
We had seen a bear around noon one day so I asked to be let off where we had spotted it. " Just drop me off here. I'll shoot that bear when he comes out for lunch."
The others scoffed a little but gladly let me out of the boat.
The sun was out and it was warming up a little. I found a spot in the tall grass next to a large fallen tree. I spread my raincoat out on the grass and got just a little too comfortable.I let myself doze off and on, after all, bears are way more active in the early morning and just before dusk. On one of the occasions when I opened my eyes to glance around.... "HEY! THERE'S A BEAR!! Right there, less than 75 yards away was a big black bear. I slowly eased my borrowed rifle, a .375 Magnum, up to my knees and drew a bead, waiting for the perfect shot. The bear stopped broadside to me, facing the water. I thought to myself, "Perfect, I read somewhere that a bear will run in the direction it's facing when it's shot. It should run right to the edge of the bay and die. I can just beach the boat and load it up! Did I mention what an incurable optimist I am?"
I put my crosshairs right behind his shoulder and carefully squeeeeeeezed off a shot. The big gun roared and the bear leapt towards the shore! He took 2 steps in the right direction and then wheeled and headed straight for me! I quickly jacked another shell into the chamber, well, almost, I worked the bolt too fast and got the shell wedged crossways. "GREAT!" My gun was jammed, I'd left my pistol at the cabin and I was stiff from sitting on the ground for 2 hours.
"It's amazing how fast the mind can work. In the few seconds while the bear was charging me, I thought about all that transpired on this trip and wondered how I was going to burrow under this log to keep it from ending badly..............................."
The bear covered maybe twenty-five yards before turning and running into the woods. I could hear him crashing through the brush and tried to pinpoint where he was. Within ten to fifteen seconds, I heard a loud roar/growl , then everything was silent.
I took a minute to compose myself then pulled out my knife and began to extract the jammed shell from the rifle. When I finally got it out and put a fresh shell in the chamber, I got on the radio and let the group that I had a bear down somewhere in the woods. They were understandably excited for me and eager to come help me find him......RIGHT!
While I was waiting for them to show up, I cautiously made my way into the woods, looking for a blood trail or any trail. I found no blood but could see some broken limbs and freshly torn-up ground.
Southeast Alaska is like a rain forest. The trees are huge and the underbrush is thick. Wherever a tree has fallen it leaves a big cavern-like hole under the root ball. It seemed that there was a place under every tree big enough to hide a bear. I was certain I had made a good shot and my bear was laying dead somewhere nearby but when you're alone in that situation, you start to wonder. After twenty minutes of searching very slowly, I heard the boat pull up on the beach. I went to meet Paul, Warren and Gary. I suggested that since we were so close to the logging camp that we go borrow John's dog to find the trail easier. They all agreed that this was a good idea. John was glad to let me take the dog and the dog was excited to go for a walk.
We started looking where I had left off and found the bear within 20 yards of where I had been when the boat approached. The dog was walking about 5 yards ahead of us and stopped like he'd run into a wall. His back hair stood straight up so we assumed he'd found my bear, we were right. The bear had only gone about 100 yards from where I had first shot but it took us about 30 minutes to drag him to the beach. We had to go over, around or under obstacles every ten or fifteen feet. When we reached the boat and caught our breath, we loaded the bear and headed back to the cabin. Now my real work was about to begin!
No comments:
Post a Comment