WEBVTT - British Columbia Black Bear 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.640 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network powered by 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:08.520 Interstate Batteries from your truck to your trail camera. Interstate 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.480 Batteries as you covered. Visit your local Interstate Batteries store 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:17.880 today or online at Interstate Batteries dot com. Interstate Batteries 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:31.880 Outrageously Dependable. My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.520 of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.880 host into the world of hunting the icon of North 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:43.400 American wilderness and bear We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:45.840 that will also bring you into some of the wildest 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:56.920 country on the planet. Chasing band. So we are on 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.440 a bear hunt. I believe the day eight is May 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:14.400 May the nineteenth, May seventeen, and we are in it's 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.080 I think we've been in camp for five days. Maybe 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:18.959 this is a sixth day. This is a sixth day 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.000 that we've been in camp. And we are in the 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:26.839 coast mountains of British Columbia, Canada, and we're with Devin 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:35.000 Jewel of Pacific Bear Outfitters. Myself and my long time 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.520 really great friend Daniel Rupe is here and so Devin 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:45.039 Jewels here, Daniel Rupe is here. We're sitting in a 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:52.960 wall tent camp slash tarp camp with the soft wood 0:01:53.040 --> 0:02:01.440 Canadian fire crackling in the near well close, so we're 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.800 being warned by the fire. I would say it's in 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.520 the high sixties and we have so we've been bear 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:17.400 hunting and I don't spoiler alert. There are two bear hides, 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:22.720 salted bear hides within about twelve ft of us to 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:30.960 our northwest. Totally made up that direction, but no. So 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.120 this is this is a really unique hunt for Daniel 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.840 and I. I've hunted with Devon in me and my 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:42.200 father in law came up here in Daniel w Roupe 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:49.200 has been. He has been out of the country Wild Wild, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.680 Daniel Wild Group has been. He's been out of the 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.720 country for over ten years, working out of the country. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:02.560 He and his family, and so they were back in 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:04.959 the States. They planned a trip back to the States 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:10.680 for a couple of months several years ago and we said, 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:14.600 I said, Dan, you got to go spring bear hunting 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:22.120 with me. But before that, in two thousand and seven ish, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.839 when Daniel and his family were planning to go overseas 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:32.440 long term, what did we say, Dan in seen ten 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.200 years from then right, man, let's go bear hunting. What 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.040 if we went bear hunting in Canada? Well, we actually 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:49.320 said Alaska. I messed up this story, no, so but 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:54.000 remember saying we're gonna go bear hunt in And what's 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:59.080 what's cool about that is that at that at that time, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:01.600 I mean, that was like the first it might as 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.360 we might as well have said, because neither one of 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.200 us were in their position to go on a bear hunt. 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:11.880 And it's interesting. I wasn't doing bear Hunting magazine. I 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.840 had not started the Arkansas Black Bear Association with your health. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:19.359 I didn't even know if you lived that long. True, 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:25.680 I'm just I was just tottering away. So so back 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:27.640 then we were like, we're going on a bear hunt 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.960 in and we were like yes, and then here it 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:36.200 is and it has here we are, here we are. 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:42.440 And so a little history of Dan and I. So 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.000 we grew up in towns close to one another, but 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.440 we didn't really meet until we went to college and uh, 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:54.000 we're both were married and our families met, and then 0:04:55.520 --> 0:05:03.520 Dan started bow hunting with me. So how that, um, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.320 I think for me just being buddies and I remember 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.040 being buddies of you and hearing you tell these stories 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.479 about hunting and it was just so much fun. I thought, Man, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.279 I would love to do that. And I never really 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:19.080 had the chance to do anything like that for whatever reason. Um, 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:23.760 but my wife bought me a bow for my birthday, 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.320 and um we were living and I was in grad 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.760 school in Kentucky and I had a week long fall break. