2026 Frank Church Spring Bear Hunt Report

[Aginor]

It was an interesting - and difficult - spring bear season here in south/central Idaho this year with the snowline up around 7,000 feet all the way back in February. I even caught some bears on trail cameras out of their dens from around that time! I figured it would be helpful to the community to give an abbreviated version of my hunting journal from this year.

Hunt 1​

6.64 miles
5,640 ft +/-
3 days

I started out the season in my main honey hole. The weekend prior to the opener I got to spend hiking the entire 15 miles ridge line around the top of the basin because the snow line was up above 7,000 feet and the weather was nice. I hadn't seen any bears, but the green up was in full force, so I figured they could certainly be in there. On Sunday when I was hiking out it snowed about 2" all the way down to 5,500 feet.

Two days later - the night before the opener - I was back on top of the mountain. The shortest route into the best spot is 2,200 feet of gain in 3 miles, most of which comes in the last mile itself. Just a brutal climb, but worth it. I had just enough time at the top to glass up several groups of deer before last light. There was still a bit of snow in my normal campsite. I set up camp and went to bed early so that I could be up glassing at dawn.

Man did it snow that night! I woke up to probably 3", but the wind was so intense that I thought my tarp would blow away several times. After 13 straight hours of snowing, I built a big bonfire to try and dry out between socked-in glassing sessions. I spent most of the day clearing brush and making an actual trail through the alders to my campsite. I'm sure some deer hunter will silently thank me in the fall.

The day was a constant barrage of snow and wind storms with very little opportunity to glass for bears. I got a lot of trail building done, but optimistic for tomorrow.

As rough as the first night was, last night was so much worse. Every 45 to 90 minutes I would wake up praying to God not to let my tarp blow away. My thermometer said the low was 16 degrees, but that's not accounting for the probably 50+ mph winds. Out of the 342 nights I've backpacked the last decade, I would put that in the top 3 hardest nights. Two nights ago was probably in the top 5 as well. My wife sent me an InReach message trying to get me to come home and help get some chores done before my in-laws came in for the weekend and said that I could go back out in two weeks if I did. I still had 3 days of this hunt left, but as cold and snowy as it was I figured any bears that were in this area were going back into hibernation anyway. In the end, it was an easy call to get 3 more days when the weather was better and bears would be out than to stick it out here and probably not see anything. I swung over to the den of my Moby Dick bear and pulled the trail camera out of it on my way out. I hit up my favorite hot spring on the drive back home and enjoyed a 6 pack in the snow - one of my favorite things.

 

[Aginor]

Hunt 2​

13.09 miles
7,230 ft +/-
3 days

After scouring through the trail camera photos and finding nothing, I decided it was time to move up to a higher elevation. There aren't too many places higher in my early season unit, but I found one that I've never hunted/hiked before because it's usually snowed in until the time I've already moved on to the Frank Church. I e-scouted it over those two weeks and found several very promising looking spots. I'm also competing in the Exo Mountain Gear Sheep Challenge, so I figured I could double dip and use this one for my backpacking challenge entry.

My first campsite was a 1,300 foot, 1 mile climb on top of this ridge with great views of two north/south drainages with great green up on both east and west faces. The entire way up it I was glassing every direction. Incredible views and tons of deer and elk. In the smaller drainage to my west I saw probably a half dozen herds of elk, the young ones all running around chasing each other. Tons of deer on that side as well. I got up to camp, set up, then climbed higher for more glassing.

I glassed the rest of the day and right at dusk - typical - I spotted a bear on the next ridge over in a 4-way saddle. Straight line distance was 1.5 miles. I stared at him for probably 30 seconds thinking "that really looks like a bear". Strange red tint to whatever it was, round, large. As I often do to confirm, I glassed elsewhere for about a minute and then came back to it. Boom! As soon as I got back on it, it turned and started feeding down slope. I tried switching over to the spotter, but by the time I got it changed he had already moved out of sight. No digiscope footage, but I was 100% sure.

Now the dilemma: do I stay where I am or go after him? If I go after him, I need to move tonight so that I don't waste a day in transportation. Not a dilemma so much as a hesitation because I knew I was going after that bear, but I also knew it would hurt getting over there. No time to lose before dark, I hiked back down to camp, packed up, and headed back down 1,200 feet in three quarters of a mile to the river at the bottom of the drainage, waded across, and then climbed up 1,600 feet in 1.5 miles in the dark up the other mountain face. I made it by 11:30 as my legs were giving out while post-holing in the glacier at the top. More than 4,200 feet of elevation change over 5 miles with a 60 pound pack - I was smoked. I collapsed in my hammock and spent what seemed like the most peaceful night of camping I've ever experienced in Idaho. Total silence with a bright full moon. This entire trip's weather was such a stark contrast to my hunt two weekends ago.

