As Pat and Paul's poor luck would have it, I had drawn the middle straw and was the hunter on the second day of the hunt, which was the only nice day we saw. I had gotten the opportunity to follow a nice Black as he worked his way down the beach into the wind first thing in the morning. We were unable to close the distance and he eventually worked his way into the woods to lie down for the day. It would be that evening before we figured he would come back to the beach so we moved on to return and set up later.

With the middle of the day to spare, we decided to go explore a valley that looked like it might have a good trout stream. As the three of us worked our way up the creek we were tempted to climb up to one of the many Blue Grouse (Hooters) that were pretty low on the ridge. That thought soon passed as we spotted another bear across the valley about 600 yards away, it was a beautiful cinnamon.

The first 300 yards to the bear was mostly woods, but the last 300 was beaver dams and open grass. This would be a challenge to get within bow range. We closed the gap to 300 yards relatively quickly through the woods while trying to determine what the bear was up to. He was working his way down the valley toward the beach. We determined the wind direction would only be to our advantage if we waited for him to continue down the valley and we got behind the upper of the two beaver dams. He would then come right to us if he continued his course.

We used a lone evergreen as cover to cut the distance to 150 yards. Paul laid down behind the evergreen as Pat and I went off the face of the upper beaver dam. No sooner did we get in front of the beaver dam then the bear appeared at the other end of the dam in the open. Our plan was shot. We could never get up on him in that position on the upper dam. I ranged him at 105 yards, the far end of the lower dam at 85 yards and the close end of the lower dam at 37 yards. He stopped and started eating grass with his back to us still at 105 yards.

Pat and I decided to try to cross the open grass to the face of the lower dam to be able to cut the distance. If we were able to make the lower dam we could get to within 40 yards before the wind was in his favor, I might be able to get a shot before we were compromised.

No sooner did we start across the open field then the bear turned our direction. We were caught. We saw him start to turn and froze; he didn't see us moving, but we could tell he new something was different. He stared at us for 5 minutes. I was frozen in mid stride with my bow out in front of me. I dared not move for fear that he would catch the motion and leave, that was a muscle burner.

He slowly started back up the valley watching us the whole time. He went about 20 yards and then turned around and sat down to watch us. He was trying to figure us out and was not comfortable with the situation. He paced back and forth from about 80 yards to 100 yards for the next 10 minutes. He would turn his head away to eat and that allowed me to get seated and get an arrow knocked. He was knew something was up and was watching us pretty closely so we dared not try for the dam for cover.

During his pacing, he would rub his rear on a bush, sit down and watch us, eat some grass and stomp his feet while swinging his head from side to side. Eventually, he had to know what that new lump in the grass was. He walked to the lower dam, putting himself completely up wind of us, turned and walked straight at us. He was closing the distance at a slow walk. At about 40 yards, I realized we were in complete eye contact. What a rush!

When he hit the close end of the dam, I went ahead and brought my bow up. That was the first motion he had seen out of us and we could see the realization of what we were in his action. He froze, facing us, and then slowly swung his rear around so he could go back were he had just came from. He got broadside, but his leg was all the way back not allowing for a clean shot.

As he stood there with the leg back, I glanced at my lower cam to make sure it was clear of the ground (lesson learned from last years bear hunt) and made sure my bow hand was relaxed. It seemed like minutes that he stood there, it was probably less then 10 seconds, really. Then he did it, he swung his head away from us and stepped with the near leg. I took the shot with my 30 yard pin right where I wanted it. It was a clean pass through shot. He took 3 fast steps and then slowed down. As soon as I shot, Pat stood up behind me with the rifle ready. The bear went 25 yards and then went down. Pat was saying "he is dead" within 20 seconds of my shot. Paul came out from behind the tree and joined us as we approached the bear. It was obvious that he was dead from 15 yards, as he had rolled into the beaver dam and his head was under water.

When we inspected the shot, we found it was a double lung shot that cleanly severed the aorta about an inch above the heart. Using the range finder we measured the shot at 29 yards and his travel distance after the shot at 26 yards. This bear squared out at 6'9", and his skull was measured by Fish & Game at 19 9/16".

We were able to spend the rest of the week stalking other bears and repeatedly getting within 50 yards. The closest Paul and Pat were able to get was 30 yards, which is outside of their range with their recurves. I have to complement both of these gentlemen on their sportsmanship and respect for animals as neither took shots that were questionable. These are true sportsmen.