The Bear Hunt, part 2...

On Sunday, we set out from White River Junction, VT for Eustis, ME, the site of Black Arrow Lodge. This would be our bear hunting camp/lodge. The ride was another 5 hours or so, by way of some highway, but mostly on small two lane roads through some nice country in Vt., NH and Maine. We made a few stops along the way, for gas and for some supplies. We got most of our supplies at Walmart if only because they were there when other places were not to be found (like supermarkets). I do not necessarily like shopping at Walmart, especially in light of recent corporate decisions by them to cut back on firearms sales, but I did shop at them on this trip. I have to decide if it was worth shopping there as opposed to boycotting them in light of their cutback on gun sales.

Well we finally arrived in Eustis at about 3PM. In short order, we found a sign for the Black Arrow Lodge, and we made a left turn off of route 27 into the driveway. There was a group of about 6 folks or so hanging out around the front steps of the lodge when we pulled up. As Brendan and I got out of our 1996 Ford Taurus, I heard a woman’s voice, the only woman in the group, say: “Glenn, Brendan?”. This was a voice with which we would become quit familiar over the next week, that of Rachel Crommet of 15 Mile Stream Guide Service. She and her husband Shane ran guide service for the bear hunt. Rachel had answered every email inquiry, and every question in each email, that I had sent to her (and to about a dozen or so other guide services) about the bear hunt they offered. I literally mean she answered every question I asked her; and she gave well detailed answers. That was no small feat, as this quite possibly would prove to be the Bear Hunt of a lifetime for me, so I had asked an awfully large number of questions. If nothing else, her dedication to making sure all of my questions had been sufficiently answered to my satisfaction was what sold me on 15 Mile Stream Guide Service.

We made our introductions which included Brendan and I meeting: Rachel and Shane, their son Patrick, Shane’s dad Herb, and most of the other hunters for the week. As it stood there were 6 other hunters there besides Brendan. We met John, who had stayed with Shane and Rachel the year before in 2005, when he had taken a good sized bear with only 3 legs. We also met Kenny, Randy, Tony and Z (I think his name was Mark but we all called him by his nickname). These 4 guys were all members of a Fish and game club in CT. I was surprised, when about 3 days later, I learned they had all hunted with Shane and Rachel in 2005 but none had even seen a bear on that trip. Think about that for a moment. They had not seen a bear on their 2005 trip, not one of them, yet all 4 guys came back to the same outfitters in 2006. This is a testament to the service given by 15 Mile Stream, but more on that to come later, so back to the intros. We did not meet the other hunter who would be present: Brian, a bow hunter who came all the way from MI, and who was also a repeat customer of 15 Mile Stream Guide Service. We would meet Brian on Monday afternoon just before the first hunting session.

So far I was impressed. Everyone seemed very nice, not only Shane, and Rachel and their family, but also the other hunters. This was a good thing because spending a week in a lodge with 8 other people could have been miserable had we not all gotten along pretty well. As it turned out, the week was a ice one to say the least, but you will also get more on that as we move along through the week of the bear hunt.

In no time, Rachel had us settled into our room, on the second floor of the lodge. It was a bit small, but believe me when I say not too small as I had thought it might be before we saw it. Brendan and I had this one bedroom for ourselves. We had ample dresser space for all out stuff, and the beds were comfy with lots of extra blankets if we needed them. As luck would have it the window was on the dark side of the house at sunup. This was a good thing for sleeping in, and Brendan got to sleep late almost everyday because the hunts would only begin after lunch as we had been made aware long before we had arrived. The placement of that window also assured me a better night’s sleep (or would that be morning’s sleep as I usually went to bed after midnight). Still I was up a few mornings well before 0600, but much later on some others. Heck this was a vacation, so being able sleep late on some days was a very good thing indeed. The lodge had two full bathrooms, which was another good thing when there were 3 guides, one observer (me as I was not hunting on this trip) and 6 hunters sharing the facilities. Yes there were 7 hunters in all, but one – Brian, was staying in his own trailer at a campsite down the road.

Not long after we were settled in, we went out to sight in our guns. John was shooting a S&W revolver, sorry I don’t recall the model, in .44 magnum. It had a low power scope attached to it. I learned he had also used a revolver on his last year’s hunt, but I believe that one had been a Ruger. He shot quite a few rounds, he seemed to be shooting a bit low, but apparently wound up satisfied he was ready to go While some shots were a bit low, his group still looked more than good enough to get a bear. Then it was Brendan’s turn to shoot. He climbed the tree stand, and then I followed him up there to sit next to him as if he was actually out afield on the hunt. He fired one shot at 30 yards, the approximate distance it was figured that his stand would be from his bear. He hit the bull’s eye. Someone said he was okay to go, hut Shane said he should fire another shot. I guess that was to rule out a fluke good shot, and I thought that a wise idea Justin case the scope screws had come loose over the last two days of bouncing around in the trunk as we drove on our trip. His second shot was about a quarter inch from the first in the bull’s eye. Herb looked at the target and in a calm laid back sort of a Maine accent said: “He’s ready”. Everyone seemed pretty impressed. Everyone else had apparently already shot, the other 4 guys had gotten there the day before us and had already practiced.

