Montana

About 10 years ago or so, I finally hunted. I had always wanted to be hunter, but I never did. My dad was a fisherman, he taught me how to fish. I appreciated fishing, but as I aged, I really wanted to hunt.

Watching YouTube videos of it made it look exciting! Guns, the outdoors, fresh meat, and the overall satisfaction of getting your meal on your own.

There's actually a lot that goes into hunting, and like everything, that is part of the fun part. You have to plan, prepare, train, etc etc.

The first deer I killed I gutted myselff by referencing a YouTube video in the field. As disgusting as cutting open a large animal, and pulling out all of its insides may sound... The feeling of accomplishment was great. When I was finished I looked over my gutted deer feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

I had shot both deer and turkeys in Indiana and was really enjoying hunting. Some friends from work were heading to Montana to hunt bear ! That sounded so exciting ! I've never been to Montana but I've seen pictures. It looks rough and tough. I've never seen a bear, but I've seen pictures. They look rough and tough. So I joined the crew and headed west. We drove from Chicago to Montana Street ! 26 hours in a beat up old suburban pulling a trailer. 

Montana is beautiful country. We would stop at pull offs along the highways and take pictures. It's unbelievable how beautiful that is. Being from Chicago, I wondered if the locals took those views for granted? 

The hunting out west was even funner than Indiana! Huge vast mountain ranges that we climbed up and down, stopping every once in awhile to glass the countryside looking for our bear. Hours and hours were spent roaming the wilderness. Great times! I really enjoyed not only that aspect, but talking to my friend and our guide Mike. You really get to learn a lot about people when you spend so much time with them.

And that trip I was unsuccessful in getting a bear, although Dan got one. Dan felt bad that I went all the way out there and didn't get a bear, I told him I didn't really care that I actually got a bear. The entire time we were out there, All three of us worked as a team, it wasn't really Dan's bear, it was our bear. We all hike together, we all climbed together we all glassed together and we all packed out his harvest.

When we got home I continued to hunt in Indiana and love my new hobby. Fast forward several years to 2021. Again, a crew was going out to Montana for spring bear. I had a lot of things going on in my life at the time, but Dan talk to me into going. He knew we would have fun together. I decided I'd go. All I had to do was get to Montana and I realized I'm so happy I didn't pass up the opportunity. 

And this trip, our guide was Darren, My friend Dan, his girlfriend Alice ( as a non-hunter) and me. This time we had a four person crew. One more set of eyes and muscles to help us accomplish our mission. Kind of funny, this trip was so much different than the first. Darren was a beast! This guy would hike up sides of mountains like a goat. I had trained really hard for the trip, so I was in physically great shape. One thing I couldn't train for, and didn't expect was the slopes ! Some of these slopes Darren took us on we're so steep... They were giving me really bad anxiety. I couldn't believe it... And almost 50-year-old man, a Marine, a long time Chicago cop, and I consider myself a fairly tough dude, but being on a slope in the wilderness of Montana was freaking me out ! As Darren led us to our vantage point, he would occasionally stop and let the flatlanders catch up to him. I remember him looking at me several times as I attempted to scale the slopes with a confused look. I don't think he understood what the big deal was... It's just a slope, one foot in front of the other, keep going, I do this day in and day out I laughed when I thought about his look, I remember thinking he probably wouldn't want to run into a house where a man had a gun, I would probably be looking at him in a similar way in that situation. For several days he would take us on daily adventures, we hiked mountains, through brush, crossed rushing streams, etc etc. One river we crossed was about 30 ft in length. Two logs were thrown across the river, the logs were about 10 ft above the rushing water. There's no guide ropes, The only thing to catch you is a rocky river bed below. As I cross that river, I remember Darren on the opposite side giving me that confused look again. But I made it !

