Hay, if you guys get one down. Call my cell, my buddy and I give you a hand. 
You got it Richard, I'm not one to turn down an offer like that
I picked up M-Ray about 11:30am, packed up his gear and we were "East Bound and Down" as the late Jerry Reed would sing.
feature=related. After a quick stop in NorthBend for a TacoTime lunch we were ready for the drive. A couple
breaks and 6 1/2 hours later we were getting close but realized we wouldn't make it for the evening hunt so we headed to Outfitters place to say hello, check out the trophies from the weeks worth of clients and BS before bed. The old clients were gone but the new long guns were there and the stories quickly started.
The next morning we dressed and headed for the truck and I quickly realized I had not dressed properly, it was a brisk 18 degrees. After changing my socks we headed for the hunting area. Once we were there we unloaded the bikes, put on our packs and headed up the road passed the gate. It only took us 20 minutes to reach the spot that had taken us 1.75 hours the weekend before however I could already tell I was going to pay dearly for this convenience.
The first morning was pretty uneventful, there was no sign of the big bull from the weekend before but we did manage to see a cow. That evening we headed out again but took a different raod behind the gate, to my dismay it went up and up and up........ The last few 100 yards or so I got off the bike and pushed it the rest of the way to warm my toes back up and not spook anything that might be at the top of the ridge. We got right to the top and M-Ray whispers "moose". I glance over to the left and I see a cow disappear into the timber to the left and some whitetail butts go up and into the timber the same way. (the first and second pics are on this hill) We proceeded up to that spot and continue on down the road but after glassing lots of draws, ridges and cuts we decided to head back. M-Ray spots some more whitetail down below but they were all does. We peddled back to the truck, loaded up and headed back to the cabin. I needed more ice-T so we stopped at Millers Corner Store. We walked inside and a big guy standing in line smiles and asked if we got one today, I told him no and that we were moose hunting not deer hunting. He told us a location we should try, saying he saw a nice 40" in there. We said thanks and got in line to pay. He then proceeds to tell us of a forum he is on and that last week there were a few guys and a little girl up there that got chased by a bull moose back to their trucks.
M-Ray and I just looked at each other and started laughing, M-Ray pointed at himself and said "that was me, with his daughter"
We introduced ourselves and he said his name was Jacob
It was nice to meet you Jacob. I got back in the truck and checked my voicemail since I now had service. I had a message from a guy that had painted my house a few years ago that had seen some of my mounts through the window while painting. We had talked about hunting after that and he explained that he had never taken anything with size before and wanted to know where I hunted. I tild him I would take him one day if he every wanted to leave the area he and his buddies frequented but he would have to keep it on the down low. Well a month or so ago he called and decided to take me up on the offer, only problem was is that I told him I probably wasn't going to be deer hunting this year since I had to spend my time concentrating on moose. I told him "I'll tell you what, I will draw you a map of one of my spots but only if you go alone and don't tell anyone". HE agreed and picked up the info a couple days later. Well the voicemail was from him telling me that he went to that spot and got his biggest buck ever, a big 4X6 and couldn't thank me enough. Now I find myself doing the same thing as him except for moose
Back to the cabin we went.
The next morning it had warmed up to 22 but the bike seat seamed to have gotten harder
Passed the gate we went, up and up until we hit the first clearing on out right. I noticed M-Ray had slowed but I kept going knowing he would be right behind me in no time. I stopped a few hundred yards later when I realized he wasn't coming. I waited for a couple minutes then headed back and found his bike laying in the road and his head peaking up over some tall grass in the ditch. He was motioning me to stay down and put his hands up and out like a moose rack. I got off the bike, hunched down and duck walked to where he was sitting. He pointed out a ridge about 1/4 mile away and sure enough there was a bull. We glassed him and watched for a bit before determining he was too small.
