Northern Alberta Bear Hunt

We left home on Saturday, May 23rd for a 14 hour drive into Canada. Ray organized the trip as a graduation present for Chad, and offered to let me tag along. My dad was also invited, but we all thought that farm work would prevent his being able to come along. However, by delaying our trip until 2:00 p.m., he was able to get the rest of his spraying done and jump in the pick up to start the journey north. After the requisite stop at Cabela's, we continued to travel north through Idaho, passing through Sandpoint and Bonner's Ferry. The border crossing was fairly easy, with just a small tariff to bring our guns into Canada. We continued the trek northward, stopping at Tim Horton's at 2:00 a.m. for caffeine. It was 4 more hours to Edmonton, but we decided to keep going. Chad was able to make it all the way to Edmonton, where we arrived around 6:00 a.m. After striking out at 4 hotels, we finally found one that had vacancy and slept for 4 hours before continuing up toward Salve Lake. After a quick stop there for supplies, we went the last two hours northward to Red Earth, Alberta, and pulled into bear camp around 6 p.m. on May 24th.

Our guide, Eldon, had some machinery breakdowns that prevented him from joining us. However, we were greeted by Kale, a young guide working for Eldon, his wife Kelly, and his daughter Heaven-Lee. Also waiting for us was one of the most massive dogs I have ever seen. Timber is a beautiful two year old Malamute with a red-yellow coat, who is taller than me when he stands on his back legs. He's generally very well-mannered, but he is still a puppy and likes to play. This would be ok, except that when he jumps up to play he can inadvertently knock over the person playing with him. Heaven-Lee was another defining feature of bear camp. She had the energy of 2 five year olds and didn't stop running around in circles from the time we arrived until we left.

The camp itself had many more conveniences than I was expecting. Each of the sleeping tents was maybe 12X12 feet, with two cots and

sleeping pads, a tarp on the ground, an indoor stove to heat the tent, and a hanging lantern for light. Dad and I were in one large canvas tent and Ray and Chad took the other. I was also impressed by the cooking tent. They had packed in a gas range, giving Kelly the convenience of both oven and stove. And she certainly knew how to use them. I will describe the food as we go, but it far exceeded any expectation that I had. The first night we had pork chops, garlic bread, and beets. These were followed by s'mores and tequila around the fire. We wouldn't go hunting until later the next day, so we stayed up and talked with Kale until 2 that night, even though we hadn't slept much the night before.

The next day, Monday, was the first day of hunting! I didn't wake up until 10 or 11 when I heard Eldon's truck pull into camp. After putting on my camo pants (not ironically!) I headed out of camp to a

wonderful breakfast of eggs however I liked them, toast, and bacon. This first day I found out that waiting is a big piece of bear hunting. Bears are nocturnal, so we wouldn't be leaving to hunt until 4 or 5 that afternoon. Until then, we just had to wait around camp. I made Dad and Chad come on a "hike" with me the first day. Hike is a very strong word for what we did. We didn't know of any trails nearby, so we decided to forge our own through the bush. It was prickly and slow walking, during which we got turned around several times and had to use Timber as a guide to point us in the right general direction. One hour later, we found that we had made a circle and returned to camp with several new scratches and 3000 more steps for the day. It was a good thing, because diner that night was spaghetti with garlic bread and salad, followed by some of the best banana cream pie I have ever had. After eating, we put on our hunting clothes- I wore Carhart camo cargo pants and a camo jacket. After picture time, Chad left with Kale to his tree stand, and Dad, Ray, and I piled into Eldon's pickup.

For several weeks prior to our arrival, Eldon and Kale had been monitoring about 30-40 baits to attract bears for hunting. These baits were spread out over about 80 miles of territory, and were set up as follows. There was a barrel at each bait with a six inch diameter hole in the lid. These barrels are filled with a mixture of oats and dog

food. The bears knock over the barrels then stick their paw in the hole to scoop out the mixture. They prefer the dog food, and will pick pieces out of the oats, much like you or I would pick the marshmallows out of a bowl of Lucky Charms. In addition to the barrel, there is a dead beaver hanging from a tree at each bait. I should say half of a dead beaver- Eldon chops each dead beaver in half to cover more baits. The skinned beavers are frozen, then thawed in barrels of water, where they slowly ferment. Today's half beaver was left over from last week, and it was a sickly green-brown-blue-gray color and the guts were hanging out where it had been split in half. Gross.

