Hunting with Mike

It seems like forever since I wrote a blog, but we are now back from our little bear hunting trip to Marquette. We hunted Friday evening, and then drove all night and pulled into Monroe at 5:30 A.M. I have more than a few stories to tell, but none of them involve a bear “tag” being used. If this trip were a cribbage game you could say we got skunked. It was definately one for the “books!”

When we arrived for the hunt neither of the two baits, we had set two week prior, had been “hit.” We decided to bait three more areas in desperation. Tuesday was the start of my brothers hunt, and we didn’t even venture out, as nothing was happening at any of the baits. Wednesday morning we discovered our “sure thing bait” had been hit after sitting almost three weeks. We put up our stands, set out some more bait, and planned our hunt for the evening. Nothing but red squirrels and the mournful howl from a pack of coyotes. Thursday morning found one of our new spots hit hard, with several piles of bear “scat” around the area. We had to opt for a ground blind in this area, as the bait was in a “bowl” surrounded by hills. The evening thermals would no doubt blow up the ridges, so it was going to depend on which way our scent blew. We had a deer detect us from behind our blind, and that was the sum of the excitement for the evening. Friday morning the spot we had hunted Wednesday was tore up! From the size of the “scat” it was a very respectable bear, so we knew where we would hunt our last night. Friday around noon we did a little brook trout fishing, which took us by one of our original baits that had never been touched. Wouldn’t you know-it was completely gone! We needed one more week, but the “real world” doesn’t always just hand you the time you need, when you need it. We sat for four hours Friday evening, with  perfect weather conditions, and again saw nothing. I guess thats why its called bear hunting, and not bear killing. None the less we had a great time, and the U.P. colors where at their peak. The three “old” Ansel brother built some memories, and the Baldwin family was once again great host. It was good seeing them all again.

In all our years of hunting bear we can’t recall hunting during a full moon! We need some kind of an excuse for our inability to put some bear steaks in the freezer, so “full moon” works for us. This is the first time we can recall ever being “mooned” by a bear.

Mike

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.