I woke up the next morning to the most incredible basin. All sorts of slope angles, aspects, tons of green, literally dozens of herds of elk and deer. I counted more than 10 bulls just between two groups. I spent the entire day glassing that basin right where I had seen the bear the night before, but no luck this night.

Sunday morning I woke at dawn again and glassed until 9am. I needed to hike out that day, so I figured I'd still hunt the thick timber on the west side of the pass I'd seen the bear in and check the next drainage north, looping around it on my way out back south. Tons of amazing habitat in that area. As I made my way through the thick timber I suspected this is where that bear went and that it would be fruitless to try to find him in it, so I made my way on to the next basin north.

As soon as I sat down to glass it for the first time, I looked down and caught a white movement through the trees! A blonde bear! I circled around to get above him and caught several other glimpses through the trees. Finally, he emerged above treeline at 400 yards and I was somewhat disappointed to see that it was in fact a goat. I chuckled to myself about the excitement and then went back to glassing. This basin also had several deer and elk. At one point, something scared a deer up towards me and she kept stopping, turning around, and making this strange hissing noise back the way she came. Very strange.

It was getting late and it was very hot out. If there were bears about, I figured they'd be down in the bottoms or in some thick trees keeping cool, so I powered out the 7 miles back to my truck and headed home.

 

[LG1]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Aginor]

Hunt 3​

27.83 miles
10,036 ft +/-
4 days

Over the three weeks between the last hunt and this one, I found an amazing looking spot in my early season unit by using the location of where I had seen the previous bear. I also began e-scouting my Frank Church areas and looking for new spots. I found one in the Frank that looked so perfect that I decided to pass up the other one for it. I have a buddy that is staying with my family who is very much a city boy, but wanted to tag along. I figured it would be a fun time to have some company for a change so I got him outfitted with all my extra gear just for hiking.

The hike in was 8.5 miles to an unmarked hot spring that we found in the morning. We saw some camp deer in the night and the morning before climbing the mountain. We made it up to a large knob about 100 feet below the summit and set up camp. This is quite possibly the best glassing mountain I've ever been on. I could see hundreds of different slopes from the one we were on out to 5 miles away - all different aspects, angles, elevations, and habitat types. I was also using this hunt to test out the NL Pure 14's to see how I liked them. I was convinced by the end of the first hour that I was replacing my 12's with them. Seems like a great compromise to not need to bring the spotter, but still have something powerful that I can check animals out in more detail than my 8's provide.

My buddy's feet were pretty messed up from his AF boots, so he spent most of the day sitting around the fire playing music while I glassed every direction for 14 hours or so. I saw 1 deer. It's always shocking to me how sparse animals are in the Frank Church, but this was absolutely staggering coming off the last hunt where I'd seen several hundred elk without even trying. Even more so because I could see so much more terrain and there were several places with just the most incredible habitat. On top of that, the game trails on this mountain looked like they were made by humans because they were so well defined and carpeted with scat. This one drainage in particular kept drawing my eyes - it was protected and had a ton of green meadows up the mountain face and it was the place I saw the deer at last light.

My buddy and I stayed up until after midnight listening to music, drinking beers, and reminiscing. I do nearly all of my hunting and hiking trips solo because it's hard to find people who can keep up, but man, I think I need to start doing more trips with people because this was so much more enjoyable in a way that I didn't even realize I was missing.

I woke up the next morning with a game plan. My buddy would start down the mountain with his poor, blistered feet while I still hunted the north face on downwards, then we would head out to another spot where I always see animals and always wanted to hunt, but have never gotten around to it. I sent him off to meet at our first campsite and glassed for a few more hours before still hunting down. No dice UNTIL that drainage that kept pulling my eyes did so again and at 12:30 in the afternoon in the blazing sun a very black bear popped out 1.5 miles away. I filmed him for about 10 minutes and then realized how late it was. I needed to get down to my buddy to let him know the change of plans and then get after that bear.

