"These stories are ours, not nature’s. The natural world does not organise itself into parables." - William Cronon
I got up when the coffee maker started calling my name. The future is getting short, but at least the weather was forecast to be splendid.
After another round of coffee in my cabin and breakfast in the lodge, Carter and I went upriver a ways to fish for big pike. The original plan was to go to near Kendall Point, but it was raining up there, so we started just a bit downriver. We were using Carter's huge reels and baits to push a bit harder on big pike. This was fun, but it did start to hurt my wrist throughout the morning.
We hooked into a decent number of fish. I tried an assortment of Carter's lures. Carter hooked into the biggest fish of the day and we had a team effort to bring it in - another very fat 34" pike. So big, but not ginormous (I still need a picture of it).
There were also a few very ambitious small pike. It never ceases to amaze me how aggressive these alligator fish can be.
Rick and Theresa had left and Pat had gone upriver to bait, but those remaining (and most of us bearless) had lunch before heading out for bears. Carter took Kelly and I out to the Rice Lake area, dropping me off at the Gate Bait. When we walked in, I noted the roll barrel had not been touched; this caused a bit of unease at the amounts of bears likely in this area, even if I know better. Trust the guides...
The stand was comfortable, but everything felt backwards since I had to sit at the far left of the stand to see around a tree (on all previous sits, I was on the right). I adjusted quickly enough.
Temperatures were near perfect in the mid-70s with a light breeze. It was time to sit. The mosquitoes were quickly making their presence felt so my Thermacell was a requirement.
It felt like a long sit, even after all the time already spent on the bear stand, I do still enjoy it (maybe my butt does not quite as much). As I often do, I spent a lot of time thinking about hunting and why I do it. I'm not always sure why. I don't particularly like killing - I sometimes dislike it. But (most) people are complex. We spring from a thicket of tangents. I don't think being complex and contradictory is necessarily bad; it means I am able to spend at least some time thinking deliberately.
As the afternoon wore on, the wind calmed down and essentially stopped altogether. This is preferrable to the crazy wind on two of the previous nights, but it means staying still is absolutely essential. Every movement felt like a thunderstorm of noise in an otherwise hushed world. It was so still, I didn't even dare eat my late-afternoon snack since opening the zipper bag would have been too loud.
I heard a shot in the far distance - was that Kelly who was also on a Rice Lake stand?
I saw movement on the right as a bear came out onto a small trail. He took his time going the last few steps to the bait but came in on his own time. He flopped down to eat popcorn.
Now what? I knew he was not a monster, but he looked to be a decent bear. Bears in this middling range are so incredibly difficult to judge. And it is the fifth day of a six-day bear hunt.
I watched and waited and thought. The bear just ate popcorn. Time ticked by. Fifteen minutes, a half an hour. I put the crosshairs on the bear a few times, but they always shrink a bit in the scope. At least 45 minutes were spent just watching.
My Thermacell pad stopped working at some point. The mosquitoes came in quickly and with a vengeance. I could not do anything about this and just had to let the little buggers eat me alive. It was painful.
The bear stood up and took a few steps to the left. Much like the previous year's bear, I decided I may regret letting him walk. I shot. The bear ran off to the left, but I was almost sure I heard him crash and make some final noise. I waited a couple minutes and texted Carter. After waiting a few more minutes (all I could stand), I got out of the treestand to look for him. It took a few minutes, but I found him relatively quickly. Shooting was the right thing to do - he was a good bear, a nice boar.
Then I looked up ... where was I? Where is the stand? Uh oh... I was slightly disoriented and the brush was incredibly thick. After a couple false starts, I found my way back to the stand with a bit of relief. Shortly after, Carter, Chris and Carla came in. It took a few minutes to find my bear again, but we did and got some pictures. Carla had also got a bear as had Kelly (the shot I heard was him).
With my bear in Carter's truck, we went down the 2-track to Kelly. Kelly had taken the head shot, which would not be my first choice, but no doubt effective. All three of our bears were about the same size - very nice Manitoba bears.
Back in camp, the guides broke down Kelly's bear, then mine. My shot was a near-perfect boiler room shot with almost no meat damage. I couldn't argue with that.
I ate my pork chops quickly as they were still working on my bear. It was in the freezer when I took my dessert back to my cabin.
I cleaned up a bit before going to bed. I ended the day with the same conflict that I often end hunts with: gratitude, reverence for the animal, appreciation for the people in camp, appreciation for S/O. And I was so glad for the ability to spend time in outdoors - allowing, however briefly, for my time to be restrained by something other than just a clock.
"Man's life cannot 'be lived' by repeating the pattern of his species; he must live. Man is the only animal that can be bored, that can be discontented, that can feel evicted from paradise. Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape." - Erich Fromm
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