My Canadian bear hunt (warning, REALLY long, and with pics)

[iahntr]

Well here goes, my get away up north,, we pulled out and hit the road at 2:00 a.m. We made perty good time, and hit the border around noon to 1:00. Fueled up and decided to grab a quick bite to eat. We proceeded to head across the border. I only brought a bow, but the other two in the pickup brought guns, so we had to pull in. Well they tore apart the truck REAL good, both inside and out. I love how they take everything out, rip everything apart, then leave it there and say "ok you can put it back now".  We stood there, emptied our pockets, went through our billfolds etc. etc. that took probably the better part of 45 mins. When they were done searchin and we were puttin stuff back together I even found a cannabis test kit that they had left in the cab of the truck. We musta looked like some hoodlums or somethin.  We then had to give them our Id's again and go inside. Well after sittin for probably another 20 mins. or so, a lady called my name so I went up to the counter. I was tryin to hear what she was all sayin, had to stick my ear up to that big 4 inch hole in the glass that she was behind, she proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions and asked me if I'd ever had any OWI's  and how many. I told her I'd had three, like 17, 19, and 20 years ago. She started writing some stuff out on a piece of paper and high lighting some things, and slid it under the glass and told me I was inadmissible and could not come into Canada.  :shck: :shck:  I said "you mean I can't come in at all, right now, this trip??" "I understood the guidelines to say they considered you rehabilitated if 10 or more years have passed by"  She said "NO" and read me the regs. "You are only considered rehabilitated if 10 or more years have passed, if you have had one OWI. You've had more then one, and may not come in."  We then walked outside to tell the other guys what was goin on, and a guy that overheard what was goin on approached me and said he was stayin on Rainy Lake and for a fee he would pick me up in his boat and give me a ride across the lake. We decided on a rendezvous point. I had to swim across about a half mile of it before he could pick me up in the boat, then I met up with where the guys were waitin in the trucks and bam, outta the boat, into the truck, and headed the heck out of there !!!



  nah, I just made that last part up,  :roflmao:    but don't think I didn't have several thoughts goin through my mind when I was sittin there.      The lady called me back up to the counter and asked me a bunch more questions, and told me to sit back down. I told her again I apologized for misunderstanding the law, I'd been into Canada six or seven times since all this has happened. She seemed really surprised and said "and you've never had any problems?" I told her I hadn't, at all.    I told her I completed - treatment, time in a halfway house, probation, I had not drank since Jan. 7th of 1991, I was now a family man, active in church and the community, I'm not even close to the same person I was then. She told me sit back down again. She called me back up again, asked me how many in our group, I told her 6 fishermen and 5 hunters. She asked if the camp owners where we were goin was owned by Canadians or Americans, asked me how much we were all paying, etc. etc. basically how much money was she lookin at turnin away. Sit back down again. Called me back up and told me that she did not consider me an immediate danger in Canada, and I could pay 200 dollars cash, the cost of the application, she would let me in this one time, I had to be out of the country by midnight sept. 8th, and this $200 was only good for this time and I would have to pay it again when I wanted to apply.  I gladly paid the 200 dollars, and after about 2 hrs we were on our way.    Trust me, with everything goin on in my life lately, I was flooded by plenty of emotions there for awhile. But hey, there laws, and my fault. Guys, if ya plan on goin across the border, and have anything in your past, no matter how long ago, get it taken care of first, don't take any chances. (and don't try and lie about it, I saw the print out she had on me, she knew the answers to her questions before she asked em to me! I have NO doubt if I would've tried to lie about it, I would not have gotten in!)
Now back to the trip.... We drove for a few more hours and had to pull over to take a leak. We always check the straps when we pull over, and when we did, we noticed that my buddies axle had popped out on his Rhino and was spewing rear rend grease all over our tree stands.  He had a new axle put in it before we left.  Normally I'd be fairly upset, but hey, I was just dang glad to be there.  On we went and pulled into camp around 8:30 or so. Stepped out of the vehicles and were greeted by the camp owners, and a million swarming mosquito's !  Man them suckers were bad up there this year! Got checked in, unpacked, and settled in for the night, anticipating the next day. Woke up to a nice brisk morning, ate a little breakfast, and met up with the guide to head out and set up our tree stands. Baits looked good, got done settin up around noonish. Messed around doin a little fishin off the docks, caught a few little northerns, and one buddy caught an 18" walleye. Here's a couple pics of the cabins from outta the boat on the river.
 
