The week of August 25-27, 2002 had Ray Mills, John St. Clair, Clint Keller, Tom Hackney, Tom and Sue Gibilterra, Charles Samples, Damon St. Clair and Jennifer Jones, as well as Dale Zielonka in camp.  All the men were hunting and the ladies were along to provide moral support.  The week opened with a lobster feed for everyone and a few words from me as to what to expect for their week of bear hunting.  When Monday finally arrived and lunch was eaten we headed out to get everyone in their stands for the afternoon.  This took some time with Tom Hackney getting to his stand a little late, right around 3:30 p.m.

     I got back around to check on the hunters and found Tom Hackney already out to the meeting spot having shot his bear about 20 minutes after getting in his stand.  Tom got in with me to check on the others and soon we found Dale Zielonka, a first time bear hunter, with his first Maine bear, a nice large boar.  We then waited for Tom Gibilterra to come out from his stand, and found even though he chose not to shoot a bear he saw ELEVEN bears on his bait that afternoon.  Clint Keller did not shoot, but he had two bears on his bait and one was a bruiser.

     Day 2 found us with 2 hunters with filled tags.  Once we got everyone in their stands, Dale Zielonka came along to help me with bear retrieval on this day.  It wasn't too long before we learned that Charles had shot at a bear.  We went to the sight and carefully examined the scene and determined that there must have been an earthquake or something as Charles had missed his bear cleanly.  While there Ray Mills came by to inform us he had a bear down.  We went to his stand and retrieved his second bear in as many years with us.  At the end of the day Dale and I helped Tom Gibilterra with his first Maine bear, and once we all met we learned that Clint Keller had shot a nice bear with his bow.  That evening we were unable to find his bear, but when we returned in the morning, Dale earned a big THANK-YOU from Clint, when he found his bear.

     Day 3 found us down to 3 hunters with tags to fill.  A fairly quiet evening with only 2 bears seen today.  

     Day 4 found me moving the remaining hunters to different sights to give them some fresh scenery.  We were rewarded with Charles Samples shooting his first Maine bear on this afternoon.  No other action to speak of.  The guys at camp began turning up the heat on John, something about Daniel Boone and Kentucky being embarrassed.  

     Today was the last day to hunt.  No bears spotted by the last two hunters today.  That is hunting though.  We had a great week.  There were 25 bears seen by the hunters with 6 bears being taken by 8 hunters.  Lots of good food, fun times and many stories shared.