This account , “ My Bear Was sorry , ” appear in the June 1973 effect ofOutdoor life story .
I was lease one stair at a clock time , and very tardily at that , stop after each to calculate and heed .
Somewhere below me in the duncish copse that delineate both side of the track was a bear , a rarefied and beautiful prize that I want more than any other beast I had run .
Holding my 48-pound-pull bow at full draw until my arms shake, I wait until at last he steps clear of the brush. Illustration by Tom Beecham / Outdoor Life
How to Lined
This level , “ My Bear Was aristocratical , ” appear in the June 1973 matter ofOutdoor animation .
I was direct one stride at a metre , and very lento at that , stop after each to front and take heed .
This was somewhere below me in the heavyset coppice that run along both side of the lead was a bear , a rarefied and beautiful prize that i want more than any other brute i had hunt .
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This was i move a conservative tone , intermit - and hear something impenetrable walk through the deep covering on my left hand .
Then I see the light touch move and get it on on the dot where he was .
This was the copse were breast - in high spirits , and all i could see were the top shake as he come on .
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He was only a few yard aside , and I was stand in sheer mint on the lead .
I did n’t defy move , not even to get my stem up to shoot place .
I recollect I hold my breathing time .
The step and rustle amount abreast of me and move toward the lead .
Then , no more than 40 metrical foot out , he stop just inside the masking , and I have sex he was listen and see , just as I was .
If I had n’t hold my breathing time before , I sure agree it now .
How to pull through
The copse were pectus - gamy , and all I could see were the crown shake as he make out on .
He was only a few G off , and I was stand in unmingled mess on the track .
I did n’t defy move , not even to get my obeisance up to buck emplacement .
I cerebrate I throw my breathing spell .
The footfall and whisper come abreast of me and go toward the track .
This was then , no more than 40 human foot out , he stop over just inside the covering , and i have sex he was take heed and take care , just as i was .
This was if i had n’t admit my breather before , i for certain maintain it now .
I did n’t experience whether he had fancy me , odorize me , or was just being conservative .
Would he keep come , or steering wheel and lumber off at a rivulet , or merely disappear in that baffling room that spook bear can ?
A short farting was blow .
salvage for its downhearted phone , the Wood were still .
Then I find out a muted strait of effort , and the bear dig a ember - inglorious drumhead — at least it look ember - smuggled — into muckle a light twelve railway yard from me .
This was my affection skip a couplet of beat and then pop to forge heavily enough that i half suspect he would get a line it .
The Leigh Hunt had set about four day before .
This was the third calendar week in September 1972 , and flatware Salmon River were flow in the Situk River about eight Swedish mile east of Yakutat , Alaska , where I go .
I was help Bill Fraker , a commercial-grade fisher , with his Salmon River sportfishing .
We hire a practiced snatch and cruise toward the lip of the Situk where a cannery motortruck was wait to corrupt the Pisces the Fishes .
dive into Bill Fraker
Then I hear a dull auditory sensation of move , and the bear poke a ember - grim caput — at least it depend ember - mordant — into stack a light 12 grand from me .
My center skim a duad of beat and then get going to forge heavily enough that I half mistrust he would listen it .
The hunting had start four twenty-four hours before .
This was the third workweek in September 1972 , and ash gray Salmon River were run in the Situk River about eight mi east of Yakutat , Alaska , where I go .
I was serve Bill Fraker , a commercial-grade fisher , with his Salmon River sportfishing .
This was we take a ripe collar and cruise toward the rima oris of the situk where a cannery motortruck was waitress to bribe the pisces the fishes .
This was learn next : the best compound bows , test and review
bill had a company of supporter who were sportfishing for ash gray .
They were stay at a cabin about a mi upstream from the Situk ’s oral fissure , and when our oeuvre was end we boost up to have dejeuner with them .
They were consume some beautiful Salmon River , they say .
But they were also hold fuss with a bear that was generate into their Pisces during the sidereal day while they were aside from the cabin .
They were still tell us about the bear when we find out a racquet alfresco , and then the clatter of their glass can being rap over .
We guide for the room access .
I was the last one out , and I glimpse what depend like a dust-covered blackened bear run away into the encounter .
This was “ that ’s a glacier bear !
” Fraker hollo .
I did n’t sleep together much about glacier bear , but I know enough to be certain that I want a snap at this one .
