we ended up seeing 19 bears (includeing 1 grizzly) in the last 150 miles to Prince George.  pretty cool, ended up spending the night in Prince George, B.C. and met up with the outfitters wife the next afternoon.  spent the rest of that day just hanging out and getting ready for hunting the next day.

apparently the spring is being strange this year.  they said everything is running about a week behind.  the grouse are hatching a week late,  the moose should have had their calves over memorial day weekend, but instead are haveing them over the last week...etc.

we went out and saw quite a few bears, alot of which were outside of our hunting area (of course), and most of the ones we saw inside of our hunting area were not quite what we were looking for.  

i stalked one bear for a while, but we decided he wasnt big enough,  during that stalk we did see a really nice black bear but he winded us and there was never a shot presented.

a couple house later i stalked another nice bear, but i've never shot off shooting sticks before and ended up shooting right over his back.  that sucked! i've nver missed a bear before, and then it turned out it was a color phased one to boot. BLAH!!! but at least i totally missed him.

the next few days were really slow on sightings.  what we did see was too small, and the wind kept kicking up, which will limit how much the bears move, not to mention the fact it kept raining.

on the last day we went out, and eventually that morning i made a smart ass comment about i'm going to get a bear, but it'll be right at 9:36pm (it gets dark around 9:45).

at 8:36  we spot a decent bear and i go to stalk it.  me and the guide go creaping down the road to this deep ditch/hill/ravine,  all i could picture was elmer fudd going "be very, very quite"   we get up to the edge and than all i could think was "WTF!!!!!!  I'm chaseing a predator over a drop off the i have no idea where he went, i got one shot in the gun, and the guide is unarmed.  this is not cool"  we never did end up finding out where he went.  when we peaked over the edge he was gone---dissapeared into the woods.

i make a crack about that being our practice run for my 9:36 bear appointment.

a while later, we're working our way out of the area, its starting to get dark, and we spot a nice bear down the road.  its WAY out of my shooting range (i'm comfortable to about 100 yards, it was at 200+)  so we get really quite, i get my gun on a rest (not the stupid monopod shooting stick!) get the sights on the bear, and wait for it to get closer. 

the guide reached over and uped the power on my sight (which i didnt know could be done) and man did that make a difference.  i went from haveing trouble keeping the crosshairs on the far away bear, to haveing no trouble at all.

the guide said that if i'm not comfortable shooting that far than not to worry, i dont have to take the shot.  the bear got to about 180 yards and went to go back into the woods.  it turned, i shot, it bucked, and it was gone.

dad and the guide both looked at me and said "wow, you HIT it, and you hit it GOOD"

ahhhh, yeaaaaaa?  if i didnt think i could have hit it were i wanted than i wouldnt have shot it.

we got into the truck, turned it on, and i'll be damned if the clock didnt say 9:36.   i had to have dad look at the clock so i'd have a witness.

so the guide goes to look and see where the bear went into the woods so we can retrieve it in the light.  the road and grass was so gravelly that he couldnt find the exact spot so he was going to have to come back out in the morning with a dog to find the trail.  they're sure i killed it but without a starting point its really really hard to find a bear in the underbrush.

so as the guide is looking for where the bear went in, i'm chilling in the truck, looking down the road, and WAYYYYYYYYY down the road i think i see another bear.  i point it out to dad, catch the guides attention and they pull out binoculars and check the bear out.

its HUGE.  7 1/2 feet or so, around 400 lbs (this is AFTER just comming out of hybernation)  and its walking twords us.

bad thing is its 300+ yards away.  dad gets out, loads his gun, sights the bear in, and waits for it to come closer.  since its so far away and walking twords us, the only shot is right through its chest, but its head is bobbing so you run a really high chance of hitting him in the snout.

we watched him walk twords us for a couple min. all dad needed was for it to turn slightly and he'd have his shot.

the wind kicked up, the bear took one side step, and it was gone.  that quick. one step into the brush, and poof! gone.

we left today to head back home, hopefully they found my bear this morning (and the big one didnt eat it).  the outfitter said he'll bleach the skull out for me, and take the hide to the tannery for me.  he'll have it tanned so that i can have it turned into a rug later, and have them ship it to me.

so while we are not heading home with bears, there should be one on the way, we're going back in 2009 for another bear hunt and 2010 for a moose hunt.  i got lots of really nice photos (everything from grouse and chicks, bears, flowers, bees, mountains, glacers, waterfalls...) 

i got to spend time with my dad and share memories of things like the 2 black bears laying in the dandylion field every morning watching the cars go by, and the questions on why exactly the outhouse has two seats.......

we're in alberta right now and should cross the border tomarrow afternoon.