This past memorial day weekend I had the distinct pleasure of getting a break to go out and spend some time in the woods with some new friends bear hunting. These new friends, however, were not normal friends… they were… wait for it… internet buddies who I had never met in real life…
Yes, of all of the platforms, I met these guys through LinkedIn over a shared love of corporate dronism (sarcasm) and teaching people about the therapeutic and attainable joys of living a life outdoors. After a quick call several months ago we started to plan a trip where we could meet in person and share our love for hunting and learning.
As you might imagine, both my wife and theirs were a little skeptical, but after picking the guys up from the airport on Thursday evening any lingering fears were assuaged as I realized they were cool and capable folks! Thank God, too, because we had a long cellphone-less drive ahead of us to get to our hunting area.
Once we arrived in the backwoods we immediately went to work. We took fresh bait out to the barrels I had in the woods and visited each one to talk tactics and review trail cam footage. As it turned out we had about nine different bruins that were coming in to the barrels at different intervals… with most doing the smart thing and coming in during the middle of the night when they were not in jeopardy of getting caught. Despite the intelligence, we did catch a few bears that slipped up and came in a few times at either first or last shooting light — giving us some hope for the next few days.
Once we reviewed the photo evidence we worked to get one of our friends tree saddles set up where he would be archery hunting from (think of it as a really sketchy mobile tree stand) and retired back to the cabin to talk shop and get ready for an early morning the next day.
At 3:15 am the next morning we were gearing up to go get into position at our barrels well before first light. I was personally going out with Nathan who was rifle hunting one of the higher elevation barrels and was going to walk him up there in the dark as we had only briefly visited it the night before. The morning was wet and moisture hung in the air so thickly that our headlamps did us almost no good and allowed us to only see a few feet in front of us as we navigated the step, slippery, and bear dense terrain. When we finally got to where we were going and parted ways I turned around to make it back down the hill in the near pitch black darkness of the early morning.
As I crested the hill towards home I was in awe of the complete lack of light pollution. With a .44 magnum attached to my chest harness I thought about how small we all are on this planet and how easily this could all go away… as I found myself deep in thought wondering about the large animals running around in the darkness I caught a glimpse of the one and only light source for miles… our cabin.
That light in the darkness brought me a sense of relief, not only because of my gratitude for owning it, but for what it represented… a new start in life that came with rugged and dangerous consequences that I now get to live out with beautiful frequency.
Putting my philosophical musings aside, we spent the next few days bear hunting… hard. All-in-all we only ended up with one chance at a beautiful bruin who Nathan was able to take a shot on at 250 yards, but sadly failed to connect. Out of an abundance of caution and a shared conservation ethic we spent over three hours busting through tough chaparral bushes to ensure that the bear was in fact not hit. Something we could only confirm my scouring every inch of the hillside we had last seen him on which was a physically and mentally taxing effort.
Yet, despite coming up empty-handed from a full freezer perspective, we all had a blast and learned a lot about bear hunting, living a wild life in general, and each other. We even got to taste test some of the local squirrel compliments of Stephen’s steady hand with a .22 rifle.
