By James Wood
The alarm went off at 5:30 am, I rolled out of my sleeping bag to the brisk, cool chill of
mountain air. I could hear Buck Ernst rambling around in his rig. We had both had a close call on
the 1st day of a 4-day hunt, but it had turned fairly dead after that. We had our coffee and discussed
what each of us planned for the last and off we went on our separate ways.
On the way up the mountain that morning, I stopped and took a picture of the orange glow
of the sun showing herself over the mountaintop across from me. It was a beautiful sight! Right
then and there I asked for maybe a little “last day luck”. I continued up the mountain on my bike
and parked. My plan was to drop back down a mile and a half on foot and hunt a drainage back up
to where I left the bike. While I was slipping back down the mountain, I found a freshly killed
rabbit foot on my path. I picked it up and took a quick picture of it and dropped it back where it
was. Five or six steps later, I saw a nice fresh bear track in a damp spot. I wondered what animal
had caught the rabbit and had itself a meal. Either way, I figured a rabbit foot may be a sign of luck
to come.
I continued picking my way through the drainage at a crawl. I took my time stopping and
listening every few feet, soaking up every moment of the last morning. I finally reached the area
where I knew there were some white oaks dropping and I sat down to take a break. I saw a bear in
this area on the first evening. As I sat there, dropping milkweed floaters to test the wind I watched
them drift slowly out of sight down the drainage. I knew that the conditions were in my favor. Just
as I was about to start up the drain, a bear appeared out of a laurel thicket, eased up a ridge, and
disappeared about 50 yards from where I was taking my break. There was a large rock between
me and where I last saw him. I began my crawl to the rock with extreme caution of anything that
could alert the bear of my presence. It seemed like an eternity but now I was there, slowly I stood
up to see nothing. Scared to take another step, I froze. Suddenly out of thin air, a black spot
appeared and was 15 yards from me and above me on the ridge. As his head disappeared behind a
tree and brush, I came to draw and dropped the string on Bandage. A loud grunt and he took off
running, passing within 5 feet of where I had dropped off my pack when the stalk began.
Immediately, the surge of emotions hit me like a freight train, I HAD DONE IT! I just shot a bear
with Bandage! I stood there not believing what had just happened and enjoying every moment. I
called my buddy Al Chapman and told him what had just happened. I could hear the excitement in
his voice. We talked for a good while then I lost cell service.
As I started tracking, blood was scarce, which is common with bear and a single beveled
head, but I knew I had a good hit with red blood with almost to the fletching on a full-length
Douglas fir arrow. Shortly after I was picking my way through the laurel and there he was - still
alive! He was lying on his side head down unaware of my presence. With no way to send an arrow
through the thicket and a little concerned with my present situation, suddenly the bear rolled over,
stood up took a few steps, and completely disappeared over a drop off. I immediately backed out.
That’s when all the thoughts of a bow hunter started.... I slipped out of there quietly got to the top
of the mountain and called Jerry Russell to pick his brain about what I had seen and how the bear
reacted. We decided to give the bear 2 hours. I had called Buck earlier and described to him where
to wait for me and I started making my way down the mountain to meet him. We sat there, ate
some snacks, and started in. Somewhere along the way, I decided to give the bear 3 hours. It was
a long wait but “when in doubt, sit it out” is my approach to retrieving game. At 1 pm on the dot,
we started into the thicket and as I approached, there he lay where I last saw him. The celebration
started! We were like 2 little kids on Christmas morning. Buck got the whole thing live on his Go-
Pro.
The arrow had impacted the bear slightly behind the front shoulder in the lower third of the
body and exited the middle of the rib cage slightly back. Recovery was 75-80 yds front spot of
the shot. Buck and I made quick work of taking pictures and breaking him down into our packs,
and out we were headed loaded with meat, head/hide, and smiles from ear to ear! It was a great
ending to a truly epic hunt.
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