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Wednesday A.M.
This morning we hung nearer to camp to try and spot some of the bears hanging out near the railroad, but the only bears we saw were 2 small cubs that have actually been hanging out pretty near camp. It was quite warm this morning, which means that this afternoon will probably be a real scorcher.     Wednesday P.M.  This afternoon, like yesterday, we rode the quads back into the high country where the grizzlies hang out, except we went to the other side of the mountain range we were at yesterday. The country we were in yesterday was awesome, but where we went today was absolutely stunning. There were a few vantage points where we could see probably 70-80 miles. There were lots of big clearcuts we were spotting in, looking for bears - both grizzly and black. We went for a short ride today on the quads - we only went 52 miles! We went from low to high and back again, seeing lots of incredible looking bear country, but strangely, not a whole lot of sign. The outfitter thinks maybe the grizzlies have headed back up to the peaks since it's getting warmer and probably starting to green up at the higher elevations, and the black bears seem to really be hanging out at the lower elevations, as we have seen on the railroad.    We did see 2 black bears on our ride - and they were both hogs - really large boars. One was working his way down a logging road in a clearcut below us. The outfitter and Bob - the other hunter - made a big circle to get around in front, while I stayed up high to give a few hand signals. We lost sight of the bear for about 10 minutes, but the outfitter felt certain he would continue on that road, and sure enough, he did. He came into view for me, and as it turns out, for them too, and looked to be getting fairly close, then all of a sudden he bailed off the road into the brush. They came back and said the bear had been at 40 yards and closing fast when the wind started swirling and busted them. The 2nd one we saw when we came around a corner in the logging road. It was a monster boar just off the road, hanging out at the base of a small birch tree. That's when we noticed 2 very small cubs clinging to each other at the very top of that tree. Momma was nowhere to be seen, but we guessed she was somewhere nearby and that the boar had run them up the tree. We were about 80 yards away at this point, and he decided a little closer would be too close, so he bailed off into the brush. We drove up and got a few pics of the cubs and then went on down the road.  The big boar we saw near the cubs, which are up in the tree with the yellow circle  A closer shot of the cubs, hanging on to each other and the tree The only other thing exciting that happened the rest of the evening was my sudden meeting with a bull moose on the road. It was about a half hour till dark when we turned around to head back for the truck, which was approximately 20 miles away. It also was looking like rain, so we decided to put the hammer down and get back quickly. I let the outfitter and Bob have a 60 second head start so I wouldn't have to eat their dust all the way back. I had gone a few miles and was going pretty much full throttle when all of a sudden a bull moose ran out of the brush onto the road about 30 feet in front of me. I never knew such a large animal could run that fast from a standstill. Fortunately, he started running away from me. I slammed on the brakes and managed to avoid hitting him. Heck, I probably could have just ducked and gone between his legs. He ran about 400 yards down the road in front of me and then ran off into the brush.      Check back tomorrow for another hunt update!
Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children. |
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