Ron and Jeannine Dare run an outstanding operation. They are two of the nicest, most down to earth people you will ever meet.
The accommodations were excellent, two bedroom cabins on Lake St Martin. Beautiful setting. Cable TV and WiFi is now included which I believe is a new amenity for 2016. Everything was clean, comfortable, and well maintained.
Jeannine's food is out of this world! She prepares amazing Eggs Benedict, French toast, and omelets for breakfast, prime rib, ribeyes, and pork roast for dinner, and outstanding soups and sandwiches after a long night in the stand. This trip is worth it for the food alone!
Ron's baiting and bear situation is also top notch. He runs a large number of active baits with ample bait to feed multiple bears. Part of the fun for me on a hunt like this is being part of the process. You can be as involved as you like with Bear Track. I enjoy mixing bait, replenishing baits in the woods, and checking trail cameras is like Christmas morning for this guy! I always felt like I was involved in trying to get a bear on my bait and in deciding what bait would be best although I do prefer to defer to the experts in such matters! There were more than enough active baits for the hunters in camp and the numbers of bears were there. We battled some tough weather, 80 degrees the first day, then solid rain for two days and finally we had snow the last 2 days to finish our hunt. The weather played no small role in our number of bear sightings probably being down somewhat from what Ron typically sees. The weather is something though that no outfitter can control, everything that was in Ron's control was top notch, and extremely well done.
Pat was our personal guide for the week. I can't say enough good things about Pat. He's an outstanding guide and a serious "bear whisperer"! Ha! I learned a lot about bears from listening to Pat and observing things Pat would point out at the bait sites on our bait runs. It was an extremely enjoyable and educational experience for this newbie bear hunter. If you head up to Bear Track and get Pat as your guide consider yourself extremely lucky to have him!
I ended up taking a smaller bear toward the end of the last evening of my hunt after seeing several bears on the baits over the course of my hunt. There were a couple of very nice bears I was holding out for but unfortunately it did not come together, mainly because of the unstable, cold and snowy weather IMO. I had an outstanding time at Bear Track and am already looking forward to a return trip if Ron, Jeannine, and Pat will have us! Thanks Bear Track!
None to date. If you are the outfitter please email us.
Pat needs to have an option to select all of the above! It was way too warm and dry and then it was way too wet and cold, and then it snowed! If there's a type of weather on this planet we had it over the course of 5 days. We still saw bear!