One night while we were glassing a hillside, we saw a bear moving in on a group of elks. There was a calf in that group, and obviously a mother. As the bear inched closer to the group, the mother elk kept on looking in The bears direction. She knew something was up. As the bear got closer, the mother elk started turning towards the bear and moving closer to the bear. Mom wasn't having this ! The bear kept inching closer, and Mom kept inching closer. This was unbelievable to see. True mother nature and motherly instinct. That elk mom was saying " fuck you, I will protect my baby at any cost!" That as always amazed me. The bond between mother and child. It's not just with humans. And it's not even conscious. There is something in a mom that drives her to protect her children. It's a beautiful thing and I was so lucky to witness. Eventually, that bear knew mom wasn't backing down and ran off.

Another time as we glass the hillside one evening, we Saw a bear about 900 yards away feeding on a carcass. We watched for several minutes as the bear had it's dinner. As we watched we could see the bear was getting nervous, and looking into the woods above it. If you minutes later we saw a bear come out of the woods where it had been looking. Now we are witnessing two bears interacting together. Another thing animals take very sacred is their food. That is their survival. As the second bear moved in, the original bear would grab the carcass and pull it down the mountainside. The second beer would continue to follow and get closer and closer. Finally that second bear meet us move and attacked the original bear. A city boy from Chicago was witnessing two bears going at it on a mountainside in Montana ! 

I can watch this stuff on TV, but seeing it in person doesn't compare.

The actual shooting of my bear isn't that exciting. We saw two bears feeding on a hillside, we set up our packs to use as a shooting support, I was taking the first shot. I asked Dan to use his gun, he has a beautiful 300 win mag. I got into a prone position, set the scope at 385 yards, found my target, and started to remember the fundamentals of shooting. I started to control my breathing, which is very important. When you see the animal through the scope, you are very excited. Your heart is racing, you're breathing heavy, the barrel of that rifle is moving from your breathing. I slowly squeeze the trigger just as I had been taught. The gun went off and I couldn't see anything. The recoil was so bad, I lost sight of the bear. For a brief second I was wondering if I had missed. But Dan soon said " You dropped them" wow, I was so excited. As I stood up I couldn't see my bear, because the brush was so thick. 

After we congratulated each other and talk they little bit, another big part of the hunt was awaiting us. We had to recover our bear. It's really difficult to locate a bear on a mountainside. We had to cross a valley, and climb a mountain, and search for a bear. Before we left our shooting spot. We took pictures of the countryside where the bear was located, made reference points, and got a general idea of where the bear was. We took a logging road and drove approximately a mile. When we got to the point we believe the bear was, we exited the vehicle and started our climb. The first half mile or so up the mountain wasn't so bad, not too steep. Then there was the second half. It became very steep which I had said I do not like. We continue to climb, looking for reference points and any sign of our bear. After we got about a mile up the mountain, Dan located the bear. Darren and Dan continued to the top of the mountain to search for the second bear that ran away... Myself and Alice stood over my kill and talked about our adventure. At one point I remember telling her "I don't like being up here, let's get this bear down. The bear had rolled down the hill and got caught on elder brush. We freed the bear from the brush, and started to roll the bear down the mountainside. The bear would roll, get caught and brush, we would free the bear and continue to roll it. Finally we got to a more reasonable incline. The hunting crew had reunited at this point, and our next mission was to get the bear into pieces to be packed out. Darren and I took out our nice and began working... Cutting I'm putting The meat and putting it into game bags too cool. After we got all of our meat and hide, we all took equal amounts in our packs and began our journey down the mountain. We got back to the car and headed to the lodge, what a fun night, two other members of our group shot at bears and we're going back in the morning to see if they could recover them. For the next three days we all continue to search for dance bear. We are unsuccessful. It's a trip ended and we came home with a great adventure, and lots of stories. 

One of the most exciting things about this post is when I talk to my oldest daughter about our trip... She's an adventurer like me ! She asked if she can go one year as a non-hunter !!!!!!!!

We are so excited ! We are already talking and planning our adventure. We are trying to get a crew together, I know Dan will go, he's always up for a good hunt.

I'm so excited about this, I had such a great time, and now I'm going to get to share this experience with one of my daughters !!!!!!

Spring Bear 2023 !!!!!!