AK Brown Bear 2012
Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 12:18 pm
This spring season was tough. When we arrived on May 2nd, there was 4 feet of snow on the ground, no bears were seen in the mountains and weather was cold and 30-40 mph winds. Flying down the Alaskan Peninsula, there were no walruses to be found because the pack ice was still up on shore all the way down.
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On a typical year, there is very little or no snow and no pack ice. We flew down to Bear Lake Lodge and found they had been working on the runway clearing snow but some planes still could not land because the snow was piled so high on the sides, it wasn’t safe for some planes to land. Ron and I dropped our gear and headed down to HooDoo lake to see what condition it was in and whether we could even land. There was about 350 feet of gravel showing and so we landed and dropped some supplies. I didn’t see a single bear track in the snow the entire 45 miles down there.
My first client was a good friend of mine, Aaron Neilson. Aaron lives here in CO. and has recently taken over as the host of Trijicons TV show from Craig Boddington. Aaron and his cameraman Pat arrived on May 9th for the opening day on the 10th. We couldn’t hunt on the 10th due to high winds and blowing snow. The following day, we got out and hiked up to my favorite valley about three and a half miles from the cabin. It was snow shoes the entire way. Not surprising, we didn’t see a thing. We also couldn’t climb to the top of the ridge because it was too steep for snowshoes. The following morning, we had a wolverine come check us out at the cabin. A wolf also walked all the way around the cabin staying about 1500 yards out.
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The next day, we headed back up to a spot to glass and late in the day, we spotted what we thought might be a bear in an alder patch, but it was almost 5 miles away. Problem was, it was around 5 pm, too late in the day to head that way. When we got back to the cabin, I started watching this black dot and sure enough after 20 minutes, he raised his head so I knew it was at least a bear. Problem was, he never stood up so I had no idea how large he was. Later that evening, around 11, I checked on him and he was still there. Next morning, he hadn’t moved so we headed out.
It was an exciting stalk and even more excitement after the shot but we did end up getting this bear. It will air on the TV show later this year. It was the only bear we had seen the first three days.
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My next client was a real nice gentleman from Texas. A few bears were starting to pop out of their dens but the lake was still frozen so it prevented us from using the boat. So we weren’t able to hunt a lot of area we usually can. On day four, I spotted a small female on a mountain about 4 miles up the lake from the cabin. Thirty minutes later, a huge bear came out of a canyon and bedded down on a rock a quarter of the way up the side of this hill. We took off and 2 and a half hours later, he was still there sleeping. It was a horrible stalk through a mile of alders in three feet of snow. We got to 307 yards and that was as close as we could get. The bear knew something was up but we had the wind and after a couple of minutes, he couldn’t stand not knowing what we were, he got up and started walking toward us. At 225 yards he stopped and gave my client a broadside shot. Several shots later, he had a 10’ 01” bear. Skull is right at 28”. The season ended on May 25th.
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This spring was the worst on record for the Peninsula and it proved to be some very tough hunting for a lot of bear hunters. The lodge had 15 hunters and took 12 bears.
More pictures of this hunt can be seen at: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/582890066qnLuey
[/URL]On a typical year, there is very little or no snow and no pack ice. We flew down to Bear Lake Lodge and found they had been working on the runway clearing snow but some planes still could not land because the snow was piled so high on the sides, it wasn’t safe for some planes to land. Ron and I dropped our gear and headed down to HooDoo lake to see what condition it was in and whether we could even land. There was about 350 feet of gravel showing and so we landed and dropped some supplies. I didn’t see a single bear track in the snow the entire 45 miles down there.
My first client was a good friend of mine, Aaron Neilson. Aaron lives here in CO. and has recently taken over as the host of Trijicons TV show from Craig Boddington. Aaron and his cameraman Pat arrived on May 9th for the opening day on the 10th. We couldn’t hunt on the 10th due to high winds and blowing snow. The following day, we got out and hiked up to my favorite valley about three and a half miles from the cabin. It was snow shoes the entire way. Not surprising, we didn’t see a thing. We also couldn’t climb to the top of the ridge because it was too steep for snowshoes. The following morning, we had a wolverine come check us out at the cabin. A wolf also walked all the way around the cabin staying about 1500 yards out.
[/URL]The next day, we headed back up to a spot to glass and late in the day, we spotted what we thought might be a bear in an alder patch, but it was almost 5 miles away. Problem was, it was around 5 pm, too late in the day to head that way. When we got back to the cabin, I started watching this black dot and sure enough after 20 minutes, he raised his head so I knew it was at least a bear. Problem was, he never stood up so I had no idea how large he was. Later that evening, around 11, I checked on him and he was still there. Next morning, he hadn’t moved so we headed out.
It was an exciting stalk and even more excitement after the shot but we did end up getting this bear. It will air on the TV show later this year. It was the only bear we had seen the first three days.
[/URL]My next client was a real nice gentleman from Texas. A few bears were starting to pop out of their dens but the lake was still frozen so it prevented us from using the boat. So we weren’t able to hunt a lot of area we usually can. On day four, I spotted a small female on a mountain about 4 miles up the lake from the cabin. Thirty minutes later, a huge bear came out of a canyon and bedded down on a rock a quarter of the way up the side of this hill. We took off and 2 and a half hours later, he was still there sleeping. It was a horrible stalk through a mile of alders in three feet of snow. We got to 307 yards and that was as close as we could get. The bear knew something was up but we had the wind and after a couple of minutes, he couldn’t stand not knowing what we were, he got up and started walking toward us. At 225 yards he stopped and gave my client a broadside shot. Several shots later, he had a 10’ 01” bear. Skull is right at 28”. The season ended on May 25th.
[/URL]This spring was the worst on record for the Peninsula and it proved to be some very tough hunting for a lot of bear hunters. The lodge had 15 hunters and took 12 bears.
More pictures of this hunt can be seen at: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/582890066qnLuey