We left on our black bear hunt after work on Thursday, May 23rd, 2013. We headed from Anchorage down to Seward with our small skiff and our hunting gear. We got to Seward at about 9 pm and decided to camp in Seward for the night. The next morning we launched our boat and were headed out of the harbor before 8 am. We had clear blue sky and calm ocean.
We slowly worked our way out of Resurrection Bay watching the west side of the bay for any sign of black bear. All we saw were campers on the beaches and cliffs down to the water. We shot across the bay thinking of going around Cape Resurrection and up into Day Harbor. As Cape Resurrection came into view so did a large, thick fog bank. We slowed down, wondering what we wanted to do.
Russ put down some line for trolling as we watched the fog bank. As we trolled we saw a mother and baby humpback whale come up for air multiple times. Next a pod of porpoises came to play in the wake of our boat - they dove and surfaced within 5 feet of our bow several times - but being as we were only going trolling speed they didn’t hang around for too long.
We finally decided to try the fog. We headed around the Cape but within five minutes of entering the fog we agreed that we’d rather be in the calmer ocean and clearer weather of Resurrection Bay.
Back in the Bay we worked our way up the east side. We stopped on one beach to take out the spotting scope and made pb&j’s for lunch. Not seeing anything we moved on. We came across a nice cove with a really promising hillside a short way up a river. We anchored our skiff a little off the beach, grabbed a day pack and our guns and headed up the river.
The entire river bottom was full of snow. We traveled about a half mile up the river but the going was slow. We would regularly find ourselves “post-holed” and sunk up to our waist in snow. Going through the woods wasn’t much better - in most spots there was rotten snow that waist deep and at the base of trees there was no snow.
At about a half mile up the river the promising hillside came in to view again. We stopped on a log and took out the binoculars. Bingo! Black bear! about another half mile away.
Now what to do.
With a little adrenaline in our veins we decided to try get closer. That lasted for about 200 yards. It was getting late and the snow was only getting deeper the further up river we went.
Back to the beach we made supper and set up camp. As we got ready for bed we saw the fog bank from earlier that day closing in on our cove. We crawled into our tent with visions of black bear sausage in our heads.
The next morning we woke to find our cove completely socked in by the fog. We ate our purra, grabbed a day pack and a frame pack, put on our snowshoes and headed up river.
The going was much quicker on snowshoes. We got to the log we had spotted from the night before. The fog was just high enough to see the hillside. We took out the binocs and saw my bear - in almost the exact same spot as the night before.
We followed the river a little further. We left our snowshoes and frame pack and started working our way through the woods. We got to the edge of the woods directly below where my bear was feeding. Russ ranged the bear one more time - 250 yards, uphill, so equivalent to about 180 yards horizontal shooting. We laid down a jacket and pack in the snow. I got in position. And shot.
She ran up hill for thirty yards then collapsed and rolled downhill to almost exactly where she was when I shot. I kept her in my sights incase she needed a second shot while Russ went back to get the frame pack.
We panted up an avalanche shoot filled with snow. We went up to her, rolled her over and took a few pictures. Then Russ pulled her down the hill to the snow and sent her sliding down toward the bottom 600 feet away. By this time all the fog had burned off and we had another clear blue sky day on our hands. Sweating and burning in the sun for an hour and a half we skinned and butchered the bear in the snow bank.
Once the hide was skinned out and all the meat was in game bags we headed back for the boat. Man, did we really appreciate our snowshoes with the extra weight on the way back.
At shore we broke up camp, loaded everything in our skiff and headed back for Seward. We were back in Anchorage by 10 pm Saturday night!
By Sunday afternoon the hide and skull were at the taxidermist (he said she’s between a 5 to 5 1/2 foot bear), the meat was ground and in the freezer, and pot of bones was simmering on the stove.
Definitely a memorable Memorial Day weekend!
