Was digging through the notes in my phone tnite and ran across this, I forgot all about it lol.
As I type this I am sitting in a tree. Every inch of twelve mighty feet off the ground, I sit next to a hunter in his mid thirties. His quarry? An Alberta Black Bear. We sit fourteen yards away from a barrel full of beef jerky, expired pastries and popcorn in hopes that a hungry boar will drop in for a snack before dark. A mere 9 yards West of the barrel, a skinned, sun dried, rotten beaver carcass hangs from a pole between 2 trees. Its a great set up, and we have our fingers crossed that the weather and bears cooperate tonight.
Although tonight is like any other night in the Spring Bear Season, last night was not. Last night was this fine gentleman's first night of Bear hunting...ever. It continues to puzzle me why seemingly normal fellas from the city suddenly feel the need to go bear hunting, but that's a question for another time. Last night I hauled this fella into his bait, got him comfortable in the tree and left him with these final instructions; " I'll be back to pick you up at dark, stay in the tree". With that, I quadded the 3 1/2 miles back to the truck. Legal shooting time ended about 10:25 last night, so I arrived at the unload point at about 9:15 to give myself extra time in case I needed it. When I arrived, I was surprised to find my hunter sitting in his truck. Assuming he must have shot a bear early, I excitedly asked "did you get him?" He replied "no, around 8 o'clock I started hearing twigs snapping behind my stand and decided maybe this wasn't the safest place to be".
More than a little confused, I asked my hunter what he thought the noises were to which he replied "probably a bear". Not wanting to offend my hunter, or sound overly critical, it took me a few seconds to choose my next words. Even with the extra few seconds to think I could not come up with a way to say it without appearing to ridicule him so I just spit it out. "Soooo..... wouldn't a bear showing up in your Bear Bait be a good thing? Considering you're bear hunting and all?" "Well", he replied "I was pretty nervous and didn't really want a bear to come in when I was alone because my muzzle loader only holds one bullet, and if there was two bears the second one could get me while I was reloading". Unsure of what to say to this, I asked him what would make him feel more comfortable. He indicated that he didn't want to sit alone, just in case a bear "tried to get him" while reloading after killing the first one that apparently "tried to get him". Reluctantly, I agreed to sit with him tonight, gun in hand, ready to protect him from the bloodthirsty Black Bears he seeks. The joke is on him though, there are no shells in my 12 guage!
