Here's some pictures of the little cinnamon bear that we ran into tonight. Kind of a cut little guy but his lack of concern kind of gives me the willey's. I would have been more concerned if he was about 3 times as big. My youngest daughter (9 years old) this morning says what time are you going bear hunting this afternoon. I told her about noon as I was getting off work a little early. She eagerly pipes in "Well I get out of school at 1:25 you could pick me up and I cn go with you". How does a dad turn down that request. Her effort was rewarded. We had rebaited and had seen a picture of the new cinammon colored bear on the trail camera. I thought he was too small to shoot. We had been making a ton of noise like all little girls do. We were not 15 yards form the bait when she looks up the hill and starts going nuts. This little guy was just sitting there about 30 yards away just watching us. No concern whatsoever. We watched him for about a minute and then decided to get the camera out and take some pictures. The bear finally just wanders down to the bait. He obviously could see us and smell us as well as the wind was at our back. I think I will start packing a gun.
May 21st,
Now I need to start packing a bigger gun. I figured all I really needed was something to make a lot of noise but after today I'm not so sure. Brandi and I went baiting again. We hadn't been there three minutes when Brandi sees the bear literally running into the bait. By the time I see it is only about 20 yards off. I grab my stuff and start back peddling. The bear comes into the bait grabs a loaf of bread that wanders off about 10 yards and hides behind a tree and starts eating the bread. Meanwhile I get out my 22 pistol just incase. My trail camera had been knocked off the tree so I really wanted to get it back up. I walk on over in plan site of the bear and put the camera up. All the while being a little (a lot) nervous. About that time I decide hey I can get another picture. The first one goes fine as the bear is mostly behind the tree. For the second one he is heading back to get some for food. I think the flash startled him but he turns hunkers down and stares at me. At that point I'm backing out of there. I never did get the popcorn spread. I left it sitting on the bait pile still in the garbage sack. I went up hill to the blind which the bear(s) had torn apart. The cinammon bear had claimed the top of the bait pile as his and was still there when we left. I didn't get any good pics as the cameras aim was too high and the bears had ripped it off of the tree. Actually going hunting tomorow.
As I look at these pictures I'm beginning to doubt myself. Last week I was pretty sure the bear had "a little" blaze on his front. I can't see it on any of the photos from last week. Todays bear has an obvious blaze that shows up in several of the photos. Same bear or not?? I have no idea. Blake wants to shoot this one this weekend.
In the pictures the bear looks about the same size but that is because I had cropped in on last weeks photo.
Been a busy week. I ended up shooting my bear last Tuesday (22nd). Not a huge bear but my first black bear! I have continued to run the bait hoping to see a bigger bear. No luck. Blake and I hunted last night and saw two smaller bears. One was a brown colored bear and a smaller black one. He decided not to shoot as they were too small. We are going back tommorow to see what happens.
On the 22nd it was a blizzard but I decided I needed to go bait and probably sit for a while. The cinamon bear was there again and I ran him off the bait. As I'm dumping the bait out I look up and he is literally sitting in my blind with his front paws on my shooting rest watching me. After getting changed into scent blocker and three layers of long johns I sneak back to the blind. The bear is in the bait. I watch him for about 45 minutes before he runs off and circles around behind me. About that time in comes my bear. It was (still is) the largest shootable bear that I have seed at the bait. Single shot from my 7mm and she never even flinched. I dragged it down about 70 yards to skin then clean it. I pack the cape out and get to the truck about 11pm. Still snowing at that time. The next day get into the bait. Find new pictures of bears at the bait. Fortunatly they had left the meat alone. I ended up sledding the carcass out the bottom of the canyon.
I have now at least 14 bears on the bait. Its hard to keep track of them all. I'm surprized that there is not any sizable bears using the bait.
Still trying to get a bear for Blake. The big kids were at camp so I took Karie and Brock to bait bears. Someone had fun. Someone else did not. You can tell from the pics who did. Only two more days to hunt and I'm on call all this week so we won't be back to bait hunt/bait for a week. That can not be good.
