almost too much fun

bearhunter77 · Post by **bearhunter77** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 4:01 pm

went out saturday night with the pack tryin to find an idaho coon. about a mile down the road my luck turned great when a coon soaked to the bone crossed the road. he had just crossed the creek. a walking drag. i gave him about five minutes. bo screamed the track up the hill and the dogs had him bayed on a rock cliff. there was a yellow half moon overhead and the sight was beautiful. i didn't even need my flash light to watch the doggies scream at mr coon. i know i know not much of a hunt. they didn't really even have to work to catch the critter but it sure is an esteem booster which i think helped out later on. we climbed down and took a nap. around 5 am my buddy called and asked if i was gonna join him on a bear run. well..........yeah! nap was over and up the mountain we went. turned loose at around 6. race was on and in a couple of hours we thought we could hear them treeing. my buddy went down into the canyon to check things out while i was trying to retrieve one of my hounds which found cattle a much easier quarry to persue. my buddy called on the two way and said the race was still on and they had moved even farther down the canyon. we loaded up ben the "cow dog" and moved on to get closer to the action. it was now around 11 and we found the hounds again screaming treed. we hiked down the canyon and found the doggies treeing away. right as we reached the tree the bear bailed. guys you have to understand that the day before i worked for 12 hours delivering twinkies an cupcakes and went straight to coon hunting. i was pretty pooped out. i can already sense no sympathy so no more wining. we climbed back up the canyon and drove further down the road to hear the hounds screaming treed again. as we got closer my buddy had run ahead and figured he would try to run under the tree and keep the bear up there till we would get there. i could hear the hounds really close until all of a sudden the sound began to fade AGAIN! i found my buddy and he was just standing there slightly irritated at himself for his failed plan. this bear was not being cooperative. taking a break we could hear a dog open here and there. they were still pretty close but but we figured they were just too tired to run the bear any further. still i got up and told my buddy i was gonna see if i could retrieve an exhausted hound or two. as i got closer to the occasional bawl i saw a sight i will never forget. i saw the bear sitting in front of a tree with eight hounds standing in front of him. and not a single peep. they were all so exhausted it almost seemed like there was an unspoken truce. i grabed an old tree branch and started runing towards the bear screaming at the top of my voice banging nearby tree trunks and branches. that got the doggies a little excited and they began bawling again with excitement. that damn bear finally climbed, found a good sitting branch and stayed there. the race was over. my buddy and his son caught up and we all sat at the tree pretty exhausted. it was two in the afternoon and we were ready for a cold beer which we enjoyed to the fullest when we came down off the hill. i'll try to post some video or pics. my buddies hounds were hondo, bonehead, rotten, katie, bonnie, and copper my two cents were bo, and misty.

Josh Kunde · Post by **Josh Kunde** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 4:37 pm

wow that sounds like alot of fun I wish there was bear to run over here

Mort · Post by **Mort** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:05 pm

I had a similar experiance this spring. only had two dogs on this one though. turned out about 8 dogs on a rig about 7:30 or so and all the dogs but two went down the canyon and the other two went up. i had no clue who was going the right way cuz i couldnt find a track so i went with the dogs that went south.. well to make a damn long story short after about an hour and a half the dogs that went south started to hit the roads and we got em all rounded up. so we had all but the two.. we went up the road towards where we thought the two dogs were.. we couldnt get a good reading so we went up a few more miles.. the signal was a little stronger so we went up further only to find out the forest service had locked a big ol gate the blocked us from going any further. at the gate i took a reading and found the dogs to be directly below us in the bottom but we couldnt hear anything due to the creek that was runnin in the bottom.. so me and my good friend pete decided to put on the packs and make the hellacious hike to the bottom as we got closer we could here them treeing. just as we were about to see the dogs and tree the bear must have jumped cuz the dogs took off.. we heard them bark everynow and again so we headed in the general direction. as we got close we heard all sorts of branches and limbs breaking but never heard the dogs. we got down in the bottom and found were they had crossed the creek and found a track and confirmed they were on bear.. we hiked up the other side to get away from the creek and see if we could hear them.. we never heard another bark so we decided to give up and head back to the truck.. after about an hour of hiking up toward the truck we looked back across the canyon and seen the bear and dogs still on chase.. by this time it was about 5 pm and the dogs had been chasing since 730 that morning.. funniest dang thing id ever seen.. The bear would take off and get about a minute head start then stop and fall over and roll down the hill two or three times.. then the dogs would catch up and bark once or twice then lay down and rest and the bear would take off get a minute or so lead then fall down roll backwards off the hill. then dogs would catch up bark once or twice then fall down and rest.. they did this for a good ten minutes that we could watch em then they got in the thick timbers and we never seen the bear again.. i had to work that night so the dogs got to stay up on the mountain that night.. the next day i went up and could get a reading on em any where. It was 3 days before i got those dogs back..

bearhunter77 · Post by **bearhunter77** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 2:44 am

leaving dogs out overnight was my biggest fear that day. i'm not lying by saying i'm still a little hoarse from all that yelling on sunday to get that bear up. Monday and tuesday i had nothing but a raspy squeek to communicate with and when you have 15 accounts that expect you to kiss their butts it's not fun. i told them what had happened and they all just laughed nodding their heads. i don't think a single one believed me. oh well. i did whatever it took to get my dogs back. i can't sleep when i know i have a dog overnight especially where we went sunday there are litterally hundreds of campers spread throughout the area running their atvs all over the place.

bearhunter77 · Post by **bearhunter77** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:39 am

go to the next link i got it figured out

bearhunter77 · Post by **bearhunter77** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:40 am

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4zabo5y if you listen you can tell my voice is a little raspy. trust me by the next morning it was nearly gone. so much for being an opera singer.

Spanky · Post by **Spanky** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:58 am

I can understand your worries with keeping up with the hounds in idaho with all the dang federal pets running around. Glad to hear the hounds did well.

Without giving out mountain ranges what area of idaho you run in? I went and guided down near the Challis. Also went over and spectated with my camera over in the selway, that is some steep chit there let me tell you.

One thing for sure you fellas need your governor to really start pushing for the management of the wolves, he is the right person in office right now and if he is not re-elected who knows what liberal you may get. Montana will be sitting on their hands for the next 10 years especially with the jerk we have.

bearhunter77 · Post by **bearhunter77** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:16 pm

Spanky the area we went last weekend was out by the Kelly Canyon Ski resort. It's no secret spot trust me every one and their hounds from idaho falls to pocatello go out there. it's convinient with lots of roads but as you can see the bear have been run quite a bit and don't have much of a liking to humans. a couple of guys treed one last weekend. we didn't walked but 10 feet from that tree before the bear bailed. i like to hunt the teton basin as there are more bears and bigger at that. nothing but four wheeler access and limited. the running is hard but very rewarding as the bears are bigger and a little more plentiful. doesn't make them any easier to catch though. as for our senator from what i understand he continues to fight to delist the bears. i would become more involved in the political side of the story but my attention draws towards northern utah as we're packing up for a move to logan. i remember him saying that he would be the first to buy a wolf tag which is promising for the delisting of the wolves.
Nate

Spanky · Post by **Spanky** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:22 am

Did not know you were heading south. Good luck down in Logan. Need anyone to show you some spots grab ahold of paco, he knows where everyone else is hunting