Black Bear Scouting - (location undisclosed)

In anticipation of the upcoming hunting seasons, I realized I was woefully behind in my preparation; my varied outdoor interests don’t end at hiking and bushcraft – I enjoy hunting and fishing as well.  Over the past few years, I’ve taken particular interest in hunting black bear, game in which our region is abundant. I’ve never killed a black bear, but the excitement of the hunt and simply being outdoors and having a forced timeout from the loudness that fills our lives (and even most hikes) is so appealing – and the results of a successful hunt, the meat, the hide, the skull, are pretty appealing too.

 

In regards to hunting, particularly black bear, the old adage is true – when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So I took some much-needed PTO last week and wandered into the woods of Unicoi Co. to scout a few places I’ve never hunted (or hiked) before. I had done some intensive map-study prior to heading out and had noted a few locations I thought would be my best bets for encountering a bear.

As is typical for days I take off work, the forecast called for rain; and it was quite believable judging from the sky overhead as I hit the trail. I put on my rain-jacket and pack-cover in anticipation of the rain, and after 30 minutes of quietly hiking up a few old trails I was begging for rain – the only thing thicker than the humidity was the gnat-swarm that followed me. My two layers of clothing were soaked in sweat and I killed a few gnats with each blink.

 

The rain never did fall; and after 2 hours and a couple of miles of hiking, I hadn’t seen a single sign. No scat, no tracks, no claw-marks on trees. Not a thing. I climbed down a rocky ridge to a worn but overgrown trail in the bed of an old logging road, when I heard movement up the trail. I turned to investigate and I saw the best sign for which I could’ve hoped…

 

 

Junior is obviously too small to kill, but his mommy won’t be; and I’m sure she was somewhere nearby. I stood in the middle of the trail for about 30 minutes – the cub stayed on the trail ahead of me for about 5 minutes and slowly made his way up the mountain, off-trail and out-of-sight. I don’t believe he realized I was close – my limited camouflage and aura of Scent-A-Way must have hidden my presence well enough. I didn’t want to follow him and upset his guardian, so I stayed put, blazed a tree near where he had stood, marked the location on my map, and then made my way back to my 4Runner. I’ll return in a week or so to explore farther up the trail and the barren ridges above it – hopefully future scouting trips and this season will be equally successful.

Thanks for reading!