More East Wenaha Success

[niceshot]

For being a guy of very few words I figure I better get this out now.  After the pictures and all that good stuff that comes with the harvest of an animal the term "embrace the suck" starts to leap into your mind.  Did I mention this is steep country that is very think with lots of blow down.  After making trip one out and some much needed fluids trip two was back to get hind quarters and cape.  Once back it was realized that we are missing a hide quarter.  Dehydration, exhaustion, lack of sleep maybe was taking a tole but then we realized that it was a bear.  It drug it 100 yards down hill where it decided to gnaw on bone and some of the meat.  It was not that bad and it was quickly deboned.  We believe we jumped this bear prior to shooting the bull and I had plans for it.  My cousin was coming down to assist in the hunt and we talked about him bringing a rifle to camp after we got a bull.  He was pleasantly surprised when he arrived in camp to see he missed out on the packing and was awe struck to see what we got on the first day. 
We had a pretty good idea on where the bear was going to be hanging around and so my cousin and I headed out to see if we could stumble on him again.  Two days went by and when we got by the kill site the amount of scat from every type of predator was amazing.  Sitting near there was a little unnerving to say the least.  Cougar tracks, bear tracks, pine cones dropping out of trees had us looking like a couple bobble heads.  We decided to move on and within a mile we found the bear. (Back up one second) The week prior to this my cousin was charged by a bear when he unknowingly got between her and a cub.  He had to shoot as she was charging to scare her away.  To say he was on edge is an understatement.  Well after he gets steady (so he says) he made his shot and it rolls down the hill.  We are beside ourselves and then it proceeds to run up hill.  He is looking at me like he does not know what to do (let me tell you he has harvested PLEANTY of critters) and me being the expert guide I think I am say something along the lines of "shoot it until its dead".  Well he got one more into it before it ran down hill into what was some of the thickest stuff possible.  We elected to have our last meal before going into this stuff which we both knew was going to be our demise.  We followed a limited blood trail until the spot where he got the second bullet into it.  It was bleeding good then but it was crawling over and under the thickest stuff you could imagine.  You could see 10-15 yards at the most.  We took our time and when he screamed BEAR I thought oh boy please be dead.  Well it was and the hugs and thanks commenced.  The two of us have seen a couple bears in our lifetime and have never hunted them prior to this.  To say we were living the high life does not do it justice.  We had two amazing animals down in a week and we both knew that the memories we were making will be with us forever.  We were laughing and hoping that our two sons can keep this Family hunting tradition going (Which they will).  After pictures we both realized that we have no idea on how to skin this animal for his rug but we managed.  The Taxidermist that took my elk and his bear said we did a great job on the bear. 

Sure I could put a price on this hunt but what I cant put a price on is the countless memories we all made, the friendships made along the way, spending time with family and being in some of the most beautiful country God has to offer.  I implore you to get out there and do this.  I wish you all successful hunts and more importantly wish you many memories with those you care about. 
Good Hunting,
Mike

[Widgeondeke]

ummm, this is the ELK section.  Got pics of the elk?
Congrats and good write up   

[jackelope]

ummm, this is the ELK section.  Got pics of the elk?
Congrats and good write up   

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,202052.msg2681859.html#msg2681859

[tgomez]

Great bear, congrats!

[Ripper]

Very nice story and pics.    Spending time outside with family and friends is truly priceless. Harvesting a few nice animals is icing on the cake. Congrats to you and your family.

[Kit Carson]

Congrats! 

[Machias]

Nice bear, congrats!

[Mark251]

Nice 

[csaaphill]

should post in the 2016 bear success thread as well nice bear though.