Alberta Spring Bear Trip

[charvey9]

I just got back this week from an 11 day roadtrip/bear hunt/canadian adventure.

I had booked the 5 day bear hunt last September with John Rivet at Livin The Dream Productions out of Swan Hills, AB after seeing some pretty awesome photo and video from Cameron Hanes vist last fall. In all the time leading up to the hunt, John was extremely helpful and great with communicating info about the hunt. Almost daily updates on what he and his family were doing to prepare for the hunt, trail cam pictures, etc. I would reccomend the hunt to anyone based on the Rivet's hospitality alone, not to mention it is some of the best black bear hunting on the planet.

As the time for the hunt drew near, I arranged for some additional vacation days and devised the master plan to score points with my wife while getting to go hunting all in the same trip. My wife and I left Portland, OR on a Thursday for a 3 day road trip through BC and Jasper national park that would end for her in Edmonton on a flight back to Portland where I would meet my guide and help with pick-up of some of the other guys flying in to hunt.

The drive through all of BC and into the Canadian Rockies was amazing the whole way. We made it to Jasper National park on day 2, where the views were awesome and elk scattered all around our camp area. Here are a few shots from the Jasper area.

 

[charvey9]

Most of the group flew into Edmonton on Sunday, and we made the road trip a few hours north to Swan Hills, AB. Prior to this hunt, none of the guys in camp had never met....so I wasn't really sure what to expect. This was also my first spring bear "camp", and had no idea what a social experience it could be. Kind of amazing how 8 guys who've never met can bond over a week of hunting. Some of these pics I had to steal from the other guys in camp, but here are some photos of the group and bonding time at camp. I made some good friends, we are already planning hunts again in the future.

 

[charvey9]

Now, on to the hunting. Booking this hunt was an impulse decision when I contacted John back in September, as hunting over bait is not something I had done before. However, I have put a few hundred miles on in search of bear in Oregon over the past two seasons without any real opportunities so I was really looking forward to seeing some bears up close. I saw bears everyday but one, when the rain had them held up. The largest boar came in on the first night, but after coming to full draw I passed on him because it was the first night. Lesson learned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2q8gL93uqM

On the second night, I arrowed a nice bear. It came straight in to my stand, put two feet up on my tree, and then jumped back a little when I leaned forward to give it a good look. I took that opportunity to stand and draw as it came around broadside at 17 yards. Complete pass through that I actually captured on two different cameras, but haven't had time to edit the video yet. It wasn't getting dark up there until 1100 each night, so by the time we all gathered up for the evening to start retrieving bears it was about 1200. Another lucky hunter in the group shot a nice 7' that same night, and we went in to retrieve his first. By the time we got around to looking for my bear it was close to 0200, and 100 yards of tracking took us to a THICK patch of scrubby pine. We decided to pull out and wait till morning to recover.

Here is where it got interesting. Upon arrival the next morning, we immediately bumped a bear off the bait. By the time we got to where we had left off the night before, someone spotted a bear in the thick brush that wandered off. 50 yards into the patch of scrub pines, we found my bear. To my dismay, something had already been snacking on it. Chewing through the rib cage and pulling out some guts. Still, cape wasn't in too bad of shape and we got it in position to snap some pictures.



As we are getting some pictures, somebody yells "Bear! And he is coming this way". A quick scramble for the only gun we were carrying, and then decided what a great opportunity for pictues his would be! I quickly noticed this was the same bear I'd already seen a couple times, and had already rubbed off most of his winter hide. He had been in there eating the bear I had shot, and wasn't going to give it up easily.





Here is an awesome bear photobomb I took of my boy Codi Northam when this guy was coming in.


I also have a lot more video of the event, but here is a short clip I have so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKTX9B53qFI

After several attempts to scare him off, he kept returning. The only thing that finally worked was cutting some guts out of the dead bear and throwing them in his direction. My buddy actually hit the bear in the head with bear guts at 5 yards.

Finally, after all the excitement, four of us were able to get my bear out of danger and into a spot to take a few more pictures. Here is the livin the dream bear extraction team photo.



My bear squared 6'4", which is about average for up there. Everyone in camp got at least one bear that week, including two that squared over 7'. Joe Rogan got his bear the day after I left, and Cam tagged out for the season a day later. All in all, it was one hell of a week and I look forward to getting back up there again some time soon.

 

[Obi-wanshinobi]

Awesome pictures and congrats on your bear. That must have been intense with the other bear creeping up on you guys.

 

[jlsteel]

That trip looks amazing. Did you know ahead of time Joe and Cam were in your camp? Pretty neat.

Joe is starting to get a lot of internet heat over that bear trip.

 

[charvey9]

That trip looks amazing. Did you know ahead of time Joe and Cam were in your camp? Pretty neat.

Joe is starting to get a lot of internet heat over that bear trip.

I booked pretty early last fall, so John asked if I wanted to be in camp the same week as Cam. Cam and Joe didn't start haning out until more recently, and I found out about Joe getting added about a month ago. I should also put in a plug for Cabela's American Archer TV show that was there filming a hunt. Brian Stephens actually got two bears in one night including a MONSTER over 7' all on film. Four of us could barely move the damn thing. I think the episode should air later this fall. Several TV shows actually filmed at the Rivet's this season, but I don't know them all. Luke Bryan was also up there a few weeks ago.

I just got kind of lucky to fall into a camp with all these guys. I will say that both Joe and Cam are awesome guys, and very down to earth. Joe is hillarious, and has no filter....but exactly the type of guy we should be proud to have representing hunters. He spent just about every free moment in camp shooting his bow. He could have easily avoided pictures and sharing of his bear harvest in order to avoid all the criticism, but chose take it all head on. Proud to see him do that, because I know he is getting a lot of hate from "fans".

 

[charvey9]

Awesome pictures and congrats on your bear. That must have been intense with the other bear creeping up on you guys.

It was pretty awesome. I think the highlight of everyone's trip. In hindsight my only regret was not shooting that bear right there while it was trying to eat mine. His coat was already rubbed off, but would have made an awesome story to have my bear and the bear that ate it hanging on my wall.

This guy was an ornery bastard, and tried climbing my tree twice on different nights. On the first night he would not leave the bait no matter how much noise I made or what I threw at him. I finally decided to climb down and was on the ground with him at 13 yards at just about dark. He put his paws up on the barrel and watched me, and I just kept my light shining in his eyes so he could not tell I was backing away. I made it out to the road that night, and then hiked another few hundred yards up the road waiting for my ride.

 

[fillthefreezer]

what a trip it looked to be. congrats