I plowed through the brush and practically ran to the camp. I got there out of breath, handed him the phone with the video playing, and unpacked my backpack. I got my hammock set back up in the old campsite and left everything that I could behind before jogging back down the trail to where I needed to cutoff and climb up the mountain. 1,700 feet in 1.4 miles, but by 4:00 I got to an opening 550 yards from where I last saw the bear and plopped down. As soon as I pulled up my binoculars, I saw that bear walking into some brush. 550 is right at my max range and there really wasn't any good shooting positions I could get into, so I got another 100 yards closer and set up on my tripod watching that bush. For four hours I sat there with my earplugs in watching the bush intently.

Finally, at 8:00 I thought I needed to make a move because I was going to need to climb all the way back down to camp after dark, so I was only getting one shot. I called for 20 minutes, but he didn't come out. I had maybe 30 minutes of light left, so I went ahead and snuck around to the bushes where he was. I could not find him. I found his den and a paw print, but he must've gotten out of the bush when I first moved because that was the only time my eyes were not on it. Dejectedly, I made my way down the steep, brushy mountain side and all the way back to camp. I got back at midnight and we enjoyed our last beers before bed. We headed home in the morning after a nice soak in the hot spring.

 

[Aginor]

Hunt 4​

27.92 miles
8,897 ft +/-
3 days

My incredible wife - as soon as I got home and showed her the videos she demanded that I get back out there the next weekend and shoot that bear. My son named him Lloyd. I knew it was going to be a rough pack out, so I left anything at home that wasn't absolutely necessary to the hunt. I switched out my hammock for a small tarp and air mattress intending to just sleep on the ground like a heathen. Barely enough food for the 3 day hunt. No water other than my water bottle. Only a pair of sleep socks and very thin long john pants besides the clothes I was wearing. I struggled with whether to leave the rain jacket or not, but sometimes we go overboard (especially after I checked the weekend forecast). As light as I could possibly be.

I got to the trailhead at 6PM and somehow made it 10 miles in and up 700 foot of that final climb in 4 hours. I had to stop there as there was nowhere else even remotely flat to camp on that night. So I laid down in a bed of elk piss and slept with the ticks. I eagerly woke up the next morning at first light and started the final climb.

About an hour in, I started hearing barking. I was like, "There is absolutely no chance ANYBODY would climb this mountain - ESPECIALLY with a dog". My confusion only lasted about a minute before the barking turned into howling. Another minute later and I saw the wolf pop up on a rock looking like Mufasa on Pride Rock. I quickly dropped my pack and started working on calming my heart down. I ranged him at 50 yards, but there were several tall bushes in the way and it seemed like every time I moved enough to get a clear shot, the wolf would duck out of sight. He continued howling for probably close to 20 minutes before he started jogging too far away for me to chase after him. I decided to focus on what I was there for - Lloyd. If the wolf presented an opportunity, I would shoot him, but I wasn't going to chase him all over the mountain.

I went back for my pack and then finished the 1,000 foot climb. I came out on top of the ridge after hiking up the backside of the way the wolf went and when I summited, there he was again. Howling non stop and jogging away from me. After a couple of minutes of trying to get my heart rate back down, I dropped my pack and grabbed my rifle and looked over the side. He was so loud that I knew he was close. I saw him trotting away and I got into a kneeling position with my range finder on him. He came to a stop on a different Pride Rock looking spot at exactly 300 yards. I dialed, still trying to get my breath under control. The way this guy had been moving constantly since I first encountered him an hour or so ago I did not expect him to sit still long. I took the shot. I missed just slightly high. I've never seen anything move so quickly as that wolf bolting after the shot whizzed past him. Straight down the treeless mountainside away from Lloyd.

Annoyed that I missed, I decided to focus on getting the bear I was there for. I worked my way around the ridge trying to stay at the same elevation band until I got to a spot with a good view of the whole far mountainside. I found a great spot to camp and another great spot to glass. As I set down to do so, there came old Yapper again. At this point, I took it as a sign from God that he wanted me to shoot this wolf. I looked on the map trying to figure out how he even got over to this side since I last saw him flying down the opposite face of the ridge, and it only went higher from there.

I followed his haunting howls through the thick timber, stalking him all the way to a cliff face. As the promised rains started coming down, he finally silenced. Thankful that I wasn't stupid and packed the rain jacket, I climbed into a thick conifer and took a 90 minute nap while it rained outside. I emerged to the rain stopped, but it was still cold, dark, and cloudy. I decided to go back to that good campsite I had found and set up. I did so, grabbing water along the way. Afterwards, I went back to the good glassing spot and spent the rest of the day there combing over the far side.

