2008 Blue Mountain Spring Bear

[Rufous]

I got a short evening hunt in today. I saw two bears but they were on the other side of a major drainage. They were on the north facing slope (the drainage runs east to west) so on the south side of the river. I plan to hunt a similar area tomorrow (another east to west river) and tomorrow my buddy and I will be on the north facing slope hiking up from the bottom. Maybe we will get lucky, Rufous.

[Cord]

Rufous,
Are you seeing them south of the Umatilla from the Grouse Mt side?  If so, an easier way in is up the first draw south of Graves Butte on the south fork, to top out on the ridge south of the river and look into the open north facing slopes from above.  Saw a good blonde up ther last fall.
Cord

[Rufous]

Cord, thanks for the suggestion. I was on Government Mtn looking south across the North Fork of the Walla Walla River. We might try out your suggestion next time out though. Brian.

[Rufous]

Well guys I logged a total of about 19 miles on foot over Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday afternoon/evening and only saw the two bears Friday. Saturday we went north from Harris Park up a very steep slope, climbing from 2100' elevation to 3750' and around and then back down. We saw some tracks in the snow and even some fairly fresh droppings but no bears. Then today I went out by myself, starting my hike at 230 and climbed up the south side of Graves Butte from the road at 2500' up to Bobsled Ridge at 4050' and then back down. No bears today either. Hopefully they will start showing themselves soon. Brian.

[billythekidrock]

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted.

[Cord]

Rufuous,

See post "Got My Spring Bear This Morning by ToddD"  I went up to Monroe to help my son get his bear, now that we have that one it is my turn.  I have the Starkey Oregon tag, and, according to the Oregon Snotel website, there are still 32 inches of snow in the area where I had planned to hunt 18 days from now.  Looks like it is time to start working on plan B.

Keep after those springers...few other hunts compare.

Cord

[Rufous]

I was out again this evening and saw two bears. We put a stalk on one but it gave us the slip. It took an hour to get into the area where it was but it was gone by then. Then we saw another one but it was pretty small so we did not go after it. We put in about 5 miles on foot. The bear we stalked was at the head of a big canyon quite a ways above us so it took quite a while to get up to its level. Brian.

[Rufous]

My hunting buddy and I were out yesterday evening for a bear hunt again. He filled his tag with a decent boar. We estimate its live weight at about 225#. It measured 5' 9" nose to tail with the hide still on the carcass and the front pad measured 5" across. He took the shot at about 730 with the bear on the other side of a river. It was quite an adventure getting across the river but we succeeded and found the bear dead only about 20 yards from where it took the bullet. We rolled it down the steep hill to the river bottom and got some food in our system then proceeded to butcher the bear. We got back across the river with the meat at 12 minutes after midnight and got back to my truck at 311am. It was about a 6 mile round trip with quite a climb out of the river bottom. We sure earned that meat. Here is a photo of the bear. Sorry it did not turn out very well. Hopefully I took some better ones with my buddy's camera before it got dark.

[deerslyr]

Nice bear!

[billythekidrock]

Congrats to your buddy. Sounds like quite the trip. I hope he is around to return the favor.

[bucklucky]

Nice to see another spring bear on the ground! Nice Job. Now go find that 400 pounder!!

[washingtonmuley]

It sounds like you guys earned that bear. Congrats!!!!!!!!

[Rhinoron247]

Just got back from 3 days in Lick Creek,  Snow has receded some and we was able to gain about 3 miles of road access into the NF.  This time we took the horse and covered some ground.  We road approx 15 - 18 miles each day but saw no Bear and surprisingly no sign of any bear.  We were into Elk and Deer every day and the Onions are on everywhere.

We started low and worked our way up until the horses had a hard go of it in the snow.  Where they are is anyones guess right now?  We are going to give it another week and head back. 

Here are a few picks of the trip.

[Cord]

Roufus,

Great Bear!  Did this bear have a Umatilla or Walla Walla River home address?

Cord

[Rhinoron247]

A few more pics from Lick Creek Bear trip this week.

Hope to post a BBD pic soon. (Big Bear Down)

Enjoy