Idaho bear hunt recap

[Roger]

My son, brother, nephew and myself rolled back in to home Sunday night from an amazing hunt and experience in the mountains of Idaho.

This hunt began in Feb. 2020 when my brother mentioned he was thinking about a bear hunt. This stuck in my mind all spring and I told him I'm doing it, who's on board? I spent June researching outfitters and building spreadsheets. We narrowed the spreadsheet down to about six or seven. July was about calling outfitters multiple times. Some were like me. Long winded and talked forever. We finally chose an outfit and booked the hunt. During the early process, my wife and I decided I'd take our son as a belated graduation trip, so the group was four. We went with Brad Walters at Hell's Canyon Outfitters. More on these awesome folks later.

We were to arrive on Sunday afternoon/evening and hunt Monday-Friday. I called the outfitter to square away arrival info and was told if we could get there by 1 or 2pm, we'd hunt Sunday evening. An extra day of hunting? Done!


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[Roger]

Leaving

Met my brother and nephew at Whataburger in Gainesville to get the long drive started appropriately.


Homemade cinnamon rolls to chase down the breakfast on a bun.

We failed to account for it being Memorial weekend. Finally found a sketchy hotel room in Farmington, NM. Ate at a local Mexican food place. Only gringos in the joint. Great food and service. The obligatory travel food pic.


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[DFWPI]

Good luck

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[WBT]

Looking forward to the rest of the story.

[T-roy66]

Good Luck

[Drycreek3189]

I knew I was gonna like this when I saw your choice of breakfasts !

[Roger]

Rolled in to Riggins about 11am on Sunday. Hit the 7 Devils Saloon for lunch, then to the lodge.

They run small groups, so it was just us four on the hunt. Lodge was cool. Wolves everywhere. For Cowboys fans, Leighton Vander Esch's dad runs their back country elk camp for them, and apparently really does call in wolves by mouth and kill quiet a few of them.

Sunday evening everyone saw bears but me. Three bowhunters and Micah (nephew) had a rifle. Micah passed one as too small 'cause its belly was almost on the ground and ears were tiny. Ouch. Trail camera showed a massive boar. Judging bears is hard. Other bears were passed as small, so no shots fired.

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[Roger]

This hunt was primarily a bait hunt, but running hounds was included if we wanted to. Micah, not being a bowhunter, wanted to run dogs day one, so no sleeping in at bear camp. Dinner at 11:30pm, leaving again at 6am with hounds. Hunter (son), Robin (brother) and I went with my guide and another houndsman while Micah went with his guide, also named Micah. They treed a small bear. Catch and release bear hunting.

First Blood
Robin showed pics of the bear he passed on Sun. to his guide. The guide said "its a good representative bear, I'd probably shoot it." That sealed the bears fate. Robin was hunting from the ground in a folding chair nestled behind a couple of boulders. The same bear slipped in to the bait about 9pm. As soon as it turned broadside, arrow was away. The bear ran up the hill and crashed in the brush. Robin said there were four distinct, and loud, death moans, so he felt really good when he radioed the guide. He took a very rare bear for that part of Idaho. All black with no white on the chest. We chose ID for the high color phase odds, but Robin was comitted to letting an arrow go on the first decent bear he saw. And he did.

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[Drycreek3189]

Robin made a wise choice, good for him !

[Hockley]

Tagged

[Roger]

Idaho bear hunt recap

Out of time for now. Will finish tomorrow. It definately gets better!

Dang it. Tried to edit my next post and it deleted it. Guess I'll redo it then call it a night.

[Burnadell]

Good write up so far...looking forward to the rest of the story.

[AntlerCollector]

Following

[Drycreek3189]

Out of time for now. Will finish tomorrow. It definately gets better!

Dang it. Tried to edit my next post and it deleted it. Guess I'll redo it then call it a night.

I’ll pick it up tomorrow. Old folks need their rest……

[Roger]

Ok, so second try at this. Maybe I won't delete this one. Micah is ready to get after them with hounds again, so leave at 6am in Tuesday after a 12:30 bedtime. Haven't I always heard bear hunting was supposed to relaxing and slow paced? We went to an area they'd not hunted in the past. Once we hit the forest roads, guide Micah put his strike dogs up on top of the box. The fact that those dogs can smell where a bear crossed the road while going 20mph befuddles me. Pretty quickly the dogs blow up. Guide turns out hos lead two dogs. When they took off hot, he began releasing dogs in a specific order and timing. I wasn't sure what to expect from hound hunting, but hearing those dogs race out on a trail made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Exciting! We waited and watched the dogs on gps. Seeing where each dog was and how fast they were moving on gps was very cool. They were cooking and two miles away very quickly. The plan is to follow or intercept them in trucks until they tree or loose the track. Otherwise we'd never catch up to them if we just took off after them. That first two miles they did in minutes was up and down mountains! At one point, they came very close to some private land (as seen on gps mapping), but fortunately the bear turned back into national forrest. Finally the guide says lets go. We follow in my guides truck. We end up back on the highway and drive about 30 miles total. End up parked on the side of a somewhat busy paved road. I finally asked if we were just trying to find the dogs. He says no, they are still on the bear. What? We just drove 30 miles to get here. Then he says they are walking the bear. "Ok. What does that mean?" "Means the bear is walking and the dogs are walking along behind it." Oh, so everyone is taking a breather. Who knew. Then the bombshell. They are only 800 yards away from us. Seriously? Suddenly they are running again and we can actually catch a sound of them every once in a while. Then, boom, treed!! Guide says 150 yards from is up that hill. That "hill" was a straight up freak8ng mountain. 150 yds horizontally! I almost.died going up that mountain face. About 800 feet of elevation gain in 150 yds. Ever heard that Idaho is steep? That's because it is! The bear was treed in a giant tree just on our side of the ridge crest. Once all the dogs were tied, the guide discussed with Micah where to shoot. He told him, "put that bullet where we discussed 'cause if he comes down alive I will start shooting with my pistol." They wanted to be sure the bear didn't get down the mountain and off forest land. Micah made a perfect shot and is on the books with a beautiful, chocolate, 300 lb spring mountain bear. Those dogs had run that bear 9 1/2 miles, as the crow flies. All of that up and down mountains. I definitely have a whole new appreciation for hunting with hounds. Micah used my guides frame pack and hauled his bear down the mountain. Two bears down. Just Hunter and I with tags remaining. The evening hunt got pretty intense, and maybe a little scary, for Hunter. More to come tomorrow and it gets far better.

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