Bear Hunt

We had a little excitement last night. 

A bear was on shore behind the scow grazing on some grass and JR popped him with the 30-06. JR and Zach headed into the thick of the woods (it is really thick back there too) with shot gun and a flashlight after the wounded bear. Now that is an adrenaline  rush chasing a wounded bear in the night on his turf. It looked like the shot hit him in the rump so he was wounded but not fatally.

It wasn't long after they hit shore that they picked up blood on the trail of the bear and had him cornered.  

I stayed with the boat, the tide was going out fast and we would have had a high and dry boat when we got back and know one wanted to spend the night on shore, besides I would have just slowed everyone down on the chase though the thick woods. 

When Zach and JR finally caught up with the bear he was hurt and biting back fighting for his life.  As they got closer the bear started to come at Zach and JR. JR pulled up and popped him with a 12 gauge slug and that when the real rush was going on cause with the flash of the shot, smoke of the shot, being dark, foggy breath of the bear..... Zach and JR were blinded and couldn't see......was the bear still coming? 

When the smoke cleared the bear was going down, the shot hit it's mark and a 12 gauge slug at 8 ft has a lot of knock down power.  It was 1:30am when we got back in last night, bear is gutted and hanging in the woods. Still have to drag him out today...in the daylight.  

Morning.....

This morning we are looking up recipes for bear meat. 

Skinned and packed out the meat and hide. It was too heavy to drag out of all the down trees and through the thick brush.

Time to butcher the meat ...tenderloins for supper tonight.

Evening.....

The meat is cut and in the freezer. Saved the tenderloin for later, Linn made a mean pot of bear stew. Surprisingly to all of us it tasted a lot like beef stew! We chowed down on it. The cheesy garlic drop biscuits soaked up with home made bear stew is hard to beat at the end of a long rainy day.


JR and Zach fleshed the hide with the power sprayer... we learned this trick from the natives who came out this spring to hunt seal and sea otter.  It does an amazing job on the skin and it saves a lot of time. We still have to do a lot of hand fleshing around the paws, ears, eyes, nose and mouth. 


We have to take the hide and skull into the dnr and get it sealed (they put a seal on it and record the data about the harvest). Then the hide will go to a tanner and the skull will be cleaned be our friends the crabs.


Needless to say it is a lot of work to harvest a bear. But the spring bears are the best and this one will provide us with a lot of red meat over the summer besides venison, fish, shrimp and crab.  

First posting on Living in Wild Alaska...

Here it goes, our first posting on Wild Alaska.  I hope to tell you about our lovely 35th wedding anniversary camp out on shore and get some pictures posted.  I hope all of you dear friends and family and friends of friends can follow us here.

It was a cold, rainy, and windy Monday.  The nearby (relatively - 65 mi. on logging roads) town of Thorne Bay is trying something new.  A current trend in cruise shipping are the eco tourists - small, only 30 - 40 passengers at a time hitting the smaller, less traveled spots.  Some anchored up in our cove last summer and let out kayakers to adventure.  So this one is stopping to a walking tour of the old logging town of TB and we locals are setting up craft booths to f lease them.  That is, give them an opportunity to buy authentic, Alaskan crafts made by us not imported.  I have my bear skinned blankets and fishy potholders.  Lar made the cutest tree stand for them.

Since May 21 was Beret & Erin;s first wedding anniversary and our 35th, we decided to stay on land and for a change of pace, go camping!  You know, camping, cooking over a wood fire, carrying water, a real change up from our normal life.

The spot we go to is on a lovely point overlooking an extremely rocky beach.  It is a cove just past TB so it collects logs that escape the mills.  TB gets the 15 - 25 ft. tides so combine wind and waves with logs and rocks and it gets some awesome driftwood sculptures.  Larry and I spent two early mornings at low tide exploring.  We took mainly photos but did some beach combing too.  The shells are just not the same here.

I got a little wild climbing on the kelp covered rocks.  I thought I saw an elusive giant red sea urchin in a cravass at low tide and just had to climb down to get it.  I slipped and severely bruised my tush.  I had visions of being stuck there in the rocks while the tide rushed in - not a nice vision.  I may have learned something.  I was saved by my great new Keen hiking boots and my walking staff.  Don't be without them.

The red sea urchin is still elusive.  This sighting was just a colorful anemone all tucked into itself.
We found a few more fiddlehead fern but around here when everyone is the earthy, sustenance type, the ferns were picked over.

The bear were staying in out of the rain - no sightings, but I did catch a glimpse of a Bigfoot (more on that later).

Our back yard...no lawn mowers, you need a good boat and fishing pole :-)

Our back yard is a playground.