Soon after that, dinner was being served. We were started off with an appetizer of a boiled shrimp platter, crackers, cheeses, and sliced pepperoni. Then we had hockey pucks for the main course, and we devoured them. Whoops, did I say hockey pucks (sorry Rachel but I could not resist)? Actually, Rachel has Tony to thank for the description of our dinner as being hockey pucks; of course Tony was just ribbing her in a friendly sort of way. Dinner was really hamburgers, and they really were much to everyone’s liking judging by how fast they disappeared from the platter into the mouths of the hunters. I loved em. They were accompanied by other delectable treats and all was truly delicious. After dinner, there was dessert of some sort; I don’t remember which exactly that everyone had of the many there were for the week. I do remember there was ice cream available every night, and there was often some sort of pie, and cookies too. I had some home baked cookies on Sunday night for my desert, they went down well, but I admit I had little room for dessert after dinner.

As it was, Rachel was our cook for most of the meals for the week; she had warned me that we did not want Shane to cook! The meals were all prepared fresh each day, home cooking style. There was also an abundance of snacks available like chips, cookies, fruits and such. Fresh coffee, and various soft drinks and juices were always on hand. It was help yourself to whatever was available at any time, with Rachel preparing most of the 3 main meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner. No one went hungry, except maybe a certain tapeworm in one member of the group’s stomachs, and even that tapeworm had its fill before too long.

Not long after dinner a card gamer started up. Brendan watched for awhile as did I; it was some sort of money game – what could you expect at a hunting camp. I was surprised the buy in was only a dollar, that spread out a quarter per game. After not too many of these games went by, Brendan joined in too. I was happy to watch, as I would be on the actual bear hunt too. The game did not go all that long before it was interrupted by Shane who had videos for us to watch, and a talk to give us about the upcoming hunts.

The videos we saw were quite instructional as far as bear hunting over bait goes, and as far, to some extent, as any bear hunt would go. We got to see bears of different sizes from small cubs, to yearling bears of about 80 pounds, to bears of about 180 pounds, to bears somewhat bigger than that. The reason for this was so we could judge any bear that might approach our shooting area. If someone wanted a trophy or a certain sized bear, they would at least now have something to go by. It was not all that easy to judge their sizes in the videos – so it became painfully obvious that judging a bear’s size would not be that easy during the excitement of seeing one while on stand. Shane told us of a hunter from the previous season who had sworn he had shot at least a 250 pound bear. When they found it, it turned out to be about 80 pounds! Shane also told us a 75 to 100 pound bear was nothing to sneeze at, and it would be a fine animal for Brendan to bag on his first hunt. Depending on which sex a bear in that weight range would be, it would either likely be a yearling if male, and possibly two to three years old if female.

One of the bears in the videos was a female with three cubs. Her video, I think, had been shot last year. We were all given explicit instructions by Shane that absolutely no sows with cubs were allowed to be taken by any hunters who hunted with 15 Mile Stream Guide Service. This was a policy enforced by Shane and Rachel, and was not a state of Maine hunting regulation. As far as Maine hunting regulations went, there was no restriction against shooting a sow with cubs; but since young cubs were unlikely to survive on their own, Shane and Rachel set up their own prohibitions for their hunters. That was fine with everyone at the camp, and we were all aware of this even before we arrived. Shane was making sure we had not forgotten. He also went over a quick way of how to avoid shooting a sow with cubs in tow. He said that upon seeing a bear approaching, the absolute best thing to do was to wait at least a minute while doing noting except watching and listening. The reason we were told to wait was to see if cubs showed up behind mama bear. He also told us about the likely appearance a sow’s coat if she had cubs, it wood look tattered or disheveled along the flanks, just as was the fur on the sow in the video, the sow with her cubs. This would be something easy for me to do, and I would make sure Brendan would wait a minute if we actually spotted a bear.

Once the videos and the talk were over it was back to cards for some, off to have a smoke for others (smoking was only permitted outside the lodge, and was usually done on the front steps), or off to make sure things were right for the next day’s hunt. I took it easy, and talked with some of the guys who were not playing cards. Sometime after 1100 or maybe even after midnight, we all turned in for a good night’s sleep. The cool Maine air, it was in the 60s down to the high 50s overnight, made it excellent sleeping weather. Despite the excellent sleeping weather for a great night’s sleep, I sort of thought I would be up fidgeting all night, and I thought the same about Brendan. While the next day would bring the first day of the hunt, and while the anticipation was very strong, it did not overcome the magic of the cool mountain air that lulled us all to sleep. I imagine that dreams of bears were sure to have danced through the heads of Brendan and all the other hunters, just as they danced through mine that night. I awoke, refreshed and ready, well before dawn the next morning.