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:38.279 It was in November of two thousand and three. Shepherd 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:43.839 new ed Yes, two thousand three November, had a week 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.599 and flew back to Arkansas and we went to Madison 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:55.800 County and Wildlife Management aream and Clay took me down 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.920 to this little shelf on the side of an Ozark mountain, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.600 put me up on a big old pine tree, and uh, 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.280 I've never been the same. Yeah, you ruined me. It was. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.200 It was your first bow hunt ever, first bow hunt ever. First. 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.680 I had gone deer hunt one time with another buddy, 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.159 but he wasn't as good as a buddy as you were. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:27.440 You never even told me that. Look at the side 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:32.479 of those bear HUDs. Devin is gonna continually bring up 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:37.560 the fact that there's some big bear hunts. Oh my goodness. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.360 So hey, back back to the Madison County story though, 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:46.080 So first, his first bow hunt of all time and 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.600 put him up in a climbing tree stand click clack, 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.359 click cluck, click clut way up in the tree everything. 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:53.000 I had no idea what I was doing. I don't 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.080 know if you remember, but when I going up the tree, 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.760 I remember pulling up my bow and I couldn't. I 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:02.760 thought the bow was gonna fall off the string. I 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.680 I didn't know anything. At one point, I think I 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.160 knocked an arrow and the arrow kind of slid out 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:14.520 of the rest. I didn't have a whisker biscuits, so 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:21.880 and then actually, I my bow I didn't really fit me. 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.560 So I shot out of my left eye to get 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:31.000 my left exactly, you know, which, Maybe I should go 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.320 back to you. Worked out pretty good. It worked out okay, 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.760 But I mean everything, Clay put me in the stand. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.680 I remember you saying, if if Doe come through, don't 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:43.880 shoot him because a buck might be behind him. And 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.240 these two dog came through, and it's like your little 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:53.120 voices in my head, so don't choose, don't don't shoot, 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.640 And sure enough here came Uh. What I thought was 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.480 it's not a huge but a medium, little little six 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:06.560 point buck came in, seven point seven pointer man I 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:08.840 pulled back on and he walked down and touched his 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.840 nose to the base of my tree and then turned around. 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.040 He must have not liked my tree, and he turned 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.960 right around and walked out the other way. As he 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.640 was walking away, he turned around and looked back and 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.760 we locked eyes, got him put an arrow in his neck. 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.640 And so this was this was such an iconic moment 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.480 because I come back and there was another good friend 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.040 with us. We come back and Dan's like, I killed one, 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.040 and so we track it and we actually had an 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:42.199 old video camera that we we used to film the recovery, 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:47.920 and and that that piece of footage is kind of legendary. 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.800 It's deep in the archives, deep in the archives. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:57.120 And I'm actually planning to dig it up and maybe 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.600 use it on the episode of Bear Horizon that your 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.760 Bear Hunt's gonna be on. So then I have a 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.319 a fun history. But then, like right about the time 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:13.800 we started hunting, you kind of deserted me. You went 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:19.920 to Kentucky, you went to places far far away, and 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.680 so we it's we've it's not like we've hunted every 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.400 year together anything, but that's so that's why that's not 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.800 so cool. Because we get to go. We've we've we're 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.920 on a seven day hunt British Columbia. First of all, 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.640 I kind of want to just just describe this scenario 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:44.280 for those who may not understand the big world of 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.800 black bear hunting. But British Columbia is kind of a 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.640 el primo destination for black bear because of the size 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:57.120 of bears, but probably even more so because of the 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.480 epic nous of the landscape in many places. We're in 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.880 