Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Spring bear hunt -- 2021!

Third hunt was a short one on May 16th-- I only had one evening so I hiked through a meadow system accessible by the road system in town. It was pissing rain in town but surprisingly gorgeous on my hike. Weird micro-climates in southeast AK.
The wind was at my back the entire hike out, so I walked about three miles skirting along the side of the meadows to not put my scent straight through the middle. On the way back the breeze was in my face so I was weaving through the middle and keeping an eye on everything.

There's a big section about half a mile long that in the past few years has become flooded by beavers, so I was wearing my waders the entire hike and sinking in to my knees all through the flooded section. Pain in the asz. I did see two of the beavers and man if I had been there a day earlier (still during trapping season) they would've come home with me. I do have my trapping license as well.

There was one patch of thick timber that I walked through. It ended up being really thick with brush on the exterior but opened up nicely in the center. There was a flood-stream running through the middle (thanks again to the f*in' beavers) and that's where I saw the only bear I'd see while on my hike that day:





Unfortunately I just thought it was a bit too old to be worth shooting, but still was really cool to find and examine the skeleton. As far as I could tell, the whole bear was there, however with it being in a washout I only found the one tooth. I took it to ADFG and got a seal for the skull it just in case.

I was just about back to the trailhead and it was past dark when I saw a young black bear. I got within 20yards, which was really cool, but I knew it wasn't a bear I wanted to invite to dinner.