After dropping off Ray, Eldon loaded half a rotten beaver and a barrel of oats and dog food onto the trailer of his four wheeler, and Dad and I jumped on the back. Dad would be sitting with me for moral support and to save me if a bear climbed up my tree stand. As we pulled into the bait, we started the night's work of being as quiet as possible. The bears are used to the four wheeler, and associate it with a new serving of food. If we did our job right, the bears wouldn't realize we were there. The tree stands were 15-20 yards from the bait where the bears would be eating. Each was a metal ladder, about 15-20 feet tall, with a platform at the top to sit on. They were strapped to the tree with just a couple of tie downs, but they were very secure. Our job was to sit in the stand and be completely silent and scent-less until

the right bear came along.

If you know my dad and me, you'll know that sitting silently in a tree for 6 hours isn't exactly our strong suit. However, despite the whispers and swishing coats, a bear arrived within half an hour. This was a small sow with a scraggly, rubbed coat. She was very nervous, probably because there was some larger bear nearby. Regardless, she knocked over the barrel and sat eating for 10 minutes or so. After that, she climbed the tree and took a nibble of the guts hanging out of the beaver. With this prize, she ran away. We thought we heard footsteps of the larger bear, but it may be that that our whispers were a little too loud for him.

We didn't see another bear for 2-3 hours. We spent most of the intervening time fighting the mosquitoes. We had purchased some $5 head nets, which were awesome and kept us from swatting at the bugs. At long last, we heard footsteps on either side of the bait. On Dad's side, we saw a medium-sized boar cautiously approaching. On my side, I heard a sow scratching on a tree and baying. The two met at the bait and seemed to know each other. The boar was younger and had a nice coat, and the sow appeared weathered and older. They noticed us, but took no heed of our whispers after a few minutes. I thought that they might be an old married couple, given their frequent spats. The boar did most of the work with the barrel and

seemed to get first dibs on the food, but soon the sow came up behind him and started eating as well. Dad said that the sow was a typical female, letting the guy do all the work. After one of the spats, the sow scared the boar away from the food. He walked it off, coming close to our trees, and sniffing curiously up in our direction. After about an hour, the sow left, followed shortly by the boar after he cleaned out the barrel.

We didn't see anything else that afternoon. Around 10:30 p.m., we heard the sound of a four wheeler coming up the path and climbed stiffly down from the tree stands. After we were out of the bait area, Eldon told us that there was a big bear around that bait that we hadn't seen. Ray had also seen a couple of bears, but not the very specific, large color bear that he was looking for. Color bears are black bears with a genetic mutation that changes their hair from black to other colors, such as blonde, cinnamon, brown, and chocolate. They are not very common, and a large one is especially rare. Chad and Kale were standing by the fire when we got back. Chad saw three bears, but none of them were large enough to shoot. There was supper on the stove- homemade beef and barley soup, with salami sandwiches on the side. Even though I was still pretty full from lunch, I couldn't leave that soup on the table. I was quickly realizing that my ambitions of losing weight by eating camp food were out the window.

That night, we sat by

the fire and chatted with Eldon. He is a quiet guy until you get him talking, but full of good stories. He started working full time as a taxidermist after 8th grade, and eventually met an outfitter who took him on as an assistant, and then as a bear guide. Eldon is a perfectionist and is scornful of his peers that cut corners. He eventually put aside his worry at the lack of bears shot that day to relax and join in the story telling. We sat around the fire for a couple of hours, exchanging stories and cracking jokes. Around 2 we went to bed, ready to go hunting again the next day.

On Tuesday, we got up around 10 and headed straight to the breakfast tent. After breakfast, we played with Heaven-Lee for a while,

watching her do tricks on the rope swing, picking flowers, and coloring in her Frozen coloring book. We also found out that there was a shower! Hallelujah! We were all feeling the effects of not showering for 2.5 days... my hair was starting to turn into dreadlocks. After getting cleaned up, Heaven-Lee and I went to the creek and picked flowers. Spaghetti and garlic bread were served at 3:00 p.m. for dinner. After topping that off with some chocolate chip cookies, we changed into our hunting garb and piled into the pickup with Eldon. Today we were in a permanent stand, which was made of two by fours nailed into a couple of trees to create a platform with railings. Both of us could stand comfortably, and there was an upturned bucket to serve as a seat.

