I am just back from a great hunt in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area. If you are from Idaho, wow, I envy you! What a beautiful place!

Since this was a wilderness area hunt there were no cars, roads, ATV's or any other motorized vehicles. We were flown into the area via bush plane from Orofino. From the grass strip we were loaded onto our horses and our gear packed by mule about 2 hours to our spike camp. Camp was located on the east fork of Moose Creek, which appeared to be a river to me.

Camp:



My tent is on the right, with the smoke coming from the stove pipe. We had cots with a pad and our sleeping bags. Just past the trees was the river and our portable shower was set up there on the bank. It was a pretty place to take a shower.

Moose Creek:



Going to the stand:



The stands were all in the high country and for me, a true flat lander, this was exciting. I do have horses and grew up on them but NEVER rode in such steep country before. My stout quarter horse, Half Ton, was worth his weight in gold. With all of the dead fall, rocks and steep country he never lost his cool or his step. Even in the pitch black dark. He even packed the bear skin to camp with out complaint. We had to walk down most nights as the country was very steep. My legs were screaming and had the consistancy of rubber within a few days.

Half Ton:



The interesting thing and big difference from this hunt and the Canadian bear hunts I have been on was the amount of bait used. Here only a gallon of grease a day was packed in. My guide also set up a burn and smoked some of the grease after he dropped me off. This is a significant difference from the gazillion tons of bait used on my Canadian hunts!

Bait as it looked from my tree stand:



This is the bait I killed my bear at. I am 16 yards away up a large Balsam. The bait area is just in front of the fallen tree. The tree served to keep the bears broadside.

I hunted two different bait sites and saw a total of five bears. Two were colored, one being a beautiful chocolate and another a unusual blonde and black mix. Both of those bears were very small, probably 125 pounds soaking wet, and I passed on them. A 14 year old boy killed the blonde mix. All of the bears I saw were fully feathered with beautiful coats. My bear has very long and thick hair. He also had a very large chest patch. With a graying muzzle and worn teeth the outfitter thought he was between 7 and 8 years old.

My bear:



All of the bears I saw were very nervous, they were always looking for other bears so I had to wait a considerable amount of time for them to settle. This of course was very nerve wracking! I probably watched this bear for 20 minutes before my opportunity came. I made a perfect hit, I knew it as soon as I saw the arrow go.

The bear was frightened by the sound of the bow and I really don't think he felt the arrow pass through him. He took three running leaps up the hill, stopped, walked two steps and stood up and flipped over backwards. He probably made all of 50 feet. A death moan followed.

You can see here where the arrow entered the bear:



If anyone is interested in a great bear hunt please contact me for further information.

Ann,



Great photos and a great trip!!! You know I leave Sunday for Idaho myself and those photos just make it that much HARDER to get any work done today.

Ann-Congradulations on your hunt.Thats a great area you were in for lots of game.I tried to get to my spot last week and couldn't make it because of snow but heres a couple of long distance pic's of it we took not all that far from where you were as the crow flies.About 34 miles from my house.


Takin more than one shower here.


I used to work alot out of Orofino and don't live to far from it now.There's a bunch of real nice people there also.

Glad you had fun here in Idaho.Born and raised Idaho!


Jayco.

Nice bear Ann! Too bad that calico bear was small. The genes must be in the area as someone in our camp last year saw a calico bear as well. I, of course, am hunting with Mark in that neck of the woods next week. Out of curiosity, were the elk dropping their calves yet?

Best,

JohnTheGreek

Way to go, Ann. Great bear.

I've hunted the Selway-Bitteroot on horseback three times for elk/deer and once out of a camp right along Moose Creek where all the monster cedar trees are. Did you happen to get into that area? If you had, you would know it; some of the trees are 20'-30' around and the canopy is so dense that it doesn't get light until about 8 a.m. or later in the fall. -TONY

John,

Not to steal Ann's post, but I'm READY to go! I packed last night and will be counting the hours until Sunday.

I saw an elk cow and this whitetail buck in an alpine meadow:



What kind of trophy do you experts think this buck will end up at? He sure looked fine to me but then again, I have never seen any trophy bucks in the wild. From what I could tell he looked like he might be an 8 point.

