Well, we decided to give it a hot this weekend me and two of my cousin went out Friday-Sunday. There was 7 of us total in camp and we split up into 3 hunting groups to go out and glass units and get some bears.
Friday night at the first unit that was slightly overgrown I spotted a small 150ish lb. bear on the edge of the tree line at about 400 yards. Couldn't see the body of the bear just glimpses as he milled around through the christmas trees bordering the edge of the old cut. I whistled at him and he raised his head and looks straight at me. Being the first night, smallish bear, and right before dark I passed up on the shot not wanting to have to look for a bear in the pitch dark.
The next morning my group was up in a unit at first light and glassed until around 10am not seeing anything. It rained all day and I think I was the only person who brought there hunting clothes and layers since I had looked at the forecast. Around 10am fog rolled in and we were no longer actually hunting in the unit so we made the trip to town to get lunch and head to a different area.
After lunch we went to a little lower elevation to get under the fog and went into some units that were difficult to see into. As we were driving through a heavily forested area a sow with two cubs shot across the road right in front of the truck and one of the cubs shot up a tree right on the side of the road. We hit the breaks and hopped out of the truck with side arms and a camera to snap some pictures of the little cubs. Mamma was just over the side of the road standing on the hillside halfway obscured in salmon berry bushes gnashing her teeth and breathing heavily. She was about a 230 ish lb sow with two very healthy looking babies. After we got a few pics of the cub in the tree we hopped back in the truck and left them to there business. Shooting a bear won't make or break my season, and I have no desire to harvest a bear that will effectively kill three.
After we left we went into a new unit and started glassing. Sitting in the unit I noticed an abnormally large amount of bald faced hornets around me and ended up figuring out that I was sitting directly on the hole going into there nest. Luckily for me apparently rivers west gear is bee proof and I managed to get out of there and not get stung at all. I moves 50 or so yards and glassed this unit until dark.
The next morning I got up at 4:30 and went out alone to where I had seen the small bear the first night and glassed the unit as the sun came up. Everyone else in the camp slept in until 6:30. At about 7:00 I went back to the camp and got some coffee as well as the two guys that were now awake that I had been hunting with the previous two days. We then hopped in and went to one of the units that we knew had a big bear in it and listened to it, or maybe a herd of elk crunch around for the better part of the day in some old growth at the bottom of the unit. We got a text from one of the other groups we were with that there was a large bear that they were looking at at about 700 yards waiting for it to close the distance a little so that they could get a better shot. They said that the bear was over 6 feet tall as it stood up raking a log. They watched the bear for three hours and the bear finally got spooked or found something better to do and exited the back of the unit with a purpose.
At about 2pm people decided that they wanted to start there track home so we all met up broke down camp and three of us decided to try and see if that big boy would come out again. I posted up with my two cousins until dark and finally right before dark we tried to predator call but it had no response.
All in all, I had a great weekend and had a ton of fun. I learned a few valuable things for anyone who is going out and hunting in general, great glass is your #1 tool other than your gun. Bears love the woods, other than the big boy all bears were spotted on the tree-line or in the timber. Last but not least, take your hunting gear, if you spent the $ to own real gear use it. a few of my buddies were miserable not because the didn't own the right equipment, just because they didn't pack it.
Animals spotted total by group.
Bears- 5
Elk- 0
Deer- 26 ish, 5 bucks 2 potential shooters
Grouse- 45-60
Other hunters- 2 trucks