Both Dad and I were much quieter today, and we waited in complete silence, thinking that a bear would come soon in response to the sound of the four wheeler. The hours passed by slowly. There weren't any bears, but the weather was beautiful. There was the slightest of breezes and the sun was shining through all the trees that were bright green with the new spring foliage. After about four hours, it was coming up on 9:00 p.m. and we had both given up on seeing any bears that day. I was disappointed, knowing that I would be right back in this stand tomorrow night, but this time with Eldon, who would teach me the meaning of sitting quiet. About an hour later, I heard a single stick snap and looked toward the bait. A beautiful brown color bear was sneaking up behind the bait. It came into the clearing by the barrel and showed a uniform, unmarred coat. Eldon had placed me at this bait in the hopes for finding a color bear, and it seemed certain that this was the bear that he intended for me. The bear walked cautiously into the clearly, then went to the barrel to investigate the oats and dog food. By this time, I had decided that this was the bear I had been looking for, and was waiting for the right shot.

Eldon had spent some time with Chad and I the previous day describing where to aim when we were ready. The trick is to wait until the bear is broadside, then aim for the mid-point just behind the shoulder. This will put your shot through both lungs and the bear will expire before it knows what happened. Bears have way more hair than people imagine, so if you shoot too high or too low, you'll end up just injuring the bear, which is the worst possible outcome.

The bear continued to wander around the clearing, now going behind a tree, now turning to sniff in our direction. Very, very slowly, I picked my .308 Browning lever action from where it was resting on the stand and pulled back the hammer from the safety position. It was now ready to fire, and I would just need to raise the scope to eye-level in order to shoot. The bear was now lying down at the barrel, which is not a good shot because the scapula rotates back to cover the vitals. Tired of the barrel, the bear walked around the tree until it was facing us. It then raised up on two legs and looked in our direction. Dad urged me to shoot, but I wanted to wait until it was broadside. The bear then turned away and I thought that I had lost my chance. However, in a couple of steps it turned to the right and gave me the perfect broadside shot. I lined the cross hairs of my scope up on the correct spot, then counted under my breath. "Ready? One, two...." I pulled the trigger and the gun sounded. I looked up and the bear had rolled over where it stood by the barrel. It then got up and started running. For a split second I was afraid that I had wounded the bear. However, it ran 10 yards and collapsed, letting out the death moan for 2-3 seconds. Then everything was still.

Dad was congratulating me and looking to where the bear had fallen through the binoculars. I tried to look as well, but my hands were shaking too much. After a minute or two, we got down from the tree

stand to go look at the bear. It was laying in the brush, with a beautiful, thick brown coat. I had hit the target square, and Dad assured me that the shock of the bullet had prevented the bear from feeling any pain. I tried to believe him, but comforted myself that if the bear did feel any pain, it was for a maximum of 10 seconds. We returned to our tree stand, keeping out the gun in case another bear came by to eat the bear that I had shot. Bears are cannibalistic, and the last thing I wanted was to mar the beautiful coat with teeth marks. We waited for an hour or so until Eldon came in on the four wheeler. As he and my Dad loaded the bear into the trailer, he congratulated me and confirmed that this was the bear that he had meant me to shoot. We hauled the bear back to camp, where there

was leftover soup and pie. I was the only person to have shot a bear, so I got first dibs on both. Everyone was tired that night, so we stood around the fire for just an hour or so and were in bed by 2:00 a.m.

Around 10:00 a.m. we woke up to a chilly day that promised light showers in the afternoon. But before it started to rain, it was time to skin my bear! First on the agenda was to take a picture with my bear, so I put on my full camo gear and walked over to where the bear was lying. Eldon spent a full 15 minutes adjusting the bear on a mound of earth, propping up its head and arms, while I sat behind. He got the angle just right, and the bear looks massive in the pictures, when it was actually just over 6 feet in length. After taking about 20 pictures with both of our cameras, it was time to skin the bear.