I am not sure if the elk were calving yet. The weather varied from cool and wet to some pleasantly warm sunny days. One of the guides reported seeing a large bull on the trail to the air strip when he was going in to pick up feed for the stock. There were a lot of deer. This young buck came to me at a distance of 10 feet. I took several photos of him. Apparently he did not know what to make of humans. He was very curious.



Also saw wolf tracks and heard lots of coyotes.

OW, it got light out pretty early there, seems like dawn was around 0430 hours. There were tons of giant cedar, Ponderosa pine, and balsam fir.

I should also mention that bugs were not an issue. A few mosquitoes and a couple of no-see-ums. I did wear my Gore Tex quite a lot. No ticks either! No ticks on the bear.

Oh, my hunting set up was the following:

Parker Ultra Lite Pro set at 65 pounds
Easton Red Line arrows (360's) topped with 100 grain Steelforce broadheads
Whisker Biscuit
Tru Fire release

Kind of ironic where my arrow ended up:



There was lots of scat everywhere.

I was never winded by any bears. They always made sure to go down wind of the bait to check it before going in. They were all afraid of running into other bears. I did wear an unlined Sentlock jump suit. No Scentlock on my head.

Ann,

Nice report and congats on the bear!

I've a good friend who works for IDFG, used to be stationed in Kamiah in fact, and last time I was out visiting he proposed my next trip be right smack dab where you were hunting. He would pack in a camp and horses, I'd fly into that airstrip, and we'd spend a week fly-fishing for monster cutthroats.

Your photos and report have me thinking I better give him a call and make that trip happen!

OW, would love to see your photos.

By far, the most common tree where I was at were the balsam firs, next it seemed even between the cedar and Ponderosa pines. I did not see any broad leaf trees, just these evergreens.

Ann,

I just looked at my Idaho DeLorme Atlas of that area. Did you fly into the strip that's near the Moose Creek ranger Station? If so, our camp was only a few miles north of there, where the Moose Creek trail borders the river on the east side and just south of where East Moose Creek comes in. If you have a topo map of that area, the big cedars are along the river where the elevation lines show it basically as a large flat areas. -TONY

Ann, glad you had such a wonderful adventure. My brother and I flew in there with Dave Petet out of Orofino in early May of 2003. We camped at the airstrip and hunted on our own spot and stalk. We had a great time and I took a 10 year old black phase boar. We saw a wolf and lots of deer and elk. A guy that went in there last year at the same time I was there went in again this year. He hunted spot and stalk without a guide also. He said it looked like the outfitters had kind of overrun the place and were taking lots of bears. That bummed me out because I was thinking about going back May of 2005. Rufous

Rufous,

Staying at the airstrip would be easiest for spot and stalk hunters on their own. Since we packed in about 2 hours from there I believe none of the surrounding area was being hunted by anyone else other than my outfitter. I did notice a lot of small camps along the grass strip. The outfitter also had one camp there and they were killing bears.

This was not an expensive guided hunt. The bush flight was $250 bucks R/T, Idaho non-resident tags + license was $191 and the hunt was $1450. Maybe you should go again but try a pack in with someone elses horses, gear etc to get away from the crowd. I thought this was a reasonably priced deal. It is a two bear area and I would certainly not consider it over hunted at all. I had a very big bear come in one night after shooting light when I was waiting for my guide. If I were gun hunting I probably would have taken a chance at it.

Tony, I think there was a Forest Service camp at the air strip but I cannot be positive as we did not stay there. I was not at that area very long both going in and coming out. The cedars I saw were very big, especially the ones by the water.

Congratulations Ann! You are right, Idaho has some of the best country around. While living in N Idaho, we had a task keeping these critters out of the chicken coop (grain and eggs, and of course, chicken) and the orchard. Bears love plums with a PASSION, and frost nipped apples are a second choice. Congrats again, go back for elk, and remember that horse!

Congratulations Ann, and thanks for charing!

Regards,
Martin

Hi Mark,

Looking forward to meeting up with you at the airport . . . and of course getting bears.

Best,

JohnTheGreek

Congratulations on a wonderful bear. Some beautiful scenery!

Mike