the coast mountains. So the coast mountains basically start at 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:12.040 near the Pacific coast at near sea level. M my correct, Yeah, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.520 they stayed at sea level, and so what's unique about 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.720 them is they start at sea level and what's the 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:22.840 biggest mountain that we've seen Probably nine thout the biggest 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.680 one we've seen right there. Okay, so what's cool is 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.240 they go from sea level to nine thousand feet and 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.760 so these mountains have these massive relief and so relief 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:38.719 would be the actual amount of vertical feet from the 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:40.800 top bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain. 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.560 So like let's say you're in Colorado and you're on 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.079 a mountain that's fifteen thousand feet, Well, the base of 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.200 the mountain may have been at ten thousand feet, so 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:50.720 the mountain only looks like it's five thousand feet tall. 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.720 But you get the point there. They're spectacular mountains, so 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.720 almost any direction that you look, I mean like you 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:02.040 go around a corner and you're looking at the snow 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:08.040 capped mountains, but you're down in these lush, thick, forested, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:15.319 moss covered, big tree, big, fast moving glacial river valleys. 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.960 It really does look like Lord of the Rings. It 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:22.560 looks like Lord of the Rings. Yeah, And so in 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:28.000 the world of Canadian bear hunting, there's really no rivalry 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:29.640 for a place to black bear. When it comes to 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:35.520 epic beauty, just sheer beauty. All the other provinces um 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:41.360 are well, I'm not gonna beauty is found everywhere, truly is, 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.360 but just in terms of grand scale every beauty. So 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.640 the way, let's see, do we want to say anything 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:54.240 else about I'll say something. Being from the south, so 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.840 we live in Arkansas, most of our large rivers are 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:04.200 slow moving rivers because the elevation change between point A 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.840 in point b is is yeah, is small, and so 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.079 you might have this big like like the Arkansas River. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.560 We crossed the Arkansas River. Often it's a big river. 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.720 I mean it's like half mile across in some places, 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.280 but it's muddy and it's fairly slow moving. I mean, 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.920 you don't see like white cap. So when I come 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.800 up here, we see these rivers, which this river is 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:30.440 not like a half mile across. This river might be 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:37.040 like a hundred hundred yards across in some places, bigger 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:42.560 in some places, even begger. But this is like white cap, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:47.480 white water, fast moving water all the way through. So 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:52.040 you're just I'm I'm impressed with the volume of water 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.800 coming out of these mountains. Let's talk about where the 0:12:54.800 --> 0:13:01.360 water comes from. There are waterfalls everywhere. So Dan and 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.440 I every time we pass the waterfall would be like, 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.760 that'd be a state park in Arkansas. They'd make that 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.480 what did you say, they would make that one up 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.280 unesca World Heritage site right there, and I think it 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.040 was a drainage ditch. Yeah. Yeah. We drive past like 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.880 a little crevice in the mountain and there's this like waterfall. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:23.560 I mean like literally you could see cascading water for 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.719 two feet, not like a vertical drop, but like like 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.240 a thirty foot fall hits a rock and then I 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:35.439 mean just spectacular waterfalls all coming out of these white 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.040 Cap mountains. So above these waterfalls, these white Cap mountains, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.680 you can yesterday just randomly we got at the trucks 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:48.840 of glass and across the valley there were three huge 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:54.080 waterfalls just so just beautiful the water work to this 0:13:54.160 --> 0:14:01.280 place or spectacular. So the way, let's any anything else 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:07.319 about anything else we want to describe Devon. This is 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:12.640 where you live, man. Lots of trees, a whole lot 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.240 of so that's actually that's another thing is just for me, 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.240 the scale of everything and the scale of the trees. 