After an uneventful 22 hour drive through Canada without any problem at the border and a 5 hour ferry ride to Ketchikan and 2.5 ride to Hollis, we were finally in Prince of Wales Island, we settled down at the Forest Service cabin.
I woke up at 0530 with the sun in my face, I left my wife and son sleeping in, drove to the boat launch and tried to get my inflatable ready to go….the pump broke
:bash:grrrrrr, frustrated I went back to the cabin for breakfast and to calm down, we decided to drive some of the dirt roads, by 0745 we were on the road.
Around 0805 we came across a steaming pile of bear poop and fresh tracks, I got ready and started to follow, about 100 yards from the road I found a small creek with lots of fresh and long grass, sure enough the bear was busy munching on it, he never saw me at 60 yards. I decided to take him since it was good size and I wanted to dedicate the rest of the time to get my wife her 1st bear.
I let him have it with the 300 WSM 165gr. Accubond right on the boiler room, the bear took off running and I could not get a 2nd shot off. My wife came to the area and we waited 20 minutes before searching, I found him piled up 50 yards from my shot, way to the left of where he ran into the bush.
We took some pictures and gutted him on the spot, got him on the truck and went back to the cabin to bone him out and drive to Klowak to get him sealed.
In town I was able to find a pump that kind of worked inflating the boat, finally we were able to toss the crabpot and troll the beaches for bear, we saw bears everyday but either they ran away or my wife did not feel comfortable with the shot, her chances evaporated hunting from the boat but we slaughtered the crab, we ate them everyday for dinner, it was great!!
The last day on the island we decided to take a drive again, sure enough, about a mile from where I killed my bear I spotted one on the ditch, I kept on driving and parked on a curb, she loaded her 25-06AI with 100gr. Barnes TSX and went after him, Tonja was able to catch up with the bear just 30 yards from the ditch, she shot 4 times but the 1st one would have done him in since she broke his shoulder and pierced his throat, the 2nd shot hit the other shoulder 3rd and 4th were a miss but she wanted to make sure he was down and it was a beast of a bear, very heavy, we ended up using a tow strap to haul him to the road and all our strength along with the strap to lift him to the truck.
My bear green scored 19.5 and her bear was 20 9/16.
While I worked on the bear my wife packed and loaded the truck, the drive back was fine, it poured down rain in Canada, no hassles at the border.
