Well, I got back from my Idaho bear hunt on Thursday. I had a chance to shoot a treed bear the second day, and a couple of shots at a moving bear across a draw. So I came home bear-less. I have to say this was probably one of the most physically hard things I’ve ever done and had a great time, none the less.

We hunted mainly out Atlanta, Idaho, at foot of the Sawtooths. I hunted with Chris Korrel (32 yo) and his brother Cody (20)of Korrel Outfitters , and their friend Jake Bigalo (sp?) who was there to help.

I bought the hunt at a local SCI chapter dinner.

Friday September 29th:

Drove to Emmet Idaho and met with the crew. Then drove on to Atlanta. On the way in we went through the center of Chris’ hunting area, which encompasses the bulk of the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Boise River. A large fire (the Hot Creek Fire) had burned through the area about a month ago. This was followed by torrential rains, which blew out draws, blocked the Middle Fork, and had washes out the road in several areas. We stayed in a cabin in Atlanta.

Saturday September 30th:

Got up at 5:30 and got the dogs ready. Chris runs Treeing Walkers, a Black and Tan, and a few Cattle dog that are along for the ride. The Black and Tan, Crow, and a Walker named Lou are his primary strike dogs. We drove along the roads looking for strikes. The bears were feeding mainly on an outstanding crop of Choke Cherries. Despite several strikes, we never got on a chase the entire day. Jake had to go to Winnemucca for a rodeo that night. He’s a successful saddle bronc rider.

Sunday September 31st:

Got out of the cabin by 5:45. Struck a bear about 7:30 right along the Middle Fork below Nienmeyer (sp) Creek. The bulk of dogs circled around came back to the truck, then took off up the hill. After a few minutes we could hear Louie treeing. Louie is the oldest and most experience dog. He had followed the other dogs for a bit, but then circled back to catch the bear.

But we couldn’t hear the other dogs. We went up to find Louie, alone treeing a 125-150 lb bear in a Ponderosa. His coat was nice, however. We talked about it at bit. I then decided that since it was early on the second day and we thought that the other dogs were on another bear that I should wait and let this bear go.

We then started looking for the other dogs. Chris uses radio collars to track dogs that are lost and we can’t hear. Despite our searches, we couldn’t find a signal on all the older dogs. We found a couple of the younger dogs about three hours later.

After talking it through and working out scenarios we decide that the only thing that the five remaining dogs could have done was to have crossed over into the North Fork drainage. But we couldn’t get a signal at the confluence of the North and Middle forks. So we went up and around and could get an extremely weak signal from where rabbit creek meets with the North fork. Chris and I hiked as far down the river as week could until cliffs on both sides of the river cut us off. I wished I’d my white water raft, and we could have made and easy, yet bumpy trip down to collect the dogs.

As it was by then pushing six o’clock, we then decided go back and have dinner. Chris was sick with the thought of having his dogs sending the night out. Something he’d never had to do before. So he decided to spend the night where the dogs had struck in the hopes that they’d come over and down in the night. If they didn’t, then he’d hike over the top and down into the NF drainage to see if he could find the dogs. Cody and I’d then hunt with the remaining dogs that morning.

Monday September 1:

As It turned out the dog’s, with the exception of one of the cattle dogs, didn’t come down and Chris called us on the radio to let us know he was going over the top.

Cody and I hiked up the Nienmeyer with four dogs to see if we could get a strike. Now these canyons are very steep and where not rocky, they are covered in loose decayed granite.
Temperatures started around 60 f and ended on a high on the 80’s. Louie struck about 9:00 Am and the chase was on. We spent most of the time trying to get above the dogs to cut off the bear and hear where the dogs were headed. We’d get to where the dogs were and they’d be in the next drainage. We spent about 5 hours, running back and forth at between 5K to 7K feet, as the temperatures went up.
During the chase Chris called to tell us he was back on our side of the ridge and had found the dogs. They’d been treed all night in a remote hole. They were on a 250lb red bear all night. From the extreme effort he’d been throwing up at the truck and was cramping.

