Curt, some Bear protection...Peters eyes are closed!  But thats probably actually pretty realistic.  I know mine would be under a charge.
I heard about the blood that spilled on your trip, cant wait to see some pics especially of that critter from Big Timber.  (hey that rhymes)LOL. Randy.

Curt......I got your call....got lucky and found phone service on the edge of the Cohutta Wilderness.


Thanks for the call bud....I'll chat with ya this week.    

Looking forward to the stories.   :D

he is teasing us!!

COME ON CURT I LIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD SO I HAVE A LONG WAIT. LOL!!  

Heard a couple bugles as we closed in on camp.Spirits were extremely high.....

 We made it to camp,and I felt surprisingly well after the 6 1/2 mi's up the mountain. The running paid off BIG TIME!!

 We met our other hunting partners, Bill from Big Sky Archery(the nicest archery shop I've ever been to),and his buddy Dave.Two great,and entertaining guys....Pete went right to cooking dinner....

 

Peter showed me the water detail....

 

Anticipation was very high for the hunt.We would spend a lot of time getting familiar with our surroundings.....

 

 

We heard a couple bugles,but the herd was moving away from us,and we didn't want to pressure them.The sign was fantastic....

 

 

 


Pete cooked us some oatmeal for lunch,Tracy(Momma P)....

 


then we kicked back for a little siesta

We hung out by a pond(where we had lunch)for a while.A lot of sign around the pond,and not far from where we heard the bugles in the morning.....

 

We moved on,scouting and stump shooting our way back to camp.A short rest.....

 

and we where back out.Heading for the pond,to wait for the bulls we heard in the morning to get going.We ended up coming in to the pond too high.As we hit the slide above the pond we ran into this guy...........

 

 

 

The bear of a lifetime!!!!!

Tracy,Pete...take over....I won't be back till tonight......

Man thats a big bear! I'm loving this so far. Keep up the good work.

Bear tag?  

Ohhhhhhh, this is gonna be a good'un!

Well com'on guys, Tracy, Peter, Curt.....

Thanks Tracy n wish you'd come by with the guys but it wasn't very pleasant here then.

Great pics by the way!!

You are doing a great job Curt,Except that (momma P) thing.I have no idea were Pete came up with that one.

Pictures don't do justice for that bear,I have been around bears and that was a big one.The funny thing is Pete had a bear tag,But the season didn't start till the 15th and this was the 9th.The bear walked right up the hill to us and cut in the timber at 50 yds he never even seen us and the wind was perfect.All three of us were jabering like fools,Pete was dying because that was the biggest black bear he could of ever shot    

Tracy

That sounds like a "DOH!" moment to me.Looking forward to the telling of this tale...

In Pete's defense I just went through the regs again and I still can't find anything that says it started the 5th,It all says the 15th.

Tracy

Curt,
i see your hunting partner is wearing the sitka mountain gear, i was looking into that stuff. Can you coment on how he liked it, was it warm, worth the money? I the jacket very heavy(thick)? thanks also great pics, i love looking at pics about hunting other that just the money shot.

I thought the season opened the 15'th in that unit too.  I'll go look at the regs again.  Same thing happened to me 5 years ago, and a friend this fall as well.  Great Bear, oh man!

Just checked the Bear regs.  Opened Sept 6'th.  D'ohhh!  

I felt so sorry for Pete,Curt and I would of loved to watch him shoot him.I don't think he sleeped well that night.

Oh well thats why the call it hunting,Maybe next time.

Tracy

Yeah ,it would take a few days for Pete to get over that one!!!  Those pix don't do that bear justice at all.Everything about him said he was BIG and old.Scarring on his face,half of his rt. ear missing,huge shoulders and butt,and a big pumpkin head with seemingly tiny ears....he was a TANK!!!

Hopefully Tracy can explain what happened at the end of day one....

I just want to get some more pix up for you guys...

Day two...

Pete with our two compound comrads...Bill from Big Sky Archery,and his buddy Dave(two great guys) showing Pete the finer points of using a GPS...

 

The three amigos....

 

One of my favorite pix...Tracy overlooking a slide...

 

Just beautiful....

 


Two Schafers.....20 and 22 years old....

 


more later...oh yeah,someone asked about Sitka gear.....I'll talk about it later,gotta run to work....

Great pics Curt, that is some beautiful looking country....


David