Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Grizzlies getting to be a bloody nuisance....

<excerpted from an e-mail to a buddy>

Well, I had an interesting Friday evening. Kinda too damn interesting, actually. Took a long-delayed scouting trip up where we did some of our elk hunting last fall. Where the griz drank my whiskey. They trapped a grizzly near the mouth of <deleted, too revealing ...> Cr this spring, that was getting into some livestock, & transplanted him to Yellowstone, so I optimistically thought maybe my bear problems were over in that neighborhood.
No such luck.... Ran into just a hell of a big bear on my way in, am now in complete agreement with Meriwether Lewis; "I find that the curiossity of our party is pretty well satisfyed with rispect to this anamal."
Cody's landscaping job has temporarily turned into full-time haying, so he was unavailable. I'd been plotting this trip since last winter, but something was always coming up to prevent it, and I'm too damn secretive to take anybody else up in there, so headed out solo. Was watching for bear tracks all the way in, & fairly relieved at their absense. I just kinda had a feeling, though....
There's a couple of creek crossings about four miles in, and in the mud at one of them was just a BIG honking rear print! I was going to measure & take pictures on the way out, but the horses had obliterated it. I'm telling you, though.... I bet it was ten inches long. And there's the claw marks from the front prints climbing up on the way out the other side, all just fresh as can be. Not good....
So we rode about a hundred yards down the trail, and came over a little rise, and there's Mr. Griz, about sixty yards off the trail. I was real glad I wasn't hiking at that point. About a half mile back, we'd passed a cow & calf moose at about the same distance. The horses were interested, although didn't bat an eye, but man, they didn't like that bear at all! My saddle horse jumped uphill and was sort of doing the running in place thing, with the two packhorses doing laps around us. Fortunately the bear was departing poste haste in the opposite direction. Impressively wide across the stern, and deep chocolate brown color are the only points that stuck with me from about a two-second evaluation.
I got the horses all pointed in the same direction again, and about a hundred yards up the trail decided I should crank a round off from Cody's 45/70 (glad he urged me to take it), just as sort of a statement of technological superiority and firepower ;-). Got off Lexi, and $hit, man, there's just blood all over. She must have whacked a front foot on a stump or rock, and put a cut about 1 1/4" long right above her hoof, & was bleeding just profusely. Just a lovely situation....
Tried to stem it with a handful of grass, but that only got me bloody too. I've carried a horse first-aid pouch for years without needing it, and of course it was packed away in a manty. But, I couldn't just let her bleed like that so had to unpack one horse & spread the manty on the trail, all the time expecting the bear to show up & reclaim his territory. Got the blood flow slowed down to steady drips with a compress, a bunch of gauze, and one of those sticky roll-up bandages, but couldn't avoid leaving a dandy trail of blood spots right to the campsite, about a mile down the trail. Didn't camp in my usual spot in those parts, but in an old outfitter camp. He went out of business some ten years back, and the Forest Service never permitted that camp for anybody else, at least partly because he had regular bear problems. That trail is definitely a bear corridor, but I wanted to camp there because it's closer to the spots I wanted to investigate, and my regular camp is about a mile further (and about 500' vertical down in a canyon).
Got there with about a half hour of daylight left, and of course it promptly poured rain for about fifteen minutes. I was real glad about then I hadn't talked Kim into coming along ;-). She'd have been hysterical.... A big roaring campfire was sounding just really good, but of course all the small wood around was wet. Making a bunch of noise was kind of attractive too (and I had cranked off a round after my little first-aid episode back down the way), so fired up the chainsaw and sawed up a couple of dead lodgepoles and built an inferno.
Had a backpack meal and a nightcap, stashed the food items down by the creek (which is kind of a narrow gorge at that point, precluding alternate routes for midnight visitors), and turned in. Had the ponies in right next to the tent, which is some comfort against nasty surprise wake-ups, and actually slept pretty well.
Unfortunately, the route I wanted to scout, which holds potential for leading to the absolute Heart of the Inner Sanctum for giant bull elk, is just a total no-go. A couple miles of just god-awful deadfall, the kind where you have to walk on the down logs cause you can't even hardly get down to the ground. Mighty slow going, and totally impractical for elk retrieval, so I suppose I could classify the trip as an abject failure, except it could have gone a lot worse. All the same, I kind of feel like I've been pushing my luck in there, and since I know places where there's more elk and less bears, we might kind of cool it on that spot. Not giving it up entirely, though....

Bill, as you probably recall, the original proposition was when the grizz numbers hit around 250 in the Greater Yellow Area we'd have a limited hunt. Of coursed the number is now around 500 and no hunt... your tax dollars on vacation <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Grizzlies are darn sure not endangered in those parts. The wheels are in motion for de-listing, although it'll be interesting to see what sort of roadblocks get thrown up.
Hey Brad, did I see some mention that you are an advertising/graphic design guru? Do you work cheap? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Seriously, I could stand some expert advise....

Sounds like that trip got just a little too interesting. At least things turned out better then they could have even if you didn't find your way into elk central.

Stay safe.

Brad--
My brother trapped Grizzlies in the park for two summers when he was in college(three years ago), and said that 350-400 number given by USFW service was about a fourth of what's actually there. He estimated the number in the Yellowstone Ecosystem at near 2000 grizzlies. My dad lives about 30 miles from the East gate and has also seen wolves right out his back door....

Yep, one of my buds lives in western Wyoming is saying the wolves are gobbling up the managed game surplus that we hunt.
All of these extra protected wolves and grizzlies makes me wonder if its not an anti-gun, anti-hunting conspiracy from some of the upper east coast extreme leftists.

Straydog- It's not the wolves it the black helicopters! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> I do not doubt that wolves have an affect on game populations, but I can't buy into all the conspiracies.

Hiya Bill... yeah my training and background is art. Right now I'm building another house so time is non-existant. I'd be more than happy to meet and look over some ideas with you tho!

Jamison, I've heard those numbers as well... I try to stay on the conservative side of the no's for fear of sounding like I'm "preaching." In Hellroaring N. of the park a good friend guides for the early rifle season. He's done it for around 34 years. He tells me the grizzles have become so bad they've had to wire the perimeter of their camp with electric fence (solar powered) and insist on the "buddy system" for trips to the potty!

Brad- They don't have to do the 'buddy system' thing. Phil Shoemaker keeps a 416 Rigby in his outhouse! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> I guess if one's to soil their pants that's the best place for it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Mtn Grizzlies are generally more ornery and, in the YP area, more acclimated to people than the average Brown... a BAD combo. Regardless, everyone's required to go armed to the [bleep] <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Brad; does your buddy guide for Tim Bowers, by any chance?

We have them also and yes they have been here a long time.Of course the rule of thumb here in central Idaho is Shoot Shovel and Shut-up.

Who's going to listen that counts?

Jayco.