Kale loaded the 200 pound bear onto the back of the four wheeler, and transported 50 yards outside of camp to the skinning station. Eldon started with a hooked knife, cutting a slit from the neck along the belly to the tail, and then along each limb to the paws. They used this as a starting point, pulling the hide and hair out from this slit and gently severing the hide from the meat. Eldon and Kale both worked on the bear, starting in the middle from the slit and working outwards across the bear's sides and around toward the back. They also removed the hide from the legs, stopping at the paws. They then cut through the bones at each wrist, leaving the paws as they were for the time being. At this point, the hide was only connected to the upper back, neck, and head, and Kale pulled it up and over the bear's head, much as you or I would ask someone to help us pull off a t-shirt that was a little too tight. While Kale held the pressure, Eldon gently severed the hide from the back until it was only connected at the head. This is the most delicate part. Kale keeps the skin taut while Eldon very gently and gradually cuts the connective tissue and releases the hide from the face and neck. When he reached the ears,

he cut off the entire ear for the time being. The same with the nostrils eyelids, and lips. At long last, Eldon finished around the lips and the entire bear hide came off in one piece. Kale folded this up to be moved to the next station and Eldon turned his attention to the carcass. I wanted to keep the skull as a souvenir, so the next order of business was to remove the head. He cut through the neck muscles with a large knife and severed it at a gap in the vertebrae. After the head was removed, he cut out the tongue and carved out the muscle that controls the jaws and ears. The skull was now ready to be boiled so I could bring it home with me at the end of the week.

After the fur was removed, it was shocking to see how small the bear really was. It didn't seem much different than the 250 pound pigs that I used to take to the county fair. The bear was pure muscle with just a little bit of a fat coating. Eldon explained that many old ladies in this area will not cook a pie without bear lard for their pie crust. After it was decapitated, all that was left was to drag the carcass out to a wolf bait. Eldon leads wolf hunts in the winter, and wolves will learn to come to the place where he leaves the carcasses.

Leaving the carcass behind, we moved to the next skinning station. Here, they would do the detail work- removing tissue from the paws, nostrils, eyelids, lips, and ears. Each Kale and Eldon took a paw, and started the same process of cutting the connective tissue between the fingers and the hide. It took Eldon maybe 3-5 minutes to do one foot. Kale, who is just getting started as a guide, needed about 15 minutes to do one hand. After the hand was completely removed from the hide, Chad and I were shocked to see how much it resembled a human hand. Eldon said that one time his dog had made off with the hand of a bear shot near his house and buried it in the garden. A year later, Eldon's grandmother was working in the garden and dug up the hand. She was convinced that someone had buried a body in their garden.

After finishing his first hand, Eldon moved onto the head, while Kale kept working on the hands. This was incredibly delicate work, and he used a scalpel. He started first with the eyelids. These needed to be split down the middle and turned inside out. If not, the flesh of the eyelid would rot, and they would fall off before the hide could be tanned. After working carefully on each eye, he turned his attention to the nostrils and ears. The cartilage needed to be removed so that the flesh would not decompose. Each time he finished a piece, he would deposit the excess flesh on the ground, which served as a bit of an anatomy lesson. I was startled see how much structure went into the nostril... it was free-standing! Last but not least were the lips. Like a dog, these have the small "ridges" on the edge. If the lips are not properly split and turned inside out, you will lose this detail in your rug. Eldon's movements were exactly those of a surgeon or artist- controlled, practiced, and precise. Obviously the result of years of experience. When he finished, he let Kale to finish off the last two feet, then returned to help with salting. They had a large sack of salt that was rubbed all over the inside of the hide and into every crevice, such as the fingers. After it was completely salted, they rolled the hide up on itself and let it sit for a day. The next day it was laid open faced to evaporate the piles of water pulled out by the salt. After being re-salted and

rolled up for another night, it was hung on a clothes line to dry completely. I would take the hide home with me to be tanned at a taxidermist and later turned into a rug.

After this process concluded, we sat under the tarp to avoid the rain and talked for a while. When the conversation had died down and Heaven-Lee was the only one left with anything to say, I decided it might be a good opportunity to read a bear attack story. On his way up from Walla Walla, Ray had purchased a book of bear attack stories to comfort me in my wariness that I might be eaten by a bear. I had been reading the stories around the camp fire the past couple of nights, and there was lots a gory detail in each story about ripped out eyeballs and grizzly teeth inserted under knee caps. The story had just concluded when it was time for dinner. We went into the cook tent and had a scrumptious meal of tacos and more banana cream pie.

After lunch, Chad and Ray went back out hunting. I had originally told Chad that I would go out to sit with him that evening, but all that changed when I saw it was going to rain. I decided instead to stay in camp with Dad. It was cold and both of us could use a break from sitting still all afternoon. Instead, we drove the 26 miles down the gravel road into the metropolis of Red Earth, Alberta, which consists of a grocery store, liquor store, hardware store, and a subdivision of

about 200 people. We got a few little things from the store, then stopped by the liquor store for Twisted Tea, Kale's drink of choice. After driving back, I decided to take a nap, which was really an excuse to be in my warm canvas tent in my sweatpants with the wood stove on. Dad played with Heaven-Lee for an hour or two before bedtime, then joined me in the tent with Cheetos and a Twisted Tea.

