I have no logical explanation, except perhaps that when I was young we did a lot of camping in the mountains during the time that Parks Canada was doing their best to discourage ("scare") tourists from feeding bears on the road sides.
A friend invited me to bear hunt with her, so this past weekend found me sitting in a treestand with my friend overlooking bear bait.
I'd brought a rifle and xbow to camp - chose to carry my Vixen most of the time.
This was my friend's 4th year of bear hunting so she had first "dibs".
This past weekend was exceptionally warm which likely influenced bear movement. However on Friday evening the temps were more moderate and a sow came into the bait. My friend immediately took the shot, the bear ran off. We asked her husband and his friend to interrupt their own hunt to bring their ATV over to help recover the bear.
We climbed down to check the bait site for blood. Found a good trail.
It was an excellent shot - both lungs and top of the heart. Bear ran less than 40 yds.
I took some quick photos as the others were positioning the bear and preparing to tag it. However we suddenly found ourselves being stung by wasps - there was a wasp nest right next to the bear!
We ran out of there and tried to come up with a plan to extricate the bear.As I approached the bear with a long rope I saw that wasps literally carpeted the whole bear.
It was INSANE! I looped the rope around the nearest foot and got out. The ATV pulled but the bear hung up on deadfall and one of the guys (a hero!) went in to free it and reposition the rope. By the time the bear was dragged out to the van most of the wasps were gone. WHEW! We quickly tagged it and loaded it.
The faithful old van has hauled several deer, (including road kill), moose, and now bear.
Once the bear was back in camp my friend gutted it herself with some help from another woman who was also new to bears. I can't tell you how proud I am of those ladies!
The next day we headed back to the stand, but we brought some back-up in case we shot another bear in the same vicinity.
What a difference a few days makes! By the end I had no qualms about heading out and sitting in the tree by myself - (although I took along my Dad's .30-06 instead of the xbow.)
No other bears were sighted or shot by our camp this time around, but I'm already looking forward to next year!
Incidentally, I've dreamed about bears again every night since the hunt... but now in my dreams they're shy and elusive.
