In September 2002, I was 21, my friend Wally called me and said him and Jeff (his brother) were going bear hunting and wanted to know if I wanted to tag along, sure. As a young man I thought I can keep up with these two old guys, they were late 30's to mid 40's. We got to our spot at about 4:15 am, and proceeded to walk in behind the locked gate. We reached our destination shortly after daylight. We glassed for about an hour and saw 2 bear about 2 miles away. We contemplated going after them but they looked a little small. Then as we were watching these Wally says I found another and he is blonde. Our attention now shifted to the 3rd bear and he was only about 1500 yards out. We quickly decided to go after him and on our descent into the basin he decided there was something he didn't like, and he went out over the top into the thick timber to never be seen again. Since we are already in the basin we figure we will go over to the location of the other two we had spotted earlier. Half way there we stop to glass another basin and low and behold we find 2 more bears on the other side of this little basin. Wally and I decide to go after them and Jeff stays behind to watch and look for more bears. We never saw those two again and we end up taking the long way back to meet up with Jeff. We sit down for some lunch and more glassing, I fell asleep but that is nothing new. I was awoken by Wally saying there is another bear. This one was all the way across the basin, back at our starting point. Then Jeff says I found another and he is big. There was a brief lesson on how to tell a big bear form a little, and away we went. We decided I would go to the creek bottom seeing how most bears escape downhill if possible. Jeff would take the high side and Wally somewhat in the middle. Well the bear moseyed over the top right into Jeff's lap. One shot slightly back on the bear paralyzed him from mid chest down. A slight jerk sent the arrow of course. The bear then turned and ran downhill toward Wally and me. So I hunker down in the bushes and watch the bear tumble down the rock slide past me and into the bushes. It got quiet after a few moments and then Jeff appeared, and said we better go find him because it wasn't a very well placed shot. After about 400 yards or so I finally found them, I fell behind as we were descending the creek bed the bear had used as an escape, and they were wrestling the bear out from under a log he was trying to hide under when he finally expired. Picture time, we took a few pictures and then the work begins. I simply watched and learned a few tricks. My pack was loaded and Wally's was over loaded because Jeff had left his behind, and he was carrying the weight of two loads. We had to find the trail that ran along the creek, and as we fought our way through the bushes I managed to pick up a yellow jacket, and got stung right on my Adams apple ouch! We made it to Jeff's pack and divvied up the loads. By now it was about 7 pm and we still had 6 miles to the truck. We slowly made our way back stopping at every huckleberry bush to have a snack. The last brutal uphill section Jeff ended up carrying my pack and his (I now have a greater respect for old guys). We finally make it to the truck well after dark, I chug almost a gallon of water and look at the clock, 2:30 wow we have been out in the woods for almost 24 hours now. I climbed in the back and lay down Wally and Jeff both claim I was asleep before we even left the parking spot but I don't remember. To this day it is the only bear I have been part of taking, and it is still one of my most memorable hunts.
I know it is a bad photo but I had to scan it because all the pics are on paper.
Brandon
