Last Light of the Last Night
Time to Gear Up and BearDown!” I glassed harder than any other day and no bears were out except for a seven foot female bear we called Blondie and a small bear that were both looking for fish in the remaining ice chunks along the river. We usually walked back to camp about 8:30 to 9:00 pm and about 8:00 PM I was glassing from the log jam, my favorite place to glass from, and I spotted a huge bear across the river, laying flat on top of the bluff and it was obvious he was hunting for something to kill.
The guides studied the bear and said that it must be a female with cubs sleeping next to it. Its ears didn’t look right, but they were sure it was a big female. Out of the 54 bears we saw on this trip, this bear was giant, a lot bigger than any other bear we’d seen. I wondered if this bear was the one the 12” track on the beach belonged to. Finally the bear stood up and Mark, the guide, saw that this was no sow with cubs, this was King Kong. The bear stood up and started rubbing his back on a pine tree and it was amazing how tall he was and that’s when I came up with the wildest plan I ever concocted.
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Quest of a Chugach Ram
Opening day began with yet another ram sighting on the high grassy slope of a mountain outside of camp. Not a full curl ram but hopefully a good omen of things to come. After breakfast, Neil and I load up our packs and head out for the ram we bedded down the night before. He’s no longer where he was, but we set up and glass for the better part of an hour when I finally make the spot. He has joined up with two younger rams and we keep close tabs on him for the better part of another hour or so until he finally beds down for the day.
As Neil and I discuss our options, I realize that the mountain we have been looking at for the last few days is going to have to be climbed. Full of excitement and dread all in the same moment, there are but a few places we will be able to position ourselves for a shot.
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We weren’t sitting for more than a half hour when a sow materialized across the valley. She kept looking behind her as she walked. We wondered if she had a cub with her when all of a sudden the largest brown bear I have ever seen came out behind her. He was following her around like a love struck puppy. Where ever she went he was right behind her sniffing away. We watched them for nearly an hour while they went up and down the hillside until they disappeared into a thicket. We decided that this was the bear that I came to
We took off from our hill on our bellies and attempted to close the distance to them. After crawling across the valley we got into the river and were able to stalk in silence with the flowing water masking our sound. We kept poking our heads up over the bank to search for the bear and finally spotted him looking in our direction.
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Bonair Box Bear
Back at the camp, when the rain started the kitchen area was in 6”- 16” of water, depending on the day. The tent didn’t get more than 1”-2”. It was on the high ground. We did have comfortable cots. The coyotes were howling nightly from the “airstrip”. One night around
I hoped the salmon kept swimming upstream without taking a detour since it was my side of the tent and I heard bears don’t know how to use zippers to get into a tent. We didn’t get a lot of sleep that night.
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Jeff Hoover
36075 County Road #13
Elizabeth, Colorado 80107
Phone: 303-646-3119
Email: cwo3hoov@msn.com
Moose/Bear Hunter
Sam X. Callahan III*
10751 Oakland
San Antonio, Texas 78240
Phone: 210-558-4769
Moose/Sheep/Bear Hunter
Tom Baley
6109 South Austin
Chicago, IL 60638
Phone: 773-582-1372
Moose Hunter
Wayne Munson, M.D.**
7609 Gillan Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80919
Phone: 719-598-5369
Moose/Bear/Sheep/Caribou/Wolf Hunter
L.Newell (Hasty) Wisner
47 Loch Lomond
Pueblo, Colorado 81001
Phone: 719-544-9659
Bryan Circullo
24 Victoria Square
Frederick, Maryland 21702
Phone: 301-620-8681
Mark Cooper*
PO Box 1081
North Platte, Nebraska 69103
Phone: 308-532-3820
Bear Hunter
Marc Shaft
1223 36th Street SW
Rochester, Minnesota 55902
Phone: 507-287-0758
Moose/Bear Hunter
William E. Schenkel**
6146 Calle Mariselda #104
San Diego, California 92124
Phone: 858-560-5306
Fishing Client and Friend
Al Lee**
Lee's Air Taxi
HC 1 Box 2660
Glennallen, Alaska 99588-9505
Phone: 907-822-3343
Pilot and GuideThomas Truncellito
Kennett Square, PA
Phone 484-678-4572
Wendell Crowe
Covington, GA
Phone 404-293-4105
John & David Mueller
Sequin, TX
830-557-6579
John: 210-566-6806- .
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Lennis Janzen
26315 Trotter Drive
Tehachapi, California 93561
Phone: 661-345-3343
Sheep Hunter 2005
John Pelton*
11883 Highway 278 East
Covington, Georgia 30014
Phone: 770-787-2987
Caribou/Moose/Bear Hunter
Keith Blair
4314 Briarbend
Houston, Texas 77035
Phone: 713-592-9242
Sheep Hunter 2003
Dennis Solon
1776 Force Road
Shreve, Ohio 44676
Phone: 330-567-3830
Brown Bear Hunter 2005
John Faeth
PO Box 7482
Woodland Park, Colorado 80863
Phone: 719-686-7707
Brown & Black Bear Spring 2004
Jason Cauble
2914 Wroxton,
Houston, Texas 77005
Phone: 713-218-6036
Fall 2004
Richard Reiley
Assistant Guide/Gun Maker
3109 North Cascade Suite 102
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80907
Phone: 719-683-4394
email: htcustoms@pcisys.net
website: www.htcustoms.comKevin Chiesa
Easton, PA
Phone 610-559-8906Carl Ehrnrooth
Helsinki, Finland
Phone 358-500-702-988Tom Wulf
Roswell, NM
575-317-3453James Walker
Rocky MT House, Alberta Canada
Phone 403-845-7876Thomas Gearhart
Boyertown, PA
Phone 610-369-8895
Duane Watlington
Monroe Twp, NJ
Cell 732-236-2185
Charles Miller
Clairmont, Alberta Canada
Phone 780-876-3332
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*Indicates Repeat Customers
**Customers who have known Neil for 20+ years
Additional references are available upon request
Every Kids Dream
When I was a kid, every Saturday afternoon I’d watch ABC’s American Sportsman. Fred Bear’s exploits with his bow and arrow must have struck a chord with me because 40 plus years later I’m up in Alaska with Neil Webster of Bearup Adventures chasing a brown bear with my bow. This was a long held and high priority item on my bucket list.
Hunting brown bears with a bow is not an activity which should not be taken lightly. You’d expect anyone to say that, but it wasn’t until I saw 9” wide bear tracks with deep claw indentations along the shoreline that I got the full appreciation for how serious this activity is. Anyone who has hunted with Neil knows that he is a deliberate man.
And that’s the kind of guy (guide) I want backing me up when a piece of string (bow string) is all that is separating me from a trophy whose only fear is a larger bear.
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