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     Monday morning arrived with me running a few baits and hurrying back to camp for lunch.  After lunch I left with Frank, Tom and Chris.  After getting them in their stands, I met Charles and took Ray and Craig with me after showing Charles where his bait was.  I then got Ray and Craig situated and left to run a couple of baits.  This day had no bear activity.  We returned to camp. Ate a great meal, laughed at some of Ray's stories and got some sleep for the next day.

     Tuesday started much the same as Monday, with me running a few baits and returning for lunch.  On this day the only bear seen was by Tom.  Tom has hunted bears in Canada and Alaska.  He has seen large bears.  He said this was a LARGE bear.  Tom had started the week as a traditional archer.  He  had hopes of taking a bear with traditional archery equipment.  This bear provided no shot opportunity for an archer.  No one else had seen a bear.  A couple of the new first time hunters began to wonder what they may need to do to improve their chances of seeing a bear.  I addressed smoking and sitting still with some emphasis.

     Wednesday found me running baits again.   When I got back for lunch I hurried and ate, so we could get going.  I learned that my traditional archer, Tom, had traded in his archery equipment for something more suited to the task of killing a large bear.  A brand new Encore muzzleloader.  I got a chuckle out of that.  I got the hunters placed and left to run a few baits.  This afternoon had a great deal of activity.  When I picked up the guys I learned that Chris had shot a bear with his bow, Tom had shot the smaller of 2 bears he had seen, and Frank had seen a bear on his bait.  Craig had watched a large bear as well, but it offered no shot for an archer.  That evening we were unable to find either of the bears shot.  We returned home for some food, and fitful sleep.

     Thursday arrived to find Chris, Tom and I at Tom's bait trying to find his bear.  It took some doing, but after an hour or so we had recovered his large sow. We took Tom's bear to get it tagged and get it in the cooler at home.  Craig joined Chris and I as we went to look for Chris's bear.  After some time we found a pretty good blood trail, but after an hour or more of hard tracking we went back to the lodge for some food, and to get the other hunters.  After I got the others out to their stands.  Chris and continued to track his bear.  For the next 4 hours we tracked, until the trail disappeared.  We then drove slowly to wait for Frank.  As I approached we suddenly heard the report of Frank's rifle.  He had shot at a large bear.  We found a few small spots of blood, but we were unable to find his bear that evening.  We returned to camp where I learned Ray had shot a bear.  He and I headed off to get it.  Once we had it on the truck, the rain began.

    Friday morning, after the sun was up a bit we headed to Frank's bait site.  We were not in the woods 5 minutes when Ray spotted the bear lying just off the trail we had been standing on not 12 hours earlier.  We got the bear taken care of, and loaded it on the truck.  We then headed to get it tagged and hurried to get it in the cooler next to Tom and Ray's at the lodge.  This afternoon only Chris and Craig were still hunting.  On this afternoon Craig shot his first bear.  Frank joined me while I was going to check on the guys.  We found Craig's bear, and got it loaded.  We waited for Chris, who did not see anything this evening.  So the week ended with 5 out of 5 hunters shooting bears, and 4 out of 5 hunters tagging a bear.  A total of 9 bears were seen this week.  

     Saturday found us enjoying a great brunch, then getting Craig's bear taken care of for the ride back to Kentucky.  The season was a short one for us.  An apparent result of the bear referendum was a reduction by 50% in the number of bookings.  So we only hunted 2 weeks.  It was a very successful season, with over 50 bears seen by 10 hunters in two weeks.  Also the large bear seen by Tom is still out there.