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:24.000 So again co Clay lives up in northwest Arkansas. I'm 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.880 down the river, yes, amen. And the trees, you know, 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.760 the like the trees on my family's farm. A huge tree, 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:38.120 you know, fifty maybe seventy five tall. Um there uh, 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.080 a medium tree here is twice that size. And I 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.600 think looking through the binoculars and just looking out over 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:50.560 this vast uh watershed valley and and seeing all these 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:56.120 different features that you're describing, and everything is just so big, 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.800 just huge, And that's actually a in our bear hunting 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.680 has been calibrate. We've had to calibrate our eyes to 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.880 the scale. It took us a few days. Are a 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.960 few times of glassing when we were glassing for these bears. 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:15.680 I don't and I'm going to get into the way 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.520 that we hunted, but basically Dan and I were looking 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.720 for bears that would have been the size of like 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.840 school busses. And Devin would be like, there's a bear 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.120 right in the middle of that that block, and we'd 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:30.240 be like what, and he'd be like, there it is. 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:31.880 He tell us where it was. We'd look at it 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.320 and it would look like a speck of pepper. Dan 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.560 and I were thinking it was gonna look like I 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.840 mean like three times four times is big, and I 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.640 think what was it would take you. Devin would see 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:51.120 it almost immediately, you know, we just pause and parked 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.440 the truck for a second, hid whip up his binoculars, 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.280 and oh, there's one in that cut block, this area 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.520 where they had cut a bunch of trees down the 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.800 logging had cut some tree And it would literally take 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.440 me five minutes to find it. In the first few times, 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.640 he would you tell me right where it was, right 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:11.800 and you see that shadow, you see that tree, and 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:16.760 I just couldn't even find him. They're just so right, Yeah, yeah, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:22.960 so Devin describe to me the so like down down 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.480 low with the lower elevations, it's almost like rainforest here. Yeah. 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.760 So the way the rain shadow works is obviously the 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:35.720 Pacific Ocean influences the weather. So we have a mountain 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.400 range running north south, so as the weather comes in 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.720 and hits the west side of the mountain range and 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.360 continually just like dumping water on it. So you just 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:48.040 get more growth, right, more berries, more trees, more or 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.560 anything that's gonna grow, gets just way more water than 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.360 the east side of the mountain range. You get almost 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.760 like a desert condition because the water is always on 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:59.520 the west side, so it really even with snow and everything, 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.240 or just way more Yeah, on the west side of 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.000 the mountain. We're on the west side of the mountain range. 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:11.440 Yet that translates where there's more food, where there's more resource, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.480 where there's more nutrients. That translates into more of our animals, instant, 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.879 more bears and bigger bears. That's where they've got. So 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:25.360 you live though, on the on the east side where 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.639 it's dry, about six seven hours from here, six seven 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:30.359 hours from here, so we just come down for our 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:36.679 hunting seasons. The guy yeah, and so back over in 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:41.560 your part of the world historically has been big mule 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.080 deer country, big mule deer country, pretty good moose country, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:47.960 and I mean there's bears there too, but not to 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:52.119 the densities we see on the coast side. So Devon 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:59.320 and his wife, they're like British Colombian folk. And I'm 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.280 not sure how great a hunter Devon is, but we 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.120 know his wife is a great hunter. She I can 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:11.520 definitely vouch for her. So yeah, Well, so Devon and 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:16.320 Ashley flew in last year to a place in northern 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:21.159 BC and Devon killed a sixty four inch Canada moose, which, 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:26.879 for those who don't understand, that's a massive Canada moose. 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.520 I mean, he's not had it officially scored yet, but 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.879 pretty certain that it would make the all time Boone 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:38.040 Crockett record. So I mean, so, I mean, so the 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:41.840 way moose work is that Yukon moose are the biggest moose. 