Oh well, 1/2 mile in and we had already spotted one, maybe this would be the day we found the big guy out. Well we put in many more miles, glassed and called in every draw, cut and ridge but headed back having only found the one bull. We got back to the cabin, had a quick lunch and took a nap. When we got up I made an executive decision, we were going to head to a different location, one where we could drive the roads in the truck and not need the bikes, M-Rays eyes lit up and he had a little hop in his step again
We were now in persuit of Bone's "Gletty". We headed up in the hills and stopped several draws and called, I think they are winding down because they are shutting right up. We continued up to the ridge but about 1/2 mile from the top we spotted a couple orange vests on the road overlooking a large clearing. We drove up, turned off the diesel and said hello. I asked them if they had seen any moose and they said they had seen some cows but no bulls. M-Ray looking out my window to a finger ridge over their shoulder spots movement and tells them there is a deer over there. One of the guys says "thats not a deer its a bear" M-Ray put up his binos and said "it sure is" We got out and glassed it with them but it was about 1000 yards off and working up hill, they didnt have a shot. They said they were going to go up the hill and try to work down on him, we told them we would sit and not scare it off with the truck. About 20 minutes later the bear disappeared into a small stand of trees in the draw. It was getting darker by the minute so we fired up the truck and headed up the road. We drove a short ways and saw one of the guys standing there looking into the draw. We got out again and he said his buddy had left and that the bear was gone. We told him where the bear had gone and got our binos out. I spotted the bear right away, not far down the hill and in a clearing. The guy kept looking but couldn't see it with his Bushnells so I handed him my Swaros. "Oh there he is"
He set his rifle on a fallen tree and got his scope on him. I ranged it for him and told him 350 yards. He aimed and aimed and aimed, all the while M-Ray and I had our fingers in our ears waiting for a shot that never came. The bear stood broadside for about a minute before turning, I hear M-Ray behind me "*censored*"
Then all of a sudden BANG!! M-Ray says looks like you hit him, the bear just hunched and stopped. I told the guy "if you can see him hit him again" BANG!! this time the bear started up the hill and went behind some trees. It looked like he hit him and with a 300win mag it should have been a no brainer. M-Ray stayed put while I drove the guy up to the top of the finger ridge and dropped him to go down. I them went back and we talked the guy right to where the bear had been standing. He looked but couldnt find any blood. M-Ray told him to follow the tracks and he did. To cut off a bit of the story we headed up met the guy at the top of the ridge, M-Ray had called the guys buddies on the radio and told them their friend needed help and they were now there as well. M-Ray even loaned the guy a flashlite because he didnt have one.
He told us he did a "25 yard circle" but saw nothing
M-Ray told him he should come back in the morning because there was a good chance there was a dead bear in there. I seriously doubt they did but we did our part.
Now just getting dark, we continued up the road to the ridge to turn around, the second pic is of the sunset at the top of this hill.
Monday morning we again hit the gate with the bikes, you can't imagine what that seat felt like
We hit the first clearing again and instantly spotted a moose, it was a bull and it was heading our way. While we glassed him and tried field judging M-Ray spotted another bull on a finger ridge not too far from this guy. About 1/4 mile away we could tell he was bigger than the first so we shifted our focus. Still only about 45" I wanted to get a closer look so we got back on the bikes, rode around the knob and down the road to where we thought we could do a sneak. We worked our way up to the top but realized we needed to go down the road a bit more so we headed back down the ridge, got the bikes and went to the next hill. We climbed up and couldn't see him through the trees. We called, raked a tree and bushes, broke some branches and headed his way trying to get him to think we were another moose. It worked, we had cut the distance to about 150 yards and there he was ripping up a tree. After looking him over he looked to have about 8" wide paddles, split brows, 7 points per side and about 45" wide. We couldn't tell the length of the paddles but they were not real long so we passed on him too. Back on the bikes we headed off for Mr. Big again.
Several miles later we were glassing a big open area but there was nothing to see except loggers
and they were making a lot of noise. We decided to call it quits when M-Ray spotted another bear. He was a long way off but looked to be another heavy 300lb+ blackie. We watched him work his way up and into the timber and then headed back to the cabin to pack.
We went back to Outfitters to shower before the long drive home and chatted a bit. He had a couple 150 class whitetail at 100 yards that day but none of his clients wanted to shoot since they are all from "whitetail country" and were looking for mule deer
My deer hunt would have been over, I can gaurantee you that
One of his guides had a different guy on a 170 class muley but being a flatlander couldn't make the hike to cut the distance from 1200 yards to shooting distance
He had another guy from Maine that is sitting on a 180 class buck and waiting for it to make a mistake, I hope he got it, he was a good guy and a tough hunter.
