The Search for a Bruin

By: Chase Galley
​​I recently spent a week in the “backcountry” of Wyoming looking for bears. I have backcountry in quotations because I was very limited by the amount of snow still in the mountains. I spent my first couple of days just driving around trying to figure out what trails I had access to, as well as identifying the low hanging fruit that I could look at first.
 
With a lot of the roads still snowed in and not being able to access the trails I wanted to right away, I took a more popular approach to trying to find a bear in the spring. At least more popular for a spot and stalk strategy.  I spent the first two days opening up our family cabin and getting everything ready for the summer cabin season. I then hunted down a snowed in road on the third day of the trip. 
 
I love this time of year in the mountains. Although bear hunting can be very frustrating and downright cruel sometimes, it’s an amazing sight to watch life comeback to the mountains after a cold harsh winter. I think part of the attraction to spot and stalk bear hunt is to get to see more of the mountains. It is absolutely breath taking, with half of the mountains still in hibernation and the other half full of life.
 
Sorry I got a little sidetracked. Anyway, that third day I hunted down a road that no one had driven down yet that spring and sure enough I found a bear! The challenge was that he was about 2 miles past the end of the road at the head of a drainage. I made the short walk to the side by side, resupplied, and, lucky for me, I was able to drive around the drifts that were in the road, and reached the trail head. I made the mile and a half hike to where I thought the bear went, but turns out I had mistaken which clear cut I saw the bear go in. Things got really interesting before I even got where I was headed.
 
I got about a quarter of the way there and bam! A fresh cut bear track and bed underneath a live pine tree on an old logging landing that survived through the large forest fire that swept through the area a couple years back. I myself forgot how far it felt hiking in and after a couple of years, with snowdrifts thrown in, it was a pain.
 
Anyway, I started tracking this bear and walking in his steps to try and limit noise but make the walking a little easier. As I approached the end of the road, I could see something black through a couple of pine trees and thought to myself “what the hell is that”? I got ready because I thought that had to be him; I assumed him because the bear was alone. As I came around the tree and broke through the snow, we both saw each other at the same time. Before I could get my gun up, he was gone. I fought out of the snow just to see him run over the ridge and out of my life forever.
 
I stayed at that landing for about six hours glassing and only seeing one bull elk after that. On the hike out, I did see a big herd of elk that had nine branch antlered bulls in it which was encouraging and made the hike even more worth it.
 
The rest of the week was very slow I might add. I didn’t see another bear until Saturday when my friend Tanner arrived for the hunt. So, I will just skip ahead as the middle of the week was quite boring. We checked some more roads, hiked back in to that previous spot (where I saw the bear) a couple of times, we saw some deer, checked the bait, saw a lot more elk, and drank some beer. 
 
Unfortunately, I also had to replace the alternator on my truck Friday afternoon. Lucky for me my dad and brother decided to come up for the night and help finish up some other cabin tasks. They were able to bring me an alternator and I was back in business.
 
Saturday morning everyone woke up (my Dad, Grandpa, Tanner, my brother Cooper and me) and ate breakfast. Once Tanner and I ate we left and headed to the only spot up to that point I had seen a bear. We made it about halfway and took a little break to glass and try and stay out of the snow. As we were getting ready to head up to the top, I took one last look and there was a bear making his way down a finger ridge to get out of the snow.
 
We packed up our stuff and moved up the ridge about 400 yards to an area I thought we might be able to get a shot. We got to that spot and the bear was nowhere to be seen but we could tell he was in the bottom as he spooked some elk, and they were watching him down below. If that was true, we followed the eyes of the elk and moved to the head of the drainage hoping to cut the bear off as he was traveling. We sat at the landing looking over the drainage for about 4 hours and finally decided to head out and get something to eat and figure out what to do that night.
 
After we headed back to the cabin and ate some classic biscuits and gravy, we set out for a new drainage that we thought that bear may have ended up in. Sadly, we were wrong. But saw a goose nest, Tanner fell in the creek; we saw some more elk, and a lot more bear sign. 
 
That’s basically it pretty quick little run down of the evening and middle of the week. I would have touched more on Tanner falling in the creek, but I don’t think he would like that very much. Pretty boring but extremely fun, relaxing, and a much needed week in the mountains. 
 
If there is something you would like to see us write about, contact us and we will try and make it happen.