We grabbed a bite to eat, grabbed the bait and headed out. We drove both pickups. We were all kinda in one area starting about 15 miles from camp and ending about 25 miles from camp. Basically one main "road" with "roads" branching off in either directions. Set up perty good so we were a few miles from each other. Myself and another buddy were in one truck and he dropped me off and went on to his bait. I baited my barrel and got settled up in my stand. I was only in there about half an hour, and I kinda sensed somethin and turned my head slightly and sure enough in comes my first bear walking right on top of a small downed tree about 5 feet from the base of the tree I was in. My first reaction was, "oh it's a shooter" then I settled down a little,  it was a decent bear but not one I was ready to end my hunt on the first 1/2 hour into the week. I sat there and filmed it for awhile, then I kinda thought "the suckers gonna eat all my bait, and if another one comes in later I might have to shoot quick cause it's not gonna have anything to keep it there". So I was lookin for somethin to throw at it, about that time it decided to leave. About 7:30 in comes my second bear, it's a brown one !! and I really wanted a color phase bear this time!!  I watched it as it came in, it was a decent sized bear too, but I decided not to end my hunt yet on that one either. I filmed it for awhile, it ate the rest of the bait and when it walked away it came right towards my tree. It got about 5 yards from my tree and started looking up at me. I made a noise double checking that my pepper spray was easily accessible  and it took off and went about 25 yds and turned around and stood up and was lookin at me, that was perty cool ! Well I got picked up and we met up with the other three. One guy shot at one with his muzzle loader, but ended up shootin low and just took a little piece of hair and tissue, one small drop of blood. The other shot his with his 7mm. He shot it a half hour into the stand. He didn't see any blood for the first 20 or so yards and spent about 4 hours in his stand thinkin he made a bad shot. I told him not to worry yet, they can cover some perty good ground perty fast. We found blood at about 30 yards, turned into real good blood after about five more yards, and we found the bear about another 25 yards past that. He was really excited, and I couldn't have been happier for him ! He'd been on two other very poor bear hunts in Minn. So I was really glad he got one on this trip and it's always fun to experience that first time with someone.  Here's his, nice sow which had very broad shoulders,  a huge neck and head.

The second day we got out on the boats did some fishin and headed out to do some more huntin. I wasn't havin much action so I thought I'd play around and take a few pics, I thought this one was kinda cool, a view of my bait kinda from the "action" end. 

Not anymore action while I was there, but when I checked my trail camera, I discovered why, cause they there playin around while I wasn't. 

We met up with the others and another buddy had shot one with his bow. We tracked it for awhile that night but were just not finding any blood. We called it quits for the night. We headed back there first thing in the morning. It took quite awhile before we found his arrow, which looked like it went in only about 5 or 6 inches, bent over, there was very little blood on and around arrow. We got on some blood for a while, but it just quite bleedin again. We looked for at least another hour, but nothin.  He wasn't happy, but unfortunately it can happen. We figured he got into the shoulder, no exit wound. The next day a few of the fisherman asked us if we were interested in doin a float plane ride, they needed like three more people to go up. I was interested in it, but said I spent a little extra cash gettin across the border then what I had planned,  my buddy said he'd pay for it for my birthday. i said, "cool"  Well we waited for the plane we were supposed to go up in to get back, but it never arrived.  We were thinkin maybe it was a good thing we didn't go up in it.  It came back three days later. We heard they got like 31 inches of rain in three days up north somewhere, and he was up there gettin people off roof tops and flyin em outta there. Here's a couple pics of what we were gonna do.
             