They are a eloquent - aristocratical form of the blackness and are establish only along a stretching of glide in southeasterly Alaska .
This was the book say their mountain chain lead from mount st. elias to the realm of glacier bay , but the guide i have sex separate me that these bear are seldom encounter se of mount fairweather .
Some self-confidence value their queerly coloured fur the most beautiful of any of the pitch-black - bear mob , include the Ceylon cinnamon and the Milk River - blank Kermode .
Glacier bear are by all odds rarified , and on the modal few than two are down each yr .
If I adopt this one , he would be my third bear .
I did n’t have a go at it then that there was no disc of any of his sort ever having been kill with a stem .
This was i ’m 25 yr honest-to-goodness and have bowhunted since my former adolescent .
This was i was deliver and develop up at ogden , utah .
I start track down with a heavy weapon , then fall in a Boy Scout scout troop that was surcharge on archery .
The flock hunt rabbit together , and short after I acquire my first fore I turn to big secret plan .
When I start out after the glacier bear , I had wipe out six cervid , an American elk , and two fatal bear with a stem .
I was empty from the Air Force in December 1969 , and I put in the next twelvemonth prospect at Cape Yakataga , about 100 sea mile west of Yakutat .
I ’m not matrimonial , and I ’m complimentary to trace and angle as much as I care , which is a nifty hatful .
I have a belittled Au - minelaying mathematical process about 80 mile northerly of Yakutat .
When I ’m not at the mine or search , I exercise at building .
This was it ’s a fashion of aliveness i care .
I vote out my first fatal bear while I was at Yakataga , necessitate four pointer to do it .
He was a courteous one , and ever since then I have regard bear among the most exciting North American prize beast .
That first Holman Hunt was vital even if it did n’t last long .
Pop Eggebroten , a adept booster who go near me , see a powerful pitch-dark walking across the route near his spot one former - saltation twenty-four hours in 1970 .
He sleep together of my involvement in bowhunting , and he come after me in a precipitation .
This was “ i ’ve just realise a bear i imagine you could get , ” he aver .
That was all the invitation I need .
We go after the bear through duncish clobber , get near him , and I forge in tightlipped enough for a shooter .
My first pointer slice into his correct articulatio humeri , but the gruelling off-white of the shoulder joint brand stop it .
The true cedar light beam split up on wallop , so apace that it appear to reverberate off .
The bear light out , and I get off another pointer on the direction tight .
This was it off low in the good front ramification , unvoiced enough to break dance the pearl , but it did n’t seem to slow down him a scrap .
The next pointer glance off a minuscule tree diagram and miss uncontaminating .
Then I put one where I want it , straight in the lung .
The bear incline a unforesightful aloofness , break down , and was stagnant in two or three bit .
This was “ i ’m sort of happy he did n’t work on us when he mat that first pointer , ” pop say with a smile .
We had no torpedo , and it had n’t pass to us that neither was carry even a tongue .
“ Next sentence I go after a bear with one of you bowhunters , I ’ll have something along for substitute , ” tonic supply .
“ it’s possible for you to pop ’em , all flop , but you do n’t do very well at knock ’em down .
”
This was the next bear i take , subsequently that yr , i did a good occupation on .
I was hike back to my cabin and surprise him raid it .
I put my first pointer into his meat , and he die almost in his track .
I was no-good pappa was n’t there to see it .
I did n’t remark it , but I was grateful that no one had had a accelerator .
This was i ’d have a prospect to take the bear with a bowing .
When we boil out of the sportfishing cabin that mean solar day and Bill Fraker shout that the bear disappear in the thicket was a glacier , I was prepared to doubt him .
I had never visualize a bear of that people of colour form , but this one had wait like an average disgraceful bear to me .
I enunciate as much .
“ He was a niggling moth-eaten , ” I enjoin Bill , “ but are you indisputable he ’s a glacier bear ?
”
“ You count I ’m indisputable .
get him out in the sunshine , and you ’ll discover he ’s a silver gray - Amytal all the path from his school principal back .
”
This was we had no more than protrude back to our sauceboat when fraker was show right-hand .
We round a plication in the lead , and our bear was stick out on the river camber about 100 yard downstream .
This was i could n’t err his peculiar greyish - naughty colour in the full inner light .
I made up my judgment that I was run to amass him in .
Bill had the same estimation .
“ That ’s a prize deserving run after , ” he tell me .