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:47.600 Yukon moose live in Alaska and the Yukon Northwest territories. Yeah, 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.160 and so those moose can I mean, the sixtien Yukon 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.880 moose is a massive moose. Heck yeah, they can get 0:18:54.960 --> 0:19:01.160 up to seventy. Yeah, so but Canada moose tipa, most 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.080 people are shooting Canada moose are shooting forty to fifty 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:06.919 in moose, right, Well, yeah, you'd like to see a 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.840 benchmark of fifty. I guess in the northern part of 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:14.840 this is a big moose. Yeah. So anyway, Devin Devon 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.600 shot at sixty four in moose last fall. So it's 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.680 a Devon's a no. Devon is an accomplished, very very 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:28.120 accomplished big game northern hunter. He and he's a he's 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.919 a guy in the gods in the Arctic. Uh and 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:40.880 this guy in northern British Columbia for stone, sheep, doll sheep, everything, yep, caribou, moose. Yeah. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.440 So now when you're with Devin, it really is neat 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.800 because he's he's a just a just a veteran northern 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:52.959 big game hunter and so it's always it always kind 0:19:52.960 --> 0:20:01.520 of it's fun to hear those stories. So so when 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:08.040 we're hunting here in British Columbia, there's primarily two ways 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.320 that we're hunting these bears. I mean, basically, these barriers 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.000 have come out of dinning. They've been out of the 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:18.520 den for a while now. At this point. Yeah, so 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.840 maybe like mid April, they're starting roaming around, so there's 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.120 lots of green vegetation, there's lots for him to eat. 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:27.879 But one of the primary food sources this time of 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:32.439 year is a plant called fireweed. And we have learned 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.800 that fireweed. It's it's just kind of like a two 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:39.240 foot tall plant, just you would just think it was 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.040 a weed. It was in your yard, you spread with the 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.240 the round up. But if it was in my yard, 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:46.919 I would pick the tops off and make a salad 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:52.359 because it's good. We've been eating fireweed this week and 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:57.440 devon uh carries ranch dressing with him everywhere he goes. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.960 So this cli can eat fireweeds. No, I'm We're just kidding, 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.719 but we did eat something. It tast really good. So 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:12.439 there's two ways that we're hunting the roadways. Roadways in 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:15.639 this part of the world lust sunlight to hit the 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:19.880 forest floor and so the ditches grow fireweed and clover 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.320 and just different vegetation the bears reading. So in this 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.800 dense forested region, roadways are an attractor for bears, so 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.359 the bears want to be on the roadways. These roadways 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.200 are like forestry roads that have very little vehicle traffic 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.520 on it. But some of them might be big, nice roads, 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.560 but you could walk on that road for a day 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.280 and never see a vehicle. They're they're so good because 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:48.000 of the four stry Logging basically built these roads. So 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.320 one thing that we did, and we did this on 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.320 Dan's Bear, is that you walk these roads and you 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:57.159 see bear scat where these bears are feeding. So you 0:21:57.240 --> 0:21:59.640 might walk a stretch of road that's a half mile 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:04.960 long on and find ten or twelve piles of bear 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:09.800 scauting the road, see grazed fireweed, and you're like, there's 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:13.440 a bear here the road. See tracks in the dirt 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:18.919 on the road. And so what you'll do is you'll 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.879 wait till the wind currents are favorable, which typically the 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:27.560 wind currents that Devon is using is the thermals. So 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:29.760 late in the evening after the sun is set, the 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:34.119 thermals are moving down and then most the rest of 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.680 the day they're moving So you kind of got to 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:39.840 be strategic how you walk these roads. But basically you 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.080 walk these roads and just kind of creeping around the 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:49.560 corners looking and you'll see bears in the road. So 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.560 on this hunt, well we'll let me go ahead and 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:57.560 just say we walk roads. And then the second way 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:03.480 that