The third night just myself and one other guy went out. It was perty warm and muggy and had heard that maybe a storm was comin, but hopefully gonna hold off until after dark. As I was sittin in my stand I thought I heard the sounds of somethin movin at different points behind me. After awhile I thought I'd play around and do a little "misting" from my tree stand. So I got out my little spray bottle of bacon and liquid smoke and sprayed some and watched it drift off into the timber behind me. After a little more time I glanced over my shoulder and thought "hmmm, was that big black spot there before?" But it wasn't movin. I thought "what the heck" and gave it a few more sprays from my little bottle and watched it drift off into the timber, and sure enough I see movement, the brown on his snout, nose a sniffin in the air.  She reluctantly slowly makes her way to the bait, gets about to the barrel, and some squirrels jump and sound off to the right of the barrel, boom,she was outta there.  She stood off about sixty yards back in the thick stuff. She couldn't resist and finally made her way back to the bait. She ate there for some time, keeping her right leg back, not offering the shot I was lookin for. Finally she moved that front leg, I drew back,,,, my pin settled on its mark,,,, release,,,,, right as I release she decides to move her leg back.  THWACK,,, my arrow goes about half the way in. For that split second I was thinkin "dang it!" but I knew it was in the right spot, it just had to blast threw the shoulder now. It jumped up off all fours, spun around and took off. In about two seconds it made it about 25 yds and went down right in plain sight. It was still movin so I reached back got another arrow outta my quiver, put my 30 yd pin on her and stuck er the second time. I'm perty sure it wasn't needed, but hey, better safe then sorry.  I've crawled around plenty through that thick stuff in pitch black trackin.  I was a little disappointed it wasn't my color phase bear, but it was too nice to pass up, and was very Thankful for it !!      Here's me and mine.
         
I got down and checked her out, then decided to get back in the stand in case another one came in and I could do some filmin, I had to wait about an hour before I was gettin picked up. In that time you could tell the temp was changen and wind was pickin up. He came to get me, I just got it gutted, we got it loaded and headed outta there and it started to rain. We made it about 3/4 the way back to camp and it was rainin and blowin so hard we had to come to a stop several different times tryin to get back to camp. The next day when my one buddy went to go huntin, he got to his bait and this is what he found,,,,,
           
     yeah that's the tree stand in that tree.    That'd be a fun ride huh 

Stick with me, I'm tryin to come to an end here. 

The next day two of us go fishin the other three head out huntin. We're back from fishin and hangin out at the cabin and in they pull, and another happy hunter !! I was very pleased that he got to get a bear too! His second time goin, got his first bear.  I called it the punk rocker bear.  Perty cool and unusual.
         

Well the other two didn't get there bear, the one hit one and lost it and only hunted another couple days, the other one had some bad luck, and only hunted a few days. I have no doubt with a little more effort we all could've came home with bear. I'm already goin wwaaaayyyyy longer then I thought I would so I'll end it here. There was a few more mishaps, but we overcame em all. It's perty tuff to beat sittin in a cabin by the water, hearin the loons singing in the back ground, bellies full of fresh bear loin and fresh walleye, sippin on a cold one (O'douls in my case) smokin a good cigar, with friends. Hhhmmm,  Hhhmmmm don't get much better then that.
It was much needed. I'm a very Thankful person. 
And to all a good night. 
                                                Scott

[alscalls]

WONDERFULL.......Sounds like a real good time! Congrats on a fine animal.....
You needed that

[coyote101]

Scott,

Thanks for the story and pictures, and congratulations on a successful hunt. I know you needed the break. When we went into Canada in July, all they asked was if we had any fireworks, alcohol or tobacco. Sounds like you got the royal treatment.

Pat

[pitw]

Great story and even better pic's.  I'm really glad you had a good time and thanks for reaffirming my faith in Americans.  On my August fishing rip there were 2 guys from Colorado who had a buddy turned back at the border and the one didn't like Canada at all for it.  Come back again.

[Silencer]

   great bear with a bow     

[KySongDog]

That's a great story and pics!      I didn't realize the Canadian authorities went back that far on one's background.   

