Spring Bear Act II

by: Tom Sorenson

Scene 1
Setting: The same daunting mountain as Act I. The sky is clear, the temperatures unseasonably warm. Our hunter, Tom, has farmed out the kid to Grandma and Grandpa, and is taking his wife, Shanna, up the mountain in search of a black bear.
Tom: Don’t worry, we’re only going to hike a little ways. We’ll mostly be predator calling.

Shanna (hesitantly): Right. I know better than that. We can’t be too late – I already miss my boy.

Tom: Right. Don’t worry, we won’t stay too late.

Shanna: Uh huh. I know better than that.

The day is perfect. A clear, cloudless day, and we’re pleasantly surprised to see such thick grass growing on the south facing slopes. As we begin our hike, we hit the ridge top and immediately begin hearing the soft grunts of bears in the brush below.

Tom: You hear that?

Shanna: Yeah – what is it?

Tom: I don’t know – I think bears make that sound.

Shanna: You make that sound sometimes.

Tom: I know, it’s not me, though. Promise.  Not this time, at least.

After hiking along the ridge, we continue to hear the grunting. It’s hopeless to chase after the bears in the brush, so we attempt to call them out with fawn in distress calls. On the fourth or fifth setup, after 15 minutes of calling, we spot movement just 50 yards away. Shanna is running the video camera, Tom attempts to operate with the rifle:

Tom and Shanna at the same time: Coyote!

Tom: Are you on him?

Shanna: I can’t see him.

Tom (panicked): He’s right there!

Shanna: I know!

Tom: But you can’t see him?

Shanna: Not through the viewfinder.

The coyote begins to run, so Tom whistles and the coyote stops.

Tom: Are you on him?

Shanna: No.

Tom (panicked again): Now?

Shanna: I can’t find him.

Tom shoots. The coyote, scared, but unharmed, turns and runs full speed from right to left, now at about 150 yards. Tom shoots again, and hits the coyote in the hind quarters. Two more shots and the coyote goes spinning out of sight.

Tom: I hit him on the run! Did you see that?!

Shanna: Nope.

Tom: Did you get any of that?

Shanna: I don’t think so.

Tom: Well, let’s go down and find him so we can get pictures at least.

The search for the coyote figured to be short. It wasn’t. The coyote must have made it into the brush, and was never recovered. Proof of Tom’s running shot vanished due to lack of video evidence (later it was found that the video camera was malfunctioning anyways) and proof of even hitting the coyote vanished due to lack of a recovery.

All in all, it was a great time to be in the mountains – a much better experience than two weeks ago when 4-6 inches of fresh snow blanketed the ground. It was wonderful to spend an enjoyable day in the mountains with my wife – despite what the dramatized version above would appear.  We did hike a bit further that Shanna probably wanted, but she did a great job. Unfortunately because of the malfunctioning camera, we didn’t get any footage of the hundreds of deer and three herds of elk we saw. If anyone has any idea as to what the noise we heard in the brush might be – I’d like to hear it. It sounding sort of like a dog with a sore throat – sort of a woof, but not really. We heard it frequently throughout the day – several times pretty close, but always coming from the thick brush. I can’t think of what else it could be except a bear. Looking forward to Act III.