Bear on the brain
BY AMANDA LYNN MAYHEW
For Wild Northerner
I am absolutely addicted to bear hunting. There are so many different ways to participate in the bear hunt and it is never less than adrenalizing. In act, I am writing this at bear camp (where I am a partner at Adrenaline Bear Hunts) on the opening of the fall bear hunt in northern Ontario while on a quick lunch break because all I can think about is what if - what if something is going to go visit my spot while I am not there? The bear hunt takes over my mind and every thought, thinking of different ways to think like a bear, eat like a bear and move like a bear. I notice when I am in my spot, whether on the ground or in a stand or even walking that my breathing gets shallow and sometimes I forget to breathe. I also am hunting with fractured ribs this season so deep breathing is important to avoid complications with pneumonia, so 'to breathe or not to breathe'.
I have been bear hunting for as long as I can remember and have harvested many bears in different situations, but each one was as exciting as the next. One instance I took a bear in seven seconds. I watched him walk in, watched him head right to the bait as I got off my stool, hit record on my video camera that I so carefully set up, snuck back over to my chair, knowing he was getting out of there fast, I had seconds to grab my Grandfather's 30.06 Weatherby and line it up with the bear and pull the trigger. He jumped up and went down about 30 yards away, had I not moved that quickly he would have been gone in a few steps.