I had a surprisingly good night of sleep despite sleeping on the ground in the rain with ticks crawling all over me. It was certainly chilly, but my new air mattress was definitely the most comfortable I've ever slept on. I woke up to a 6AM alarm, got all my stuff on and climbed out to find it was so socked in I could barely see myself in my hands while taking a morning pee. Crazy thick fog. On the one hand I was happy that I could go back to sleep, but on the other I felt like it was the nail in the coffin of my hunt. After an hour long nap, I got back up, packed everything, and hiked over to my glassing spot. It was starting to clear up somewhat, so I glassed while cooking breakfast.

Until 10, I did not take my eyes off the other slope. I eventually saw 2 deer above the bush I'd seen Lloyd in last. I knew I needed to start making my way back, so I decided to climb to the top of the ridge and hunt the back side while exploring some new country and finding some future hunting/camping sites. I took 5 practice shots at 550 before packing up and heading out.

The top of the ridge had plenty of those nice campsites and as I looked down I thought "that is a very beary area". I sat and glassed for probably half an hour. Then I switched to the backside I just came from and glassed some more. Then back over to the first side while moving down the ridge.

BEAR! He was next to a thick set of alders and so blonde you couldn't miss him with the naked eye. 750 yards. I got plenty of digiscope footage of him while waiting patiently for him to bed or give an indication of how long he was going to feed. At first I thought he was large compared to the bushes around him, but then I saw him running around, which I've never seen a big bear do. He also looked like he had some skinny legs when I saw him climb on a log. I knew he was smaller at that point, but I was 15 miles into the Frank Church - I didn't want to haul a big bear out of that anyway.

I began battling my way down slope through the thick brush, poorly attempting to keep quiet. I got to 350 yards and set up my rifle (and self) between the two trunks of a fallen "V" shaped tree. It made for a great front and rear rest. I could see him feeding down slowly still, so I went ahead and setup the tripod and digiscope next to me. The bear turned facing towards me aimed generally down slope. I lined the crosshairs up on his left shoulder and fired. I instantly knew it was a good shot. His body fell sideways and rolled into some thick bushes.

You can hear the elation in the video. The overwhelming relief that after a very hard season, I wasn't coming home to my wife empty handed again thinking that I suck at hunting and should just stick to elk. I was thanking and praising God while fighting through that very thick brush all the way down to him, crossing over a very cliffy/waterfally creek along the way. I walked right to the spot where I shot him and looked down and to the right, but couldn't see him. Thinking I was going to have to climb into a bush after a wounded bear, I anxiously dropped everything except my rifle and peered into it, nearly tripping over the dead bear at my feet. He was so small that the grass was taller than his corpse! Bears always shrink after you shoot them, but this was unexpected.

I looked around and found a good, flat, rocky spot to butcher him about 100 yards away. I picked him up and carried him there and began the process. I did a complete necropsy and will include it in the next post. After butchering him, I checked the map and decided it was going to be a long one and I needed to boogy. I bushwacked about 3 miles down to a trail and then 12 miles back to my truck, arriving at 11:30. My wife really wanted me home in the morning, so I drove the 3 hours back that night, elated and thankful.

It was an 80 pound pack and a 32" bear. Dinky for sure, but meat is meat and I still feel the sense of accomplishment for hauling him all the way out of there after a long and difficult hunting season

 

[Aginor]

Necropsy​

Cartridge: 6.5 Creedmoor
Bullet: 156 Berger EOL
Muzzle Velocity: 2494 FPS
Impact Velocity: 2101 FPS
Distance: 350 yards
Retained Bullet Weight: 74gr, 47%
Point of Impact: High, left shoulder
Exit: None. Bullet fragments found against the far side hide. Bullet traveled at a downwards angle from the high left shoulder to the center of the stomach between the rib cage (the greenish spot in the pictures of his stomach below), obliterating the heart.

Shot:

Impact:



Below the shoulder bone:


Carnage in the shoulder meat:


"Exit":



Interior:



What's left of the heart:


Fragments:


Thoughts:
First kill with this bullet. I love the way it shoots, I like the high BC and sectional density. The bullet performed exactly the way you would want it to - dumping all of its energy and coming to a stop in the far side hide. I'm slightly concerned how it will perform on bigger game than this tiny bear. I guessed the rib cage to be 8" across and if it's coming to a halt in the hide after only hitting the shoulder bone, I wonder what I should expect on an elk at the same distance. I'm a fan of the high shoulder shot though. I will definitely be using that going forward.

 

[WBT]

Excellent write up and thanks for taking us along!