The following morning, we were back to Cheerios in coffee or peanut butter with Oreos, whichever was preferred, then back to the hunt. After all the boat pushing, I had visited the dump at the logging camp and found some pieces of 2" PVC pipe, which I cut into three foot lengths. We carried 5 pieces with us at all times, figuring on rolling the boat on them if we got stranded again. We paid more attention to the tide tables but still had to use the makeshift rollers twice. They were a big help!
As we cruised around the bay, we spotted the biggest bear we had seen so far. The wind was no good to try to put a stalk on him so we just beached the boat and took a long-distance ( 300+ yard ) shot. The bear was not even scratched and ambled off into the woods.
Now, I have been through hunter safety courses and always practice safe gun handling. I lay my gun down and slide it under fences and unload it to get into tree stands and would never put a loaded gun into a vehicle. However............. after shooting at this bear and missing, I put on the safety and handed my borrowed 375 magnum to Warren, who slid it into my case resting under the console of the boat.
We all four got back in the boat and continued south, glassing the beach as we went. Within 15 minutes we spotted another bear just at the edge of the timber, having his late-morning breakfast of fresh grass. I throttled the engine back to an idle and reached to slide my rifle out of the case. BOOOOOM!!! Somehow the safety had caught on the case as the rifle slid into it and the act of touching the stock had caused the hair-trigger to discharge. The roar of the big gun under the console was deafening! Gary, who was sitting up front, yelled out " Somebody's shooting at us!" I replied "It's me."
As the water spewed into the boat and the others started in on me, I calmly said ( while mentally kicking myself and wondering how I could have been sooooooooooo dumb ) " We'll be fine, I'll just run the boat aground so Paul and Gary can go after the bear. I'll figure out a way to fix the boat."
Paul and Gary headed up the beach to look for the bear while Warren stayed to keep an eye on me, " Didn't he trust my boat-patching skills?"
I searched and found a small alder tree with a limb that looked to be about the right size to make a plug. I cut two pieces about six inches long and whittled them both to the size and shape to pound into the hole, one to use and one for a spare. ( Safety first and always be prepared, still kicking myself)
Warren found a nice smooth rock for a hammer and I pounded the plug into the 3/4" diameter hole. When it looked good and tight, we shoved the boat back into the water and checked out the tightness of the plug. Success! It seemed to be holding and not leaking but we would keep a close eye on it the rest of the trip. We kept the spare plug and the hammer rock close at hand in case of failure.
That day, we went back to cabin early and spent the rest of the afternoon hiking through the woods and fields, exploring and hunting. I carried my shotgun in case we saw some grouse or other small game to expand our diet a little bit. The only animals we saw the rest of the day were blacktail deer, which were out of season, and songbirds. We could still dig more clams.
Gary didn't care too much what the rest of us ate, he'd come down with a case of "beaver fever", the Alaskan version of "Montezuma's Revenge." I don't know if it was the clams or drinking out of the wrong water jug, but noone else wanted what he had. It only lasted about 24 hours but that was plenty for him.
After all the excitement of the day, we were ready to turn in early. Everyone was so relieved that the boat was the only casualty of my stupidity, they didn't really ride me like they could have or should have, I'd already beat myself up pretty good.
No comments:
Post a Comment