Around 8:00 p.m., we heard Kale pull in with a bear in the back of his pickup! Apparently, there had been a boar and sow at the bait that morning as Kale and Chad pulled in on the four wheeler. Before they had even set up the tree stand, Chad had shot the bear from the ground, and it had died just 10 yards away. They loaded up the bear and Chad sat in the stand the rest of the night. Each bear tag is good for two bears, so he was on the lookout for something a little bigger than this 6'3" black bear.

After Kale had unloaded the bear, he needed to go out to refresh a couple of baits before picking up Chad. He offered to bring us with him, so Dad and I jumped in the pickup and we went for a drive through the countryside. The country stretched off in a homogeneous forest for miles and miles in every direction. There were small trees, maybe a foot in diameter, closely clustered together. There were lots of poplar and spruce and plenty of short brush to create a dense

underbrush. There little lakes/swamps dotted the country, and were the breeding grounds of mosquitoes and beavers. Both were overpopulated in the region. In addition to lakes, there were streams and creeks criss-crossing the country. I didn't see any larger rivers, but I do know that there are a couple of big lakes around. The gravel roads were wide and in excellent condition to facilitate the many oil wells dotting the countryside. There were no signs, and it was incredible to me that Kale and Eldon were able to pick their way through the maze of roads that had been bull-dozed into the countryside.

After maybe 20 minutes of these we reached the first bait. All three of us jumped on the four-wheeler and drove 10 minutes along an old clearing made for a power line. Kale jumped off to pour oats and dog food into the barrel, then we rode back and headed to the next bait. Kale left us in the pickup and ran in with a five gallon bucket to restock the barrel. About 10 minutes later he returned and said, "Well, I just got charged by a bear!" He had reached the bait to find a bear there eating the oats. Not wanting to come upon it unawares, he had snapped a stick. Immediately, the bear put its head down and ran directly at him at full speed. "Whoa whoa!” he said. Hearing his voice, the bear hit the brakes, turned 180 degrees, and sprinted off in the other direction. It was a good story for the fire pit that night!

We drove back to camp, where Kale refueled his pickup and Dad

stayed behind. Kale and I went to go pick up Chad at the tree stand. We spent the half hour drive talking about his surprising interest in rap music and the differences between Canada and the US. We went into the bait, and they introduced me to the self-climbing tree stand. The self-climber is two metal platforms that have a metal "strap" that goes around the tree. You put both platforms around the tree of your choice, then step onto the bottom platform. You then lift up the top platform (which has the seat) and notch the teeth of the metal strap into the tree. Hooking your feet into the bottom platform, you repeat the same motion, bringing it up as close as possible to the top platform. You inchworm yourself up the tree in this way until you reach the proper height. Coming down requires the reverse motion. I gave it a quick try, then we loaded up Chad and headed back to camp. On the way back, Chad and I learned that this had been his first kill as a guide. In celebration, Kale had purchased a "mickey" or pint, of Fireball to set the tone for the night!

On returning to camp, Dad started the fire and we headed up the clam chowder that Kelly had made for dinner. Ray and Eldon returned shortly without a bear, but everyone seemed happy to celebrate Chad's bear from the morning. Ray had bought some high-quality Tavi tequila and Eldon likes Corona with lime, so there was an interesting mix of Fireball, tequila, Corona, Twisted Tea, and cranberry-rum going around. We stayed up until around 3:30, just talking around the fire.

No one rose very early on Thursday morning, and breakfast was served around 11:00 a.m. Kelly had made pancakes today, and Heaven-Lee surprised everyone by eating 4 pancakes, a bowl of cereal, and half an apple- more than anyone else. After breakfast, Eldon and Kale worked on Chad's bear, taking extra pictures to

commemorate it as Kale's first kill as a guide. Kale also did more of the detail work, as he was the guide for this bear, working for almost two hours on the head. With the precision of the finishing work, it is unsurprising that it takes many years’ experience to build up any speed.

