It should be noted that I fully expect that these bears will get bumped by a few adventurous elk/deer hunters venturing up into this remote mountainside during the early hunting seasons. However, just wondering if human presence overall is LOW will there be a good chance the bears will still be in this same area/pattern come late Oct. or will typical fall conditions have them void of this summer area completely? Thoughts or experiences will be greatly appreciated.
1 pond (about 1acre in size) is about 500 ft. below the bear pictured and is fed by snow melt from the high basin above. That specific pond is mostly surrounded by a thin layer of intermittent willows which at their thickest point are only about 8-10 ft. wide/thick and mostly surround the bank of the pond. There is nearby sections of dark timber about 50ft. away on both sides of the pond but no real defined game trails leading to and from it.
Pond #2 (beaver pond) is about an 1/8th of a mile to the right of where the pic. of the bear was taken. It is a much larger pond (about 3-5 acres in size) and located at the bottom edge of a nearby high basin bowl. It is fed by both snow melt and natural springs. However, it has probably 10 acres of very dense “SPOOKY”willows surrounding 3 sides of it that is on the edge of the wide open high basin area and has a large section of dark timber directly next to it on the remaining side. The great thing is the dark section of timber directly next to this pond has a fairly “flat” bench (approx. 500’ wide) with multiple game trails at differing heights running along its 500’ width as this timbered bench circles the base of an upper portion of the mountain.
I’ll be honest, my first inclination is to set-up near or between a few of the game trails back in that dark timbered flat that leads to that one side of the large beaver pond in hopes of catching one of those bruins lumbering along one of those game trails while in the protective cover that the dark timber affords them. However, to do that requires that I cross that 10 acre wide section of “SPOOKY” dense willows in the dark both coming and going in the AM and PM. To be honest….not too crazy about doing that but may have no choice.
Will be carrying a side arm for sure!
Good luck to the rest of you on your upcoming bear hunts.