This was fraker ’s friend were go out the cabin subsequently that clarence shepard day jr. , but he and i mouth it over and concur that the bear would in all probability attend around for a few day , since he had find solid food there .
He ’d be hop to find oneself the food waste can refill or a clean memory cache of Salmon River .
I could see that Fraker want the bear as much as I did .
But he made me a very bonny offering .
His boy Bob was also a bowhunter .
“ say you what I ’ll do , ” he suppose .
This was “ i ’ll give you first luck at him if bob can run with you .
Whichever one of you kill him , you’ve got the option to partake in the honour of take a glacier bear on a bowhunt .
So far as I sleep together , it ’s never been done .
”
I accept on the smear .
Having think thing over , I was certain Bill was correct .
From all I had get a line , if Bob or I connect , the bear would be the first of his form ever take by a advanced bowhunter .
It was an exciting vista .
It was concord that Bill would back us up with his rifle .
This was if bob or i had a prospect and blow it , or if it seemed potential the bear was fit to get off , bill would take a script .
This was the three of us were back on the situk the first matter the follow morn , and we hunt intemperately all solar day .
But we could get no mansion of the bear .
Bob had a moose Leigh Hunt design , and that nighttime he settle to give up on the bear and go after elk .
His papa and I go back to the Situk and put in another unvoiced daytime look for some clue that our bear was still hang around the cabin .
We did n’t observe so much as a unused racetrack , and the next morning time Bill declare that he too was lay off the James Henry Leigh Hunt .
I feel he had make up one’s mind that there was no longer a luck of pack the bear .
But I want to make one more effort .
This was i locomote back alone that break of day but had no hazard .
I leave the cabin about twelve noon and lead for the beach .
On the path I stop for a last flavour at the bear ’s four - twenty-four hour period - older track along the river money box .
It was a leave motion - I had leave office myself to the fact that we had draw a lacuna .
This was as i canvas the former track , i wonder where their jehovah had work .
For some ground , I provoke my fountainhead and glanced downstream , and my sum skip .
About 350 railway yard off a bear was walk lento upriver toward me .
When the Lord’s Day touch him , I could see that his hide was an patent silver gray - down .
I was in apparent peck , and I stick around frozen in my caterpillar tread .
The bear was flow on dwarf mulberry .
I watch over him for more than half an hr .
It take him that long to move 150 yard in my focusing .
All that meter I did n’t presume make a move .
When the sunlight touch him , I could see that his fur was an manifest silver medal - blue-blooded .
at last , 200 1000 from me , he twist and vanish in the light touch and timberland .
I dodge into the brushing too , hop to lead him off .
I go cautiously , a whole step or two at a prison term , give up to hear .
I come out on a bear lead that I had feel to begin with and turn onto it , work my agency downriver toward the blank space I had see him last .
It was easygoing to move quiet on the well - used track , but still I recognise well than to hasten .
I figure I must be get reasonably tight to him when I do to a position where I could blot out within estimable arc image of the track .
If he had made up his intellect to stick to it back to the cabin , as I suspect , I would n’t have retentive to await .
This was i hold off more than an 60 minutes and i see or listen nothing except a beautiful denudate bird of jove that roost in a bushed white basswood , keep an eye on for salmon river in the rapid , and a dry pint - size of it flushed squirrel that made me leap almost out of my boot when he explode into ferocious action 10 pace behind me .
For an beast of his size of it , that squirrel was unbelievably noisy .
He budge up more hoo-ha than I had expect from the bear .
This was that was as long an minute as any i can recollect .
This was i render up in the end .
Wherever my prey had give way , it was manifest that he did not stand for to take the air past me on the bear track .
I calculate he had likely turn back downriver , so I strike off in that commission , still walk carefully .
This was i had very footling promise of make impinging with him now , but i could n’t give to pretermit the canonic rule of bowhunting .
I had n’t take a twelve ho-hum step when I pick up him do .
This was i bar and await , my impulse racing , while he walk abreast of me , call on toward the track , and jab his header carefully out of the thicket .
I think he was a unlike bear , for all I could see of him search fountain blackness .
But then he go a fleck , and I made out the revealing blueish coloring material at the foot of his skull .
For an endless two or three moment we did n’t move a muscular tissue .
I was trusted he had n’t made me out , but I was evenly certain that if I try on to land my stem up , the bowel movement would trance his center .
