May 6th - Father / Daughter Bear Hunt

May 6^th

Father / Daughter Bear Hunt

Ummm....I'm the one behind my daughter.

When Carolyn was twelve years old I took her on her first hunt.  Going with what I knew…which at the time was minimal I admit…I booked her on a wild boar hunt at Tejon Ranch.  After what ended up being a fairly tough hunt she got her boar and immediately asked me to book her on another hunt.  She would have been happy doing a boar hunt again, but I figured it was time to move onto another animal. 

As we headed home with her boar in the ice chest I asked her what animal she would like to take next.

Bear.

Ok…time to hunt something that can bite back!

After doing some research I settled on a guide in Northern California that ran bear hunts near Mt. Shasta.  He used dogs to tree the bears or bay them up so this was going to be a unique experience for the both of us….up to this point in my life I had never hunted over dogs.

The use of dogs in hunting bears is both practical as well as ethical.  The dogs initially scent the bear and head off after it.  The bear, fearful of the dogs will take the high road and climb a tree to wait them out.  Once the hunter arrives she can glass the bear and decide if it is mature enough to be taken…or more importantly if it is a female…without any cubs.  Often times it will turn out that the bear is too small, or a nursing mother and the hunters and dogs will leave to go find another bear.  This selection process helps ensure a healthy bear population.  In fact,…since this practice was first implemented in California and our bear population began being managed through the North American Game Management Model, our bear populations have gone from almost terminal extinction to a healthy sustainable number.

Unfortunately, the use of dogs seems to offend the urban dwellers of California.  From the wild backlands of San Francisco and Los Angeles people who are more familiar with pavement and manicured shrubs seem to want to set environmental policy for those wild lands that they see occasionally on the Discovery Channel.  Currently there is legislation making its way through the state legislature that will make hunting bears with dogs illegal.  If passed the only way to effectively hunt bears will be over bait, or through spot and stock.  This will result in more cubs being left orphaned and succumbing to other predators, as well as a reduction in the numbers of successful hunters.  All the gains we have made in developing and growing those bear populations will be erased, and I predict in the span of a few short years we will once again see the California Black Bear numbers plummet.

But, back to my story..

Carolyn and I headed up to Mt. Shasta, where we met our guide Mike Smith and his dogs.  He took us to his semi permanent campsite in the National Forest and set a camp fire for us.  The next morning would be our hunt.  Neither Carolyn or I knew what was in store!

At sun up Mike had us saddle up in the truck along with the dogs.  Well actually the dogs were tied too the truck!  A couple on the roof, one on the hood, and the rest in the truck bed.  Our friend on the hood stood ridged as we progressed along the mountain roads sniffing the air for a scent of our quarry.  After a couple of hours of making our way at five miles an hour, suddenly our “hood dog” started twitching and barking. 

We stopped, let him off, and watched him dart down the side of the mountain.  Mike released the other dogs and within seconds twelve barking hounds chased after the first. 

The dogs raced down a near vertical cliff letting us know their position through their barks.  As I glanced down the treed canyon I estimated the hill side to be about five or six hundred feet down.  A few minutes later we could hear the dogs heading up the opposite side of the canyon, then over the crest and into the next one.  Finally after a half an hour we could hear the faint distant sound of dogs whimpering.  This was what Mike had been waiting for.

“Ok they got a bear in a tree…let’s go.”

Carolyn grabbed her .270 rifle and the two of us headed after Mike…taking the exact same trail the dogs had taken….straight down the cliff.

Ok…so I’m in pretty good shape…and when we did this hunt I was a little bit younger and lighter than I am now.  Still…the physical demands of this hike were excruciating.  Well…at least for me.  Carolyn and Mike seemed just fine. 

After about two hours of climbing, falling, cursing, and bleeding we finally came to the tree the dogs had surrounded.

I was literally panting trying to catch my breath as Mike explained what would happen next:

“Stay hidden…I will tie up the dogs and we will glass the tree to look for the bear.  As soon as the dogs are on a leash they will fall silent.  The bear will stay up there until night fall thinking the dogs are still around.  If the bear sees us and no dogs it will come down.  I can’t really say for certain what it will do if it does.  If it’s pissed it will kill us all.  If it is just annoyed it will run off.  Important part is just to say hidden.”

I nodded that I understood and collapsed in a clearing about 20 feet from the tree.  Carolyn sat down a little bit behind me.  I was too tired to even take my back pack off.  I just laid on it like a pillow.  As Mike tied up the last dog I could not help but think that they had made a mistake…there was no bear in that damn tree.

Suddenly about fifty feet up I saw a furry face look down at me.

“Hey!  I see the bear!!”  I yelled.

Mike instantly shot me a death stare. 

Opps…I was supposed to stay hidden huh?

The bear made the most God awful sound…kind of a hiss and a grunt…and started running down the tree.  Not climbing down….running down.

Yeah…it was pissed.  It wanted to eat me….and I was too friggen exhausted to move. 

So…this is how it ends.  Me as bear food in front of my daughter.  Well…at least my life insurance would help her out with the therapy sessions she would need for the next few years.

“Carolyn!  You have one shot!  Shoot it in the head!”  Mike yelled.

I looked back and saw Carolyn already steadying her rifle on her knee tracking the bear as it charged down the trunk. 

I heard the crack of the firearm, and saw the bear tumble off the tree and land on the ground with a fatal thud. 

She had placed the bullet just behind the eye.

Proud daughter, and you can see her helpers tied to the tree behind her.

Besides teeth, they have claws too! (The bear that is)

Well…she saved my life (again)…and now we had to haul this beast out the same way we came in. 

God this was going to be exhausting.  Maybe it would have been easier if the bear had just killed me!

I would end up getting my own bear on this hunt too…..but that is another…thankfully less exhausting story!