Three days in the Wilson arm drainage, wrath of the gods rain thus far…and then the sun came out! We needed to kill 2 black bears and one of them was with a bow, so off we went…Myself, Dave, Jason and Dennis, together in the 18 foot Lund, flat calm water and partly cloudy skies, gave us hope and a view that the day before would not have made possible… there are a number of salmon streams in the drainages of Behm canal, I chose the west side to hunt so our chances of encounters with Brown bear be more at a minimum, so I pointed the skiff towards Grace creek, a few miles north… Misty fjords in the fall!
Unparalleled beauty on either side of the canal as we headed north, mountains towering above, laced with timbered canyons and cliff faces all alive in it’s crevices with the water dropped so enthusiastically over the previous three days…The ride was smooth and without incident, bringing us to the mouth of Grace creek and its shores we were hoping to hunt, Jason was the bow hunter and had first pick of any legal bears we encountered, so he had a decision to make as we came upon a young sow a few hundred yards up the creek, the side to side nod of his head gave me the answer I needed…
I looked at Dennis the other hunter and his enthusiasm could hardly be contained, Dennis was carrying a .300 win mag bolt action, more than adequate for the animal before him…The bear was uncomfortable with all the attention and elected to cross a wind felled tree ahead of us that spanned the creek…Dennis could not wait for it to cross and the rifle roared as the bear reached midstream, I swear the hole was so big you could see daylight through it when he hit it, almost knocking it into the swift waters of the creek below…But it quickly recovered and made the other side, then disappeared into the foliage beyond…With the evident injury, I did not expect it to get too far and being on the opposite side of the creek, we had to go back down to the boat to access the other side, which gave it time to succumb to the injury without us breathing down it’s back trail…
We got in the skiff a couple of hundred yards downstream and crossed over, Jason stayed with the skiff while Dave, Dennis and I headed upstream to start tracking, we came to the windfall that the bear had crossed on, and the blood and tracks were plainly evident, after trailing about 50 feet, I felt a vigorous tapping on my shoulder, it startled me and I turned to see what Dennis was trying to make me aware of, eyes wide and barely able to contain himself he pointed frantically at the blood I was following and said “there’s blood!” and I took a deep breath and replied “I know”… A few more yards and then it got worse…the end of a large intestine, hung up on a log, and winding its way through the forest floor…We followed its winding path to its opposite end with no bear, a graphic and stark display of why one cultivates a clean, quick kill when hunting, how the animal kept going I will never know…
A few more yards of trailing and we found it, it saw us coming and rose to escape but was too debilitated to go any further, I got Dennis lined up on it to shoot in a safe direction and he emptied his rifle into it with little regard for accuracy or the animals suffering…Then it got worse he dropped his rifle and drew a .44 magnum off his hip and proceeded to empty that into the hapless animal as well! I could not take it any longer “WHOA!” “HEY!” “ hang on here, slow down” I yelled in an attempt to slow the carnage, I told him to aim and try to break its neck with his last two rounds and the bear finally succumbed to the abuse, I hope to never witness to such a spectacle again…
So, it was time to regroup and get Dennis’s bear to a suitable place to skin it and take pictures, we all dragged it into the skiff and went to such a spot…With one clients tag filled, Jason the bowhunter was still looking for an opportunity which I thought might present itself at Ella creek or the lagoon in princess bay…
Our route back to camp had a stop at Ella creek, but we left there after seeing how high the water was and sighting no bears…We reached the lagoon at princess bay on a falling tide, which presented the challenge of keeping the skiff from being beached, but Dave was willing to watch the skiff while I guided Jason to the mouth of the creek …
Guiding black bears in southeast presents its own challenges and benefits the challenges being the terrain and the weather, while the benefits are the light hunting pressure, numbers of black bears and the fact that evenings are almost like someone turned on a switch and all the bears start coming out…As we cleared the trees into the lagoon we could see 5 bears feeding at distances between us and the mouth of the stream, only one looked suitable for a stalk and he was feeding in a corner on the opposing side…So we started a stalk that seemed as if it were a long stealthy “slalom”, as we tried to get closer to our quarry without spooking the other bears as they fed…It took some time and it paid off! We made it to the mouth of the creek without alarming the others, at 40 yards the boar we were after was consuming pink salmon with enthusiasm, Jason and I made our way into the middle of the stream to where he had the best shot…And then it happened, a younger smaller bear came out of the woods, at half the distance between us and our intended quarry and blocked the shot!
If you ever get complacent and think you have seen all situations in hunting and fishing, “Ma” nature has another course for you to study! As my mind was racing with possible outcomes, the little bear’s hindquarters cleared the way for Jason’s arrow and it struck home! Being a guide certainly has its moments and I cannot say they were all fun, the responsibility for Jason’s safety was in my hands, which at the current moment were aiming a rifle at a 250 pound black bear coming straight at us! The arrow had struck home, the bear it hit roared and the smaller boar, thinking he was about to be attacked came running right at us, Jason was scrambling to defend himself while I was trying to make the smaller bear aware of us, my yelling finally got its attention and it dug in with its front paws and turned towards the creek…With the danger of imminent collision passed, we returned our focus to the targeted bear, which had escaped up into the brush…
The lung shot bears I have been involved in taking, have all died within 100 yards of the shot, hoping the arrow had penetrated the heart or lungs, we waited for a half an hour before following the blood trail…I found 8 inches of the arrow with the head attached to it within the first 50 feet, it had worked its way completely through the animal and it kept going, with the distraction of the other bear when Jason shot, it was hard for me to discern where it had been hit…So now it’s wounded and obviously quite mobile, rather than keep pushing it further, I elected to let it stiffen up and lay down, hopefully, the boar would expire during the night and we would come back and trail it in the morning, with more time and daylight…
Jason was heartsick that the bear was not found yet, but coming back in the morning was the best course of action…The next morning dawned cold and clear, with no wind, we had a couple of nonhunters in camp that wanted to come along rather than hang out in camp all day again, which made for a full load in the 18 foot skiff but it was safe with the weather presented to us, the only challenge being the 4 foot standing waves in a tide rip at the pass entering princess bay…
Dave and one client stayed behind to watch the boat and do some fishing, she had expressed a desire to catch a halibut and Dave was going to try and make it happen…So they dropped myself, Dennis, Jason and Kelly the other nonhunter at the cove to trail Jason’s bear, after a discussion on protocol and tactics on the trailing we started in to the brush, salmonberry, blueberry and dense mixed foliage, made the going slow, along with the mixed tracks of other bears blending together, to make it even more of a challenge the bear had almost completely stopped bleeding, 50 yards between blood was the interval I was finding it and only in the driest areas not rinsed by the showers we had the night before…
We made our best effort, halfway through the quarter mile of tracking, I found the other end of the arrow, up and down through the creek bottom we followed what sign was available, even jumping a large boar on the way out, it left a flowing wake through the brush as it hurried ahead of us, and showed no signs of injuries…
Jason’s empathy for the wounded animal not recovered was evident and we empathized as well, but they saw where the trail ended in the creek and knew we had made our best effort…So…with the daylight starting to change we joined Dave and the fisherwoman to find that their day had a different outcome, several beautiful rockfish and a 80 pound halibut, were in the skiff and hearty congratulations were shared!
What a day…One I would certainly never forget, the hunt was over we needed to go back to Ketchikan the next day, Jason went home without, a black bear but came up again the next season with a friend to hunt mountain goat… And that is another adventure!