About 2:00 o’clock Cody and I hadn’t seen the bear yet, but we now believed that it was a small one due to the pace he was keeping. I was walking up an open face in the sun, when my peripheral vision started going I was to get tunnel vision and. The combination of constant running, climbing and loose footing had taken its toll. I called to Cody, about 75 yards up the hill that I had to lie down, for fear of loosing my half a bagel breakfast.

About that time Cody saw the bear and it was confirmed that it was a small one. He went off to collect the dogs. I told him that I was going to work my way down to the truck.

When I got back down I drank a bit of Gator-Aid and tried to relax. That was until my legs then tried to bend my femur and tibia into pretzels with cramps. I’d never had anything like these occur and while painful were also abstractly fascinating. Over the course of 45 minutes, my cramps move from my inner thighs to my toes, until my entire legs were involved. Finally I was able to either walk it off or just outlast it.

While we were waiting, we found out that Chris’s brakes were gone due to a torn brake line.

By that time, Cody came off with the last of the dogs. I drove he and his rig back to the cabin. On the way back I had to pull over to let him dry heave.

1 bad truck, 8 spent dogs, and 3 exhausted men. Brutal day.

Tuesday September 2:

We gingerly eased the truck down off the mountain and into town to get a new brake line. We drove up Swanholm creek, and tried to get a strike on the way out. But we were unsuccessful. We’d discovered over the past two days that most of the bears were on top, because of the heavy berry crop.

We got into town about noon and arranged to get the truck repaired. As it was it was probably good that we had the forced break as the dogs and we were still pretty much shot.

Wednesday September 3:

Decided to hunt in another area, in the Payette/Cold Creek drainages. Struck a bear about 7:30 AM and the chase was on. Again the bear wouldn’t tree nor bay up. Up, down, around, sideways, you name it. The bear didn’t stop.

We finally had an opportunity to catch the bear out in front of the dogs, from across a canyon. He was going in and out of the brush heading uphill. I had a sitting position and Chris told me to put the crosshairs on the bear’s back. With the shot Chris saw the dust rise behind the bear and the bear quickly duck. I’d shot high. Chris thought that probably parted the hair on the bear’s back it was so close.

Another snap shot across a canyon about 45 minutes later and I’d then missed a second time.

We chased the bear for about 6 hours before giving it up for the week.



I must say that this bear hunt was extremely physically demanding. Much more than I’d thought. I had a great time even though not getting a bear and will hunt with Chris again, probably next Spring.

Take Care,

-Steve

Steve,
Great story!
I deer hunt all the country you were talking about so felt like I was right there with you.
I can understand why you guys were so worn out bombing around that STEEP brushy country in those temperatures.
Sounds like you had lots of action and the Korrels hunted hard for you.

rukidnme,

Thanks. I really had a good time. Chris and Cody were very nice and had great senses of humor.

It really was a very strenuous hunt and we ended up wearing both ourselves and the dogs completely out.

Chris is around 33 yo and Cody is 20. I'm 43 and while I do sit behind a desk all day, I work out and am in fairly good shape (6'5 200 lb). Although I'm sure I slowed them down, I did feel good that I was able to keep up for the most part. It really was a very hard hunt. We were constantly trying to get up to the dogs and above them.

One of the things that I failed to mention in my report was the subject of wolves. Chris was very upset about the introduction and felt that the tribes (who were funded to monitor the activities and populations) and the USDFW have not been honest about the explosion of population and dispersal of packs. That was his primary concern with leaving his dogs out all night, as the wolves would kill them if they heard the dogs treeing.

But the area the dogs were in was so rugged that wolves would not have been like to be staying in the area.

On the way out of town at the beginning of the hunt, Jake met his father on the road. He'd spent the entire night keeping wolves out of his packhorses, while on a pack trip. Not sure where however.

The Boise river drainage is beautiful county, though. I envy your being able to hunt there for deer every year.

Take Care,

-Steve

[ 09-12-2003, 21:23: Message edited by: Steve ]

Pot shots at bears ?

MNJ,

Not pot shots. Missed shot's yes. Pot shots no... The both were about 250 yds away and I had a stting position. In both cases I over estimated the distance and shot high.

-Steve