Bear Track Outfitters is a first class black bear camp located about a three hour drive north of Winnipeg, Manitoba in absolutely prime black bear habitat. The camp which consists of several clean and very comfortable cabins (each complete with private bath and kitchen) is located on the shore of beautiful Lake St. Martin. The outfitter, Ron Dare and his wife Jeannine, the camp cook were professional, friendly, helpful and absolutely committed to ensuring that each hunter/guest in camp had an enjoyable experience in camp AND in stand. To say that the bears were abundant would be a tremendous understatement. All of the hunters that I shared camp with that week (good guys, all) saw multiple bears. Very respectable bears were seen and taken. Due mostly to the effort expended by my hard-working guide Darren Shipp, I was fortunate to see ten bears including five bears that my wife and I observed while sitting out together watching a bait one night armed with only cameras. This was at the same bait over which I was fortunate to take a beautiful bear with a distinctive white patch on its chest the night before. In plain words, Darren and Ron absolutely worked their humps off to put us on bears. Meanwhile, Jeannine worked equally hard in camp to ensure that none of us went to our stands or to bed hungry. The food was both excellent and plentiful (Plan on gaining at least five pounds while in camp- seriously). For those considering taking a non-hunting spouse to camp, I think it is important for me to mention that my wife enjoyed her stay at BTO every bit as much as I did. In short, Ron, Jeannine and Darren definitely walked their talk and delivered on everything that they pledged to do. I would highly recommend Bear Track Outfitters to anyone considering a QUALITY black bear hunt.
Monty Bolis Ray Township, MI
I like guys like Monty. Always kept in touch as his hunt date neared. He was enthusiastic thoughout the hunt and practised shooting his long bow every day. He made a great shot on a real nice bear. I see he graded us a 4/5 on trophy care. I'm assuming it was because his bear hide and meat were in a freezer that was slowly dieing, which we did not know about. Of the 5 freezers we have at camp that was the one. It's in the dump now and we're relieved to hear both meat and hide made it back to Michigan safely. Monty has asked to use his name as a reference any time, so expect to see his name on our reference list.
Day time temps in the mid to upper 70s (F.) and night time temps in the upper 40s to mid 50s. No rain. Variable, sometimes gusting wind that died down during prime hunting hours.