[Hawks Feather]

You need to consider writing for magazines.  I am swallowing the whole swimming across the lake story and then get zapped back to reality.  I am glad that you got in, got a good bear, and even more you had a good time.

Jerry

[George Ackley]

Good bear pal.

I always get a letter of intent from my outfitter, it tells how much I am paying for the hunt , who is the outfitter , there name & adress , phone# so they can to be countacted, when the hunt starts and ends .. it always makes the crossing easer.

Also I try and right down all the gun info before I leave home so I don't need to unpack it to get the info at the border ..

they gave my partner a hard time for a ( receiving stolen property charge)) from 1975

I am glad you had a good time ,, did you boys have your passports???

Again congrats on the bear

[FinsnFur]

Wow, if there was a "post of the year" award going out, you'da got er! Absolutely awesome story and pics.

Awesome follow up for us. Thank ya kindly for sharing it with us, and congrats on that trophy

[Frogman]

Great story and photos.   I like these long detailed ones with lots of photos!!

Thanks

Jim

[coyotehunter_1]

I'm glad everything worked out for you. That's a really nice bear.     

Reading your post was almost like being there... thanks for sharing the hunt with us. 

[iahntr]

Thanks a lot Al, Pat, and Vic, I appreciate it

Great story and even better pic's.  I'm really glad you had a good time and thanks for reaffirming my faith in Americans.  On my August fishing rip there were 2 guys from Colorado who had a buddy turned back at the border and the one didn't like Canada at all for it.  Come back again.

Yeah it's always easier to blame somebody else rather then taking responsibility for your own actions (past or present)     I always say it doesn't matter if you agree or not with someone else's rules/laws, whether it be another country, another state, or somebody else's home, it's there rules, if you don't like em, don't go there.  I really like goin to Canada, I've been there quite a few times. It's beautiful! It's just such a pain crossin the border! The whole process. Even coming back across, we stopped in on the Canadian side first to double check if we needed anything else, and had all the proper paperwork we needed, after standing in line for awhile the lady we talked to said we were missing some paperwork, and asked us to sit back down.  After awhile she came back with some directions and said we would have to go back to this other Dept. building to get this paper work filled out. So off we go back across town and get there and they're closed.  We catch an officer coming out of a building and approach him and showed him all the paperwork we had and asked him what the lady was talking about and what else we needed. He's like " what,, who told you this??  You don't need anything else. You have everything you need" "She doesn't know what she's talkin about  "  So off we go again, another hour plus later.    I'm sure I'll go back, just have a little more paperwork done first!  (and another $200)
- and I'm glad I could renew your faith for my fellow Americans 

That's a great story and pics!      I didn't realize the Canadian authorities went back that far on one's background.   

Thanks Semp, and yeah they go wwaaayyy back, and like I said I saw some of the print out of the info she had on me. I would tell anyone, If there's any doubt they better get it cleared up before they just try to go across.

Thanks a lot Jerry. I thought I'd throw that part about the the swimmin across in there.  But like I said, there was a lot of things goin threw my head while I was sittin there. 
Thanks George.  Yeah that's one thing I wish I would've had handier, I had our confirmation letter packed in some luggage.  They had all the paperwork done on the guns ahead of time, they just had to take the guns out and match em up with the person and paperwork. I think the other hunters had there passports, I just had my birth certificate yet, which worked fine, but not next year the way I understand it, you'll need your passport.

Well Thank You Jim(s) It only took me like three hours to put it together and post it.  I kinda suck at typin. 

Thanks Chet, glad ya liked it.

I'm glad I had the opportunity, and could share it with you all.  I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Thanks again, Scott

[nailbender]

  Great story Scott.  Congrats on the nice bear!

[Todd Rahm]

Great story and cool picks Scott!!!!!!!!!!!!

[iahntr]

Thanks Dave and Todd, I appreciate it!

[HaMeR]

Hi Scott. Very nice write up you did. The pictures were excellent. The bears are top notch. The players all look full of pride in their hunts. And you my Friend deserves every bit of this. 

[iahntr]

Thanks a lot Glen, I appreciate it.