The weather got worse. We had rain and minimal visibility down at the lower elevations. That meant the higher elevation was even worse. Kent has a bear tag and I am itching to dust a wolf so we took the day to drive the logging roads in hope of catching either animal. I told Kent that I had no problem filming his goat and bear hunt but if we saw a wolf he would have to fight me for the rifle. The logging roads are everywhere up here and dotted with "cut blocks" which are patches of logging activity of various maturity. These clear cuts are then reseeded with clover which benefits the wildlife tremendously, especially black bear who are drawn to these areas like bees to honey.
Before we headed after bears we took a brief detour to a salmon fence where hunting is off limits and grizzly bears are often spotted. We were in luck! A nice grizz was feeding and allowed me to get some high quality footage of him. When he swam away, it was out to the cut blocks for bear and wolves.
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A quick detour at a salmon stream gave us an opportunity to film this grizzly. |
The weather cleared in the lower elevations as the day went on. We could see the mountain ranges from the roads and they were all fogged in. Nothing kills a goat hunt faster than bad weather. You have to see the goats from a considerable distance and climb hazardous terrain to get to them so on bad weather days most goat hunters never leave the tent. Being in a warm truck hunting bears was a far better move until the weather clears.
We did not see any bears before lunch but we did run into a grouse crossing the road and I happened to have a bird license. As Jack and Kent watched, I carefully stalked the semicomatose bird to within 20 yards, drew my Mathews Z7 and hammered the bird in a cloud of feathers. But that's all I got, my judo point took a hunk of breast feathers off and nothing else. What a loser.
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We saw three bears while driving the logging roads but nothing big enough for Kent to shoot. |
We continued driving the roads and did see a couple of small bears. Kent was really keen on this spot and stalk bear technique which is a whole lot different than sitting over bait. We hadn't seen a shooter all day but just before dusk we crossed by a road and what looked like a decent bear was walking in our direction. I thought it looked good, so did Kent, but Jack thought he was a little small. We decided to stalk it anyway and have some fun. We got within 35 yards but confirmed that Jack was right, it was too small. We still moved on him for video but had no intention of shooting. Had he wanted to, Kent probably could have moved closer and killed him solo, but with the two of us tagging along the bear picked us up and ran down the road. It was a fun break from the intensity of our goat hunt and given the weather we all felt it was a smart move being off the mountain.
Jack's mom made us Halibut Lasagna that evening. I was ready to throw my goat tag away since my hunt was complete. I could have easily sat in that lodge for the next 10 days and do nothing but eat that lasagna. Incredible! Tomorrow it was back to 'Mr. Noodle' which is Canada's version of Ramens. We are headed up early to another mountain range where we were warned - this climb was really steep. I thought the last one was steep so Kent and I are a little anxious about it. With our bellies full of three helpings each of Halibut lasagna, we had no problem falling asleep fast in Jack's newly built log cabin. Tomorrow it was back to the mountains.
Having Options?
Having been on three goat hunts prior to this one bad weather is always a factor. Usually you have no options. On this hunt we did and that was a great benefit of hunting with Babine. Some of the hikes into the high country are long, others are not. Our first hike was 5-6 hrs in and half that coming down. The next hike is only 3 hours in and half that coming out. In addition to having the option of coming out when we wanted to there are lots of other animals to hunt so you can have a truly mixed bag adventure on the days when the weather is bad. For the goat hunters who have ever experienced being confined to a tent for three days, you can imagine how nice this option is. The only downside is you can do it too much and if the weather clears you are losing hunting time hiking back up. Not only can that burn up time, it can also burn up much needed energy. Despite the downside, I liked having the option and so did Kent.
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