Grizzly

Out of the Water

Last night Kyle, Percy and I went on a bear hunt. We had planned on going out a couple of different times but it just never worked out. Finally all of the schedules lined up and we got a chance to head out. I have been having problems with our four wheeler wheels freezing solid so I rode over to "Old Boat Harbor" with Kyle. Percy was heading there at the same time and when we came up to river, there were 2 caribou right across the main channel. Right after we saw them go into the willows we heard a gunshot. They must have missed though because we didn't here the "thhwaap" of a hit. We waited for a few minutes to see if they would come back out of the willows to cross but we didn't see them after a bit so the decision was made to head out. We left the "Old Boat Harbor" at about seven o'clock.

Trying to Lift the Head

Percy had a good spot in mind just below Sugar. A long, shallow back slough that ran past Robbie's camp. It is an ideal spot for the bears to fish, especially when it is full of salmon. We left the boat at the head of the slough and walked close to a mile to where we started waiting for bears to come out. The entire length of the slough is about a mile, maybe a mile and a half. Robbie's camp is located on the east shore by the head of the slough. The lower half of the slough is pretty much frog water, slow moving, consistent three foot depth, with a slightly muddy bottom. As you progress farther upstream the current speeds up and the bottom gets shallower. Salmon find the shallow gravel bottom ideal for spawning. Dead fish litter the beach, and salmon jump and splash in the shallow water in a continuous rhythm. Bears are attracted by the dozens.

Real Big Head

First we started out sitting in a small dried out channel looking over a lengthy stretch of fishing ground. In this spot we had a wide 360 degree view around us. Our little draw was approximately 50 yards away from the side channel and about a mile from the main channel. As we began looking around we realized that none of us had brought binoculars. The entire downstream length of the slough was visible but we could see upstream only a couple hundred yards. We sat in the draw for about an hour bs'ing. Percy entertained us with stories of past bear hunts in that area. There was a clump of willows blocking our line of sight upstream, so we decided to move up to that, so that we could see the entire slough.

Real Big Feet

It was about 8:30 when we reached the second spot. This spot was a small clump of willows almost at the end of the slough. To try to create a visual; If you were see from a bird's eye view from east to west. Starting in to the east. The taiga forest, a mixture of spruce and willows, borders the slough to the east. A constant battle between the river and forest with no clear winner. An abrupt ten foot high bank, a jumble of fallen trees and exposed roots, drops down to a shallow river channel. The channel is about ten feet wide, more of a riffle actually, coming onto a small gravel bar island running north to south about a hundred yards and twenty yards wide. Moving to the east there is another wider, somewhat deeper, channel that also empties into the slough. Continue to the west out onto the broad wide open riverbed moving 50 yards from the edge of the river to our small clump of willows. From our vantage point we could see north where the river peters out into a small trickle coming out of the willows. To our west we could see the main channel off in the distance. The landscape between is made up of intermittent dry, gravel washes, clumps of willows, and the occasional high and dry log jam. The slough and the main channel of the river made up the view to the south. The wind was blowing out of the north and that is where we expected the bears to come from so it was perfect.

Kyle and Percy

Percy kept saying that the bears don't show up until right at dusk or a little after. The sun set at about 9:15, so we settled in for a little wait. Visibility around us was very good. There weren't going to be any bears that were going to sneak up on us. We thought we could see a bear fishing to the north of us. Given we didn't have any binoculars, and we couldn't be sure we decided to stay put. Nothing much was happening, we were debating going back to the boat and drifting downriver slowly to see if would might happen upon a bear when there was still enough daylight to shoot. We were just getting ready to pack up our stuff to head back to the boat when Percy says, "Shit, bear! Bear! Bear! Bear! Right there, coming down the bank!" Suddenly there was a bear right there across the river from us. My first impression of the bear was that it was extremely black. The only other bears that I have seen were very light colored. Since I haven't shot a bear I got to take the first shot.

It was nearly dark at this point and all I really could see was a dark form of the bear. He came down the bank into the far channel. He was out of sight in the far channel for what seemed a long time, but couldn't have been more than ten seconds. We saw him amble up onto the island and flip a freshly caught fish into the air. I was ready to take the shot but he was facing directly at us about 80 yards away slightly downhill from our position. He continued walking slowly towards us. I held my fire hoping he would turn a little. He angled broadside slightly but quickly straightened out facing us again. I cussed myself out for not shooting. Again he angled slightly broadside. I gradually exhaled and squeezed the trigger of my Mosin Nagant sending a 7.62 x 54 190 grain soft point right into the grizzly's rear end. Kyle and Percy followed up with a barrage of their own. The bear took a few seconds to react and I took another shot, and missed. He took off upstream and towards us out into the river channel nearest to us. He made it about ten yards before either Kyle, Percy, or both hit him and turned him back around downstream. I can visualize the bear running back downstream fully broadside legs extended. It seemed like slow motion. I shot again. I think I hit him, but I am not sure because Percy shot at the same time. He finally stopped in the water and started thrashing around. I shot again and missed. I knew when I was pulling the trigger that I was shooting too quick. I saw sparks fly to the right of the bear confirming my suspicions. I cycled the bolt keeping my eyes on the bear, not entirely sure that I had another shot left. I waited, exhaled slowly and squeezed off the shot. "Thwaaap!" A fatal shot to the neck. Slowly the bear crumpled over and laid motionless. "Woooooeeee! I thought he was coming at us for a second!" "He probably came halfway across that near channel!" "That last shot was perfect! He just collapsed after it hit!" "The adreneline was really pumping, I don't remember cycling the bolt at all!"

We waited a few minutes to make sure the bear was dead and then waded across the river to it. The bear hadn't looked huge when it was coming down the bank, but when we walked up to it looked huge! The head was absolutely massive. He had a short, extremely stocky body, covered with dark chocolate fur, and large, dangerous looking claws. He died in the water, so we tried to drag him out. Holy man was it heavy! All three of us could barely budge it. We had to roll it out of the water, and even that took some work. A short photo shoot followed, and since it was dark we decided that because it was already so late that we would come back the next day to skin it out.

"I'm not scared"

Potentially the most impressive part of the whole trip was Percy's driving on the way back down. He navigated the river beautifully the whole way back in almost complete darkness. The plan was to go out after work the next day and skin the bear out. Kyle called me when I was on my lunch break and said the him and Percy were going to head up there then, because Percy was a little nervous that the ravens might start picking at it. They never made it. Right by Quesuks they ran into a herd of caribou. Kyle told me there were about 25 in the herd, and they caught six of them. They cleaned all the caribou and made it back to town about six. We unloaded the caribou and headed back to get my bear. Percy's wife, Eva, came with us to keep guard while we skinned the bear out. It wasn't far from the willows, so we kept an eye over our shoulders. An hour and a half later we had it skinned out. The skull and paws were still attached and these, combined with the weight of the hide, must have weighed close to 200 pounds. I could barely carry the game bag by myself. It took all I had to get it up to my shoulder. I carried it for a little ways, and then we found a good log to tie it to in the middle. It was still heavy for both of us to carry. We took 4 or 5 breaks on the half mile walk back to the boat. With the bear loaded up, we headed home.

Rug