Bowsite.com

DAY 5

We awoke to a beautiful day in Southeast Alaska.

The clouds gave way to deep blue skies and a warming sun. We spent the entire day working on my bear hide and meat, and just relaxing in the sunlight. Johnnie gave all of us a lesson on the basics of field trophy care, turning the ears, eyes and nose, and fleshing the cape. The skull green scored 19 inches, exactly what Johnnie had guessed but the hide went 6.5 feet - with a square around 7 feet. This was one big (Cinnamon phase) black bear and to top it off, the hair quality was excellent - long and shaggy with no rubs.

Johnnie took advantage of the nice weather to flesh my bear hide.

Johnnie went on to recommend that when working on a bear - many outfitters in this area will wear surgical gloves, to protect them from bearfinger. Bearfinger is an acute condition which develops over several days, eventually your hand rots off.

Tom and John went to the hole and Johnnie and I finished up the bear. When our chores were finished we spent the last couple hours checking the outer beaches for brown bear, taking pictures of black bears, and pulling in our crab pots. A relaxed day.