Off to Michelle's

[840dc]

Well after passing on quite a few bears last year, and blowing a stalk on a really nice bear this season, I finally got my first bear. I left my house around 2:45am and hit the trail in the dark. I got up to the first bench before first light and got up high and started glassing. After hiking and glassing all morning I decided to hike up to a different ridge and glass a different valley. While glassing, I spotted a nice buck in a far away bowl and decided to try and get closer and maybe get some pics. On the way over to check out the buck I noticed a bear had moved into a meadow down below. The stalk was on, I took my time and worked my way down through steep snow and rocks. When I got to a good place to set up I couldn't find the bear because I was too low and the brush was too thick. So I climbed aways back up the mountain and worked my way toward a rocky avalanche chute. When I got to the chute I could see the bear below me and worked my way down to about 150 yards from him. I set my pack down upright and sat down behind it. I set my rifle on the pack and put the cross hairs right behind the front shoulder and squeezed one off. The bear slowly ran 20 or 30 yards and paused and I put another round in him as he was falling over. Now the real work started, I was solo and miles in and the first leg of my pack out was steep. He fell into some big rocks and was hard to work on. I had snow and a creek which allowed me to cool the meat quick, as I was working on him. I piggybacked him halfway up the mountain and stashed him in snow. I had ran out of water earlier in the day and decided to take my first heavy load back to my truck to re up on water. When I got to the top of the ridge I got some cell service and called two friends to see if they could come help. They had just gotten off work and said "Hell Yeah" they grabbed there meat packs and started the drive. (2 hrs). I continued hiking and got back to my truck around 6:30pm and put the first load in the coolers. My friends and I spent the whole night hiking and packing meat. It was a real adventure! haha the joke of the night was " I swear guys its right around the corner" "I swear guys were almost there". My buddies got home just in time to shower and go back to work, pretty good guys huh! That was probably close to the 20th bear I have seen since I started hunting them last year and the first one I let lead fly on.

[Ranger91298]

Great looking Bear...congrats!!!

[bearhunter99]

Looks like a heckuva bear! Congratulations, got any more pics?

[seth30]

Congrats!

[pianoman9701]

Wow, that's a nice looking bear.

[gaddy]

well done & looks like a great bear. & you have some good friends there.

[pianoman9701]

well done & looks like a great bear. & you have some good friends there.

Yep, good buddies who'd drive 2 hours to help all night are hard to come by.

[stickbuck]

Nice work!!!!  Congrats on a great bear!!!!

[PolarBear]

Sweeeet!

[shedcrazy]

Nice bear, and even better friends! Congrats

[washingtonmuley]

Congrats on a nice looking bear.

[Skillet]

Nice bear and way to earn it, man.

[woodman]

Great bear, great write up and really great to have friends like that!

[Huntbear]

nice bear.. congrats, and it sounds like you really earned that bearskie

[MuleySniper]

Sweet bear! I like the pic.
MS