A New Adventure

Well, I thought I (Andy) would post for once and share my newest and latest adventure. I have been working up in the Kellogg area (what a surprise) for the last few weeks and have several to go. So I decided that I would try and hunt up here in this new but great elk country. I have no idea what I am doing but I thought I would try it this year. Well to make a long story shorter, I was talking with some of the guys I am working with about where to go. One of them mentioned he has a tree stand set up and has been watching some bears over the past week. Of course, I was intrigued so I asked him tons of questions and before I knew it he was asking me if I wanted to go with him. I said sure, since I have never even tried for a black bear.

So we didn't end up working last Friday so it was the perfect day to go (as long as the weatherman was wrong about the rain). So that morning we went into the woods and set up a second tree stand, dumped some good food (baiting is legal in Idaho) and retreived a motion-sensor camera from the tree that they had set out. (Here is a shot of the 2 tree stands in the same tree...I was in the top stand which is the most visible one)

Went back to town and looked at the camera. The bears are very habitual and this game camera helped to take all the guess work and scouting out of it. That whole week there was a smaller black bear with a white "v" on his chest coming in between noon and 1 and then another cinnamon colored one that was coming in between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. So we headed out before noon and got all set up. We only were sitting in the tree stand for about 45 minutes before the black one came strolling in. I got a short couple minute video of him coming in and checking out the fresh food. After watching him for about 20 minutes, I decided to shoot him. Well long story short, after tracking for a little while, we found him and I had shot my first ever black bear.
(Matt and I with my first bear)

(Here is a better shot of him...you can see the white "v")

It was extremely fun and something I knew nothing about previously. When I tell people this story, they seem to think it (baiting) is halfway cheating and not very sportsman. After looking back on it, I have determined that it sounds like so, but the truth is that this guy (Matt - who I hunted with) really knew what he was doing and had done his homework. If I was to try and go do this on my own I am pretty sure it wouldn't be even close to that easy. But anyway, it was tons of fun and I have checked yet another new adventure off my list. I think this now got me thinking I would like to shoot all the game animals possible in Idaho before I die. I have a good start but there are still lots to go and some are controlled hunt with very minimal odds. We will see what happens.