Bob Marshall vs LOLO Forest 🌳Spring Bear

[Wildatheart]

Hey Guys,

Any of you that have had experience in these regions if you were to choose based on the fact of black bear population, access, and pressure, also glassing and slopes , etc. which route do you think you would take? I have narrowed my spring week long hunt to these 2 areas based on my research from FWP and local buddies in the area. Btw, onX hunt maps have some nice data on fresh clear cuts and the years they were cut on one of the map layers for Montana state/national forest. Seems to me pretty handy tool for narrowing down these critters.

 

[rileybassman]

The bob is cool but big - are you going in with horses? you will run into both flavors of bears there.

 

[Wildatheart]

I don’t think I’m going to have access with horses. That may change, that’s another concern I’ll be hiking it it looks like. I hate to hire an outfitter to pack me in.. it looked like Lolo was a little more accessible via foot.. but I’ve mouth watered over the bob for a while.

 

[idahohikker]

Wilderness areas often have lower game populations and brutal terrain. Applies with the Bob and others. Nonresidents dream about them but there's often better options available.

 

[bluetick78]

Way less Endangered bears in Lolo. Plus there's lots of color phase blackies there too. Biggest blonde bear I've ever seen was in the Lolo NF, never got to hang it's rug on my wall but I'll be back there every spring for the rest of my life looking for another one of those.

 

[Wildatheart]

Thats good to know guys. From what I gathered ill be tromping around for a few days in the LOLO. Still have to study some maps and find access points but doesn't seem to difficult to access from what I see. Color phase is always a plus super excited about that opportunity.

 

[Wildatheart]

Do you happen to know if any roads are open the first week of May? I’m seeing on the maps that most of them are opening May 16th. I’m only going to be available to be in the area the 7-11.

 

[black dawg]

most roads are supposed to be open may 1st, sometimes they leave them closed another week or two because of snow. A lot of them wont be passable with pickup (up high) until after the first week of june. Where are you seeing opening may 16th? If you can have certain areas in mind, I probably can tell you when the road will be open and snow levels to expect

 

[Wildatheart]

Awesome! Thank you for that information.. I downloaded some maps off Game & Fish website into my Avenza maps app and on the legend it was showing road openings.. which I just realized may not be updated or that accurate.. I remember when I was living in Helena we typically would have enough access into most forest in April early May to chase bear.

When I get some time I’ll dig into those maps and see which areas I’ll be in and maybe that can narrow it down.

 

[MtnBum]

I’ve wanted to hunt the bob for awhile now, really wanted to do the early season rifle hunt but after planning it all out on where I wanted to be I came to realize I would need horses to do it the right way. I didn’t want to believe that you had to have horses to get it done because I’m hard headed but after talking to enough ppl I figure I need to make friends with someone who has horses/mules or start saving to have someone fly me into the bob lol. If you could give some feedback on how your hunt goes in lolo that would be awesome. I had my wedding at the saloon/lodge in lolo and I’ve always wanted to go back there to hunt it! I shot a pretty chocolate bear opening weekend of general season while out elk hunting. It ended up passing in its den resulting in me having to retrieve it from the den. I hope that never happens again! Good luck to you on your hunt, be safe, and hope you come out with some meat!

 

[Wildatheart]

I will for sure let you know!! I’ll also let you know all the mistakes I made while out there and the pros. Very excited to get back to the state in general but super pumped about spending some time out in the lolo.