Predator Xtreme - Feb 2012
The last word As I write this in early September I am licking my wounds from a truly disastrous hunting trip to Alaska The hunt was supposed to center around climbing high and hunting Dall sheep but I would also buy a grizzly tag to both be prepared should a bear simply show up unannounced or had things gone well I could bear hunt after I had a ram on the ground I hadnt counted on the outfitter fibbing to me about how the hunt would go down I never spent a day sheep hunting Instead I was shuttled to two different low country camps where I was told to bear hunt until things were right to go chase rams Amazingly they never were Not much else I could do once out in Bush Alaska but follow instructions as I needed the outfitter to give me a supercub ride back to Anaktuvuk at some point so I could get the heck out of there And so I grizzly hunted for nine days out of backpack type camps where breakfast was a candy bar lunch a PB J and some gorp and supper a freeze dried dinner and mug of hot chocolate My guide Lets just say he had so many issues that after a month of bad attitude with the seasons previous clients the outfitter fired him the day I left base camp Thankfully I love to hunt grizzly bears so all was not lost I guided some for both grizzly and brown bears when I lived in Alaska and love the country in which the mountain grizzly lives It had been six years since I had been in the Alaskan mountains and I had forgotten how spectacular the Far North is in early fall This year there was a huge blueberry crop and I picked them as eagerly as a little schoolboy all the while remembering how much my wife Cheryl and I enjoyed going blueberry picking together Blueberries also often hold the key to fall mountain grizzly hunting In years of abundant berries the bears can be found gorging themselves on the ripe fruit The hunt strategy is really very simple You leave camp as early as you can get your guide going in the morning climb to a high vantage point and glass until the guide says it is time to head back to camp Unfortunately for me my guide was an 8 to 5 kinda guy when it got light about 5 a m and dark about 11 p m Since he knew I used to guide and could take care of myself when it was quitting time and he packed his stuff he had no problem leaving me to keep glassing As you can imagine we didnt share a lot of conversation which was OK for me It wasnt long before I found myself in a sort of Zen like state glassing for hours on end taking short naps in the warm sun eating a few berries and reflecting back on my many years of Alaska grizzly hunting A mountain grizzly which to me is arguably the most magnificent big game animal in all of North America was actually the first Alaskan animal I ever killed It was on my 88 www PredatorXtreme com FEBRUARY 2012 first Alaskan hunt back in the mid 1980s when my outfitter his wife young son and I encountered the bear while riding horses out to a sheep camp Before leaving from home I remember telling everyone that I would be thrilled if I could just see a grizzly let alone get a crack at one After shooting that bear Terry and Deb Overly sat me down beside it and then dipped their fingers in bear blood and painted a small cross on my forehead I was no longer a cheechchako greenhorn I was a grizzly hunter When I finally climbed aboard the little Piper Caravan for the flight from the native village of Anaktuvuk back to Fairbanks my spirits were not as deflated as they probably should have been Dont get me wrong I hate getting ripped off on an expensive outfitted hunt just as much as the next guy Who has that kind of time and money to waste Its just that this time I was able to spend a lot of time by myself in the Alaskan wilderness reminiscing Over the years I have killed a dozen big bears in the Far North and seen friends and clients shoot another dozen or so On this hunt I saw some sows with cubs and a couple of small boars I would not have shot had I had the opportunity along with lots of caribou and a handful of nice bull moose On the very last morning a mature boar did appear walking with a purpose across the open tundra a bit more than a mile distant We tried to catch up to him but no dice Looking back that was probably a fitting way to end this nightmare Still the trip reminded me how much I love being in grizzly country and hunting the continents top predator I left knowing this would not be my last time Alaska Grizzlies Editor Bob Rob
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