Also that morning, Ray's friend Ryan joined the party. He had driven up from Bozeman for the last few days of the hunt. He works for Swarovski Crystal as a sales representative for their scopes and travels the world as a camera man for hunting shows and individual hunters. In addition to bow-hunting for a color bear, he was here to take pictures of Ray. Ryan is a pretty interesting guy- he has a masters in fish and wildlife biology, and can speak very intelligently about almost everything in the hunting world. He also has a variety of very fun toys, such as camera drones and fancy binoculars, that the guys all wanted to hear about. Heaven-Lee and I spent the morning coloring in her Disney Junior coloring book while the guys talked about scopes. Kelly had Italian sausages and potatoes for lunch, which we topped off with another banana cream pie before heading out to the tree stands.

I was going to sit and watch with Chad that day. I was happy with my bear, but Chad wanted to keep looking for something bigger or colored. Chad and I would both be in self-climbers, so Kale helped me pick

out a tree and get set up while Chad set up his own in a nearby tree. Using the self-climbing tree stand wouldn't have been too hard, except that my day pack was attached by an 8 foot rope to the bottom platform. So in addition to lifting up the weight of the platform at each inchworm step, I also had to raise the full weight of my ~20 lb. backpack. Good thing all of my muscle is in my lower body! Kale made sure we were situated before driving away for the afternoon.

Chad and I sat very quietly. Our trees were 15-20 feet apart and he had climbed up 10 feet higher than me. I was struck by the thought that we should have come up with some kind of sign language to pass the time. After we got settled, it was still pretty warm with the sun on my back, and dozed in and out with my mosquito net on. The tree stands are pretty secure, and I am never quieter than when I am asleep... talk about motionless! This continued for about 3 hours, with just one interruption for a silent but competitive game of rock, paper, scissors. I won, of course. Eventually, it got colder and each of us put on another jacket and extra hats. As the sun sunk farther and farther, we started standing up in the tree stands and moving a bit to get the feeling back in our limbs.

Time went by, and by 9:00 p.m. we had nearly given up on seeing a bear that day. All the sudden, we both heard a crack and turned around to look at the bait. There was a black bear approaching

through the bush. I stood perfectly motionless, well at motionless as I could be with my whole body trembling with cold, and Chad raised his gun to look at the bear through the scope. It looked very large to me, larger than any bear I had seen so far. After about 5 minutes or so of examination, Chad got my attention with a whistle and indicated to me that this bear was too small to shoot. Apparently it was only a couple of inches bigger than the bear he had shot. The bear noticed us, but went about its business unconcerned. He leisurely licked the barrel, then knocked it down and started digging out oats. He sat there eating for the half an hour or so that was left before Kale came to pick us up, then scattered as soon as Kale walked into the bait. My feet were so cold at this point that I could only feel my heels. This was an added level of difficulty in lowering the tree stand, as you use your feet to lower the bottom platform.

We drove back to camp, where my dad was camped out in the pickup

to escape the cold. When we arrived, he started a fire in our tent so I could warm up before heading out to join the guys around the fire. Soon after I joined them, Eldon, Ray, and Ryan returned with a small but beautiful blond bear. Apparently, the bear had walked into the bait as soon as Eldon had dropped them off. The arrow that Ryan use pierced all the way through the bear's hide to the ground on the other side. Due to the temperature, we spent quite a bit of time in the cook tent over some excellent moose stew that Kelly had made. Eventually, we moved out to the fire where I cooked marshmallows for the guys before we went to bed around 2:00 a.m.

The next day, Friday, I joined the guys at breakfast around 10:30 a.m. That morning, Eldon and Kale worked on skinning the blond bear and the rest of us learned more about Ryan. He told stories of hunting in Africa, of jaguars and lions attacking the hunting parties and the photos he had taken. We played with his Go Pro drone. Timber, the giant Malamute, thought this was a pretty cool toy and chased after it until he was tied up. Ryan also let each of us try shooting his very fancy hunting bow. Ryan had to help me pull back the 68 pound bow, but I was able to hit the target! They then fell to talking about guns while Heaven-Lee and I practiced writing her letters. For dinner today we had chicken legs, Mexican rice, and lettuce with dessert bars. The guys got ready to go out, and Dad and I stayed back again. There wasn't much to do that afternoon, as Heaven-Lee had gone out with her Dad to set baits. I worked on this journal and Dad played with his iPad. We eventually moved into the pickup for warmth and finally Eldon and Kale returned. Heaven-Lee came by to tell us about the three bears she had seen- her first bears ever! Kale went back out to get Chad and I jumped in for a change of scenery.