we're hunting is that densely forested region. The forestry 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:10.040 practices here are really unique. Like in Arkansas, we have 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:13.560 what we call clear cuts, and they just take square 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.680 blocks of land and just like cut everything. And there's 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.400 some selective cutting. There's a lot of forests here. It's 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:24.720 much more regulated and like, so there would be this 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:29.240 huge mountain covered in trees and there'll be an irregular 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:33.879 shape maybe if it could be five acres or it 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:38.639 could be acres that will be cut. And inside of 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:43.600 that cut there'll be islands of trees left for bird sanctuaries, 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:46.520 there will be strips of trees left down drainages, and 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:51.000 so you have this like patchwork opening. And the first 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:54.920 year that they make a cut, it's not that good. 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:57.760 But the second year, when the fire weed comes in 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:01.920 or and or clovers, it is super hot for bear 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:04.800 and so we're looking for a second year. Second year 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:07.399 cuts are prime. Third year is good, but second is 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:09.919 like prime. And then once they get much older than 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:11.800 that fourth they drop off big time. You know, you 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:17.200 don't seem anything sapling start, just that new lush growth 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:22.240 is just waned right, And so like in Devon's hunting area, 0:24:22.400 --> 0:24:26.040 every year there's new cuts and so like this year 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:29.280 we're watching loggers cut, and so in Devin, you know, 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:32.280 Devin's like, well next year that would be good. And 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:37.560 so it's like this constantly rotating cyclic change. Yeah, so 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:40.000 it's good that way, you're always into new areas to 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:42.960 hunt different values for bear, right, So it kind of 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:47.879 spreads out the pressure to Yeah, in this area is 0:24:47.920 --> 0:24:52.760 a thousand square miles, so you know, we're driving as 0:24:52.800 --> 0:24:55.240 far as two hours to go and hunt from camp 0:24:55.920 --> 0:24:59.159 closer in our case, but as much as when I 0:24:59.200 --> 0:25:01.000 was here, so we're years ago. I mean we were 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:03.600 driving like two hours to go ahead. So he's trying 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:06.560 to spread out the pressure across this vast area so 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:10.159 that he's hunting you know, old mature males that's working. 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:14.199 So so there's two ways. So we're hunting on the 0:25:14.280 --> 0:25:17.119 roads where we're also hunting these cut blocks, and some 0:25:17.200 --> 0:25:20.080 of these cut blocks are helicopter cut blocks, which means 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:24.240 they dropped Well I don't know if the largers walk 0:25:24.280 --> 0:25:26.320 in if they're dropped in, but basically it will be 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:29.919 this island with no roads to it, like in the 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:36.480 side of the steep forty degree mountain and those places 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:40.000 are great but hard to get to. Most have roads. 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:42.399 Most of these cut blocks have roads that you can 0:25:42.440 --> 0:25:44.719 get to. And so when you're hunting these cut blocks, 0:25:44.880 --> 0:25:48.119 you're just getting in there and glass them or trying 0:25:48.119 --> 0:25:50.239 to get away from them to glass them to right 0:25:50.320 --> 0:25:53.399 across the vala. A lot of times the best place 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:55.919 to glass is not in the cut, but it's on 0:25:55.960 --> 0:25:59.280 the other mountain looking into the cut. And we did 0:25:59.320 --> 0:26:02.280 that too. I saw a bear from like two miles 0:26:02.320 --> 0:26:06.840 away and then moved in and just got right on it. 0:26:06.880 --> 0:26:10.000 And we'll talk about that in a second. But so 0:26:10.000 --> 0:26:13.840 it's fun, so you're you're you're moving around, but it 0:26:13.880 --> 0:26:17.000 can also be a lot of work. So on the 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:21.160 first so on this hunt, Dan was up to bat first. 0:26:21.200 --> 0:26:24.199 So our plan was two on one deal and so 0:26:24.240 --> 0:26:30.320 I was I was filming them. And so the first 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:35.520 day when we arrived, what do we do? First day 0:26:35.600 --> 0:26:38.840 we arrived, we we got to camp the night before, 0:26:39.040 --> 0:26:42.320 real late, I don't know what time, um, but we 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:46.399 slept in good, super comfortable, had a great breakfast, Dave 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:51.880 cook and everything else just always feeds us real good. 0:26:51.880 --> 0:26:54.640 And then we got in the truck and went out 0:26:54.720 --> 0:27:01.200 pray by mid afternoon, drove an hour and there road. 0:27:03.400 --> 0:27:07.119 I mean, you're gonna see the occasional logging truck, but 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:10.680 I mean you see nobody out of it. It's just wilderness. Um. 0:27:11.280 --> 0:27:15.640 So drove for an occasional burnt car with bullet hole 0:27:16.280 --> 0:27:20.679 with bullet holes in it. Don't be that guy. Um. 0:27:20.760 --> 0:27:24.120 And then we got out and we hiked, hiked the road, 0:27:24.280 --> 0:27:28.520 hiked the roadway up this, up one kind of spur 0:27:28.880 --> 0:27:32.879 valley off of the big valley that that Devon runs 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:40.000 and um hiked for about six miles in would you say, yeah? Yeah, 0:27:40.280 --> 0:27:43.520 And the whole time, you know, Devin's super knowledgeable. And 0:27:43.560 --> 0:27:46.280