Bear Bums - Bear Hunting

What’s happening?! We’re suppose to have 1-2 big bears down and deer and fish and photos and?  Frank and Roger open the day at the Armpit where Karta river empties into Karta Lake. Jed and I are on Anderson Creek at the other side of the lake.

Frank loaded with gear.

On Anderson creek we’re catching Salmon and some more Trout out of the Lake. We’re patient and watch the creek pretty closely but find following the stream to deep inland isn’t very possible due to falls, timber and deep water. It seems most of the bear sign is at the mouth anyway. We last until about noon then the plan is to meet the other group with the boat.

From a good look out spot from the Karta Armpit Frank and Roger spot a decent bear across Karta Lake from them headed their way. They make a move and set up in the tall grass on the edge of the lake wishing they could still see the bear. Read the rest of this entry »

From the Salmon Lake Cabin we had a 1-2 mile hike to Karta River and about that far the other direction to Anderson Creek.  After breakfast Jed and Roger hiked to Karta River and Frank and I hiked to Anderson Creek.  The trail from the ocean to Salmon Lake cabin is maintained and is a good trail, though, very greasy slick.

From the cabin upstream the trail hasn’t been maintained for years.  Frank and I struggled up the unmaintained trail through the rain forest for 1-2 hours then gave up and headed for the lake shore to hike the rest of the way.

Everything was green and beautiful but tough to hike through.

There is lots of deer sign and some bear sign everywhere.  I ate 1/2 ton of huckleberries as we hiked.  Hiking was not the way to get to the upstream streams of McGilvery and Anderson Creeks.  The boat was the ticket. Read the rest of this entry »

On day three we did a lot of learning our bear hunting area.  We had looked things over on Google Earth prior to going and it was entertaining and super helpful.  There were basically three streams we could hunt and fish plus the lake shore.  No other openings are available due to the dense forest.  No clear cuts etc.

Fishing on McGilvery Creek.

Karta River empties Salmon Lake, runs about 1 mile then empties into Karta Lake then goes into some impressive, salmon challenging, falls and runs 3-4 miles further to the ocean bay.  Dumping into Salmon Lake were two salmon worthy streams, Andersen Creek and McGilvery Creek.

Fishing on Andersen Creek.

On our day 3 we examined all these streams and found the most bear sign along Karta River with a fair amount along Anderson Creek. Read the rest of this entry »

A big day for us and the day that made me nervous for months.  Today we split up and got, groceries in boxes, 100lbs of salt for hides, hardware type stuff, satellite phone and camp equipment.   The float plane guys, Alaska Seaplane Tours, let us use their jeep to shuttle stuff around.

Shopping for our groceries in Ketchikan.

The camp equipment was rented and had been delivered as had the satellite phone.  The rest of the shopping went smoothly and by the time 10AM came around we found ourselves being loaded on the float planes and headed to Salmon Lake cabin.

Alaska Seaplane Tours.

Alaska Seaplane Tours has the ability to organize the cook kits, boat motor, petrol, etc and as good as they were to work with that’s who we’d use for every thing next time around.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re back home and back to work and as usual the hunt was a great, fun blur.  I think we’ll list the days chronologically to give info more than entertainment.

Day 1

The four of us flew from SLC, Utah to Ketchikan the same day and caught a hotel in Ketchikan that night.  The airport in Ketchikan is on an island and requires a $5.00 ferry ride to the town side.

At the Airport in Seattle.

The Best Western Landing hotel shuttle picked us up and treated us great.  They kept our gun cases for the week we were out hunting and had good food and shuttle service.  We found we were close to a grocery store and a hardware store where we could get all the stuff we needed.  We each got our last shower and shave for a week!

I did learn the guns did not need an action lock in the USA but the gun case needed to be locked after it’s checked in.  Delta allowed only one check-in so our gun cases were and extra $25.00.  I recommend using combination locks as opposed to those that require keys. We had one long lay-over in Seattle and the seafood was great–halibut!

On the ferry in Ketchikan that takes you from the airport to town.

That’s what Frank said today. “What if we get four bears?”.  Well, what if?

Tomorrow we start our journey to Prince of Wales Island, Alaska for our do it yourself black bear hunt.  Four of us with four bear tags, deer permits and fishing licenses.  We’re going to have fun.

We know we’ll be camping in the middle of a pile of bears but from past experience they still have the ability to be invisible, especially in the thick stuff we’ll be in.

Four bears would, for sure, max us out.  I think we can handle the worry.  Maybe we should call it a dream not a worry.  I’ve dreamed of getting leopard, caribou, moose, sheep and the list goes on.  If we’re honest as hunters we have a lot of strike out hunts.  Really quite a few strike outs for each successful hunt.

I have been stunned with the dream problems like a huge Kodiak bear to get home the week after 9-11.  The hide got stuck in Seattle, green, wet and very big and heavy.  Now he’s on the wall and worth the worry and pain.

Three of us drove from Utah to the North West Territories and got three huge moose and three huge caribou.  All that meat had to be flown out of the bush and rushed back to the lower 48 before it spoiled.  What a hunt!!  Worth all the worry.

So off we go on a hunt we’ve spent hundreds of hours preparing for.  We’ve made reservations, booked flights, scheduled appointments, taken off work, sighted in rifles, dreamed about success and now worried about being too successful.

We can handle the risk.  The first opportunity to take a good bear won’t be passed up.  We’ll let you know how we do.

By the way, the weather forecast looks reasonable, some rain and some sun.  Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the low 40s.  Should be great!

On a self-guided black bear hunt, depending on how much research is done you improve your time from cooking, cleaning, skinning and even scouting toward hunting so I think your odds of getting bears are good, for sure over 60% and perhaps approaching 80%. It is hunting so who knows for sure. In my opinion 80% is as good as 100% on a do-it-yourself bear hunt as long as the group you’re with is a fun and unselfish. I’m not saying you’ll get up to 100% on the self guided bear hunt but I’m trying to stress the fun of the process involved in a self guided black bear hunt.

Don’t underestimate how much fun you can have pre and post bear hunt and enjoying others in your group having success.

Our bear hunting group in Petersburg, Alaska. Petersburg is a very cool little town.

Here are a few photos of our bear hunting experience on the coast of Alaska.  The first week of May in 2006 we spent on the coast of Kupreanof Island.  We’ve decided we took too few pictures but truthfully the weather restricted our photo taking.  On September 5th (one month from now) we take off for our next self guided, do-it-yourself bear hunt.  This time we’re off to Prince of Wales Island, Alaska landing on Salmon Lake and doing this fall hunt along a great salmon stream called Karta River.

This is Nathan’s black bear that was shot about 30 yards from Frank’s bear.  21″ Plus skull.

Frank’s Alaskan Black Bear.  19″ Plus skull. Read the rest of this entry »