Twenty minutes later, we reached the place where Chad had been

sitting all evening. There was no tree stand- he was seated in a lawn chair across an oil pipeline clearing from the bait. Kale and I drove out along the pipeline and when we arrived we found Chad standing over a bear about 10 feet from the bait barrel. Half an hour after arriving, this boar came into the bait following a sow and Chad made the shot 10 minutes later. Kale turned the bear over, and we saw that it had a nice white triangle on its chest, making it a better find than a normal black bear. It was also larger than his last bear, so Chad was happy. Chad and Kale heaved the bear onto the four wheeler and got it back to the pickup. Kale came up with the idea of strapping the bear to the four wheeler with its head over the handlebars while we drove back to camp. That night we had some leftover soup and chatted around the supper table in the kitchen tent. Eventually, the hunters went to bed around 2 or 3, but Eldon and Kale stayed there until 4:30... Rugged, as Eldon would say.

The next day, Saturday, was our last day in camp. Chad and I started the day by watching Eldon and Kale skin his bear. Chad wanted to full mount this bear in order to preserve the white triangle, so there was a slightly different technique. Instead of cutting a long slit up the stomach to start, they skipped this step and started with just the slits up each limb. The two guys removed the skin from each limb, going as far as possible before turning the bear over. Eldon then slit directly along the spine, from the tail to the neck. They removed the skin and worked toward the area they had already cleared at each limb. After they had cleared the skin from the limbs, the back and most of the belly, they had to squeeze the muscle-bound legs from the pelt. Chad commented that it was like trying to get a girl out of a tight dress. I had to agree. If you've ever tried on a shirt that's a size too small and had to ask someone to peel it off of you, you can imagine what it was like. After that, the job was exactly the same as I described above.

While Eldon and Kale were working on the detail work, Ryan started teaching us cribbage. Apparently it is the international card game of hunting, and Ryan and Eldon exchanged stories and argued over the differences between American and Canadian cribbage. After cribbage, we headed in for a lunch of burgers, pasta salad, and the last ever banana cream pie. Today was the last day of hunting, and I was going out bear-watching. I didn't feel the need to bring home more than one, unless I saw something incredibly unique. It was a beautiful ride to the pipeline I would be sitting this evening. The day was warm and the afternoon sunlight made everything very green and peaceful. I nodded off in the tree stand, which has rails to keep you from falling out. I watched the poplar leaves against the sky as they changed from a bright, light green to a duller dark green as the light faded. Several hours later, a bear with a white mark on its chest wandered into the bait. It was around for half an hour, then left. I didn't see anything but mosquitoes for the rest of the time, and was ready when Kale came to get me at dusk.

When we got back to camp, we found that Eldon, Dad, and Chad had broken into the rum handle. Apparently, the three of them had been playing cribbage and listening to Chad's college stories. We had a very fun night sitting around the table in the kitchen tent, the guys telling stories and dirty jokes. One of the stories that Eldon told stuck in my memory. He had been deer hunting with Ray, and tracked an injured deer through the snow to a gravel pit. He didn't have a gun, so he jumped on it from above and used the only weapons had- his Leatherman and his bare hands. The deer had enormous, dangerous horns, and it's worth a trip to northern Alberta just to hear Eldon tell the story. The struggle lasted about 10 minutes, and I think Eldon is lucky he's a big guy. In the end, he got a beautiful set of horns for his house, and the Leatherman is still in his pocket, if a little bent. The night was filled with stories like this, and the older guys gradually peeled off for bed. Around 4:30, the sun was almost up and Chad and I decided it was time for bed as we were trying to get all the way back home the next day. As we were leaving, Eldon said that he would take me on a sheep hunt someday, if I wanted to tag along. So stay tuned for the sequel to this story!

The next day we were up around 9 or 10. Everyone tried to find some clothes that didn't smell like smoke and dead beaver, and we loaded the pickup. There was one last breakfast and then it was time for goodbyes. The rain was intense and continued on and off through Edmonton. Ryan was staying in Calgary, so we said our goodbyes to him there, then continued on until we reached Cranbrook at 2 or 3 that night. We would cross the border the next day and drive the final uneventful 4-5 hours home.

Arriving home, we put the hides in the shop to continue drying and spent the next 24-36 hours frantically preparing for our trip to Asia. We were leaving the next afternoon to drive to Seattle and catch our flight to Shanghai on Wednesday morning. On to the next adventure!