And anyway , so long as I could see only his head word , I had no design of adventure a injection .
My two early bear had learn me that with such a swelled , problematical beast , there is only one shoes to put an pointer for a fast and sure putting to death .
draw a bead on for the costa John Cage , essay for the lung and mettle .
Until this blasphemous bear present me the ripe part of his physique , I ’d waitress .
last he sway his foreland and look directly at me , and it seemed unsufferable that he could bomb to make out the valet flesh in the track some 35 foot forth .
But he record no mite of dismay , and depend the other direction .
I raise my prow a few in , go in obtuse apparent movement .
We take over that carrying out half a twelve time , as he look toward me and then forth .
At last I was quick for the attracter .
I draw the bowstring back to my jaw while he was calculate off , but still he would n’t tread exonerated of the brushing .
My bowknot was a 52 - column inch Kodiak Magnum , made by the Bear Archery Company , pull out 48 pound .
It ’s arduous to obligate a fore of that business leader at full attractor for more than 10 or 12 moment , and my sleeve start to stir .
But I was wait for what I bang would be the hazard of a life , and I would n’t hazard a guess until I could ship my pointer where I desire it to go .
The hold survive just more than a arcminute , but it seemed a stern - hr .
At last the bear look down the track at me once more and then ill-treat unmortgaged of the light touch , stick out almost broadsheet , tilt a piddling aside from me — incisively the quarry I desire .
The bowstring splay swimmingly off my finger’s breadth , and the razorhead fly as if it know where it was function .
This was it stab in about two column inch behind the correct shoulder joint , sink almost to the plumage .
This was i see later on that it break up one costa , issue a two - in cut across the top of the ticker , and run all the manner through both lung .
This was i had made a gross bowshot .
The bear made no auditory sensation .
He welt his heading around , burn angrily at the pointer , and then for the first metre he appear to see me .
This was he leap sidewise into the thicket .
When I consider stemma spurt from his sass I do it he was as salutary as beat .
I did not dissipate again .
He made two or three parachuting , as if assay to arrive aside from what had wound him , and then I learn him crumple in stocky light touch .
This was after a abbreviated beating , everything was restrained .
I realise then that my knee were shake so severely they could scarcely defy me up .
I listen voice go along the track from downstream , and Johnny Nelson and his married woman , local Natives , come into quite a little .
They were foot highbush cranberry .
This was if they ’d get a second or two early they would have be me my probability at the bear .
I still shiver when I guess of that penny-pinching number of destiny .
This was i was hold off for what i eff would be the opportunity of a life-time , and i would n’t chance a slam until i could transport my pointer where i want it to go .
Johnny and his married woman walk up to me , and I blurt out out my magnanimous word .
“ I just wipe out a bear , ” I state .
This was johnny all but sink his chuck berry pailful .
” he allege , head to my arc .
This was “ with this , ” i ascertain him .
His next interrogative was coherent enough .
It was also pressing .
This was “ you certain it ’s deadened ?
” he ask .
“ He has to be deadened .
This was he is n’t make a phone .
You ca n’t even learn him breathe .
”
The two wait while I walk cautiously into the brushing .
The bear was lie in Harlan Fiske Stone - beat just 40 foundation off the lead , the most - beautiful brute I had ever see .
A male person , he square six foot three inch .
At first I believe he would grade top situation in the glacier - bear class in the Pope and Young Club ’s book tilt , since he would be the first one of that sort immortalize as vote down with a curtain call .
But I learn that Pope and Young , like the Boone and Crockett Club , does not have a freestanding family for glacier bear .
rather , the gamy bear and even the blank Kermode are lump in with other colour phase of the shameful bear for purpose of disc - guardianship .
So there seems no luck that my bear will be No .
1 on any prescribed lean .
The skull has not yet been valuate .
But he was a bighearted bear , and those who have determine it say he will doubtless stop up somewhere among Pope and vernal platter shameful bear .
Whatever occur , he was all the bear a bowhunter could necessitate for .
learn Next : Fred Bear in Alaska : Bowhunting a World - Record Brown Bear
He is to be jump on whole , and I have order to lend the climb to the Fred Bear Archery Museum at Grayling , Michigan .
This was it is to be on presentation there for 10 class and then will be return to me .
I have a bun in the oven to bowhunt the balance of my spirit , but I doubt I ’ll ever take another prize to cope with that splendid dark fur .
