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          Monday found Steve Craig, Mike Hurley and  I heading out to run some baits and set his snares for a bear.  We found a couple very good locations and Steve placed his snares carefully with high hopes.  We returned to the lodge and had lunch.  I then headed out with my 4 archers and placed them on their stands.  After shooting time ended I learned that Trace had seen 2 bears on his bait, and Joshua had also watched a bear on his site.  Todd and Mike did not observe any animals on their respective sites.  We headed back to the lodge for our evening meal and some sleep.

          Tuesday found Steve, Trace Warren and I heading out to check Steve's snares and run a few baits.  One of the two locations Steve had a bear just miss stepping on the snare pan, close but no bear.  We finished our bait run and headed back to the lodge.  After lunch I headed out with the archers with high hopes of taking a bear that afternoon.  When the end of shooting time came with no one having called me I picked up the hunters and learned that Joshua had seen 2 bears this afternoon, with one being very large and the smaller of the bears having climbed the tree he was in for a visit.  No one else saw any bears that afternoon, so we headed back to the lodge for some food and story telling.

          Wednesday found Steve, Mike and I heading out to check snares and run some baits.  Today we had a thrown snare, but no bear.  This foot snaring was more of a challenge than I anticipated.  We ran some baits and headed back for lunch.  I got the guys out with 1 change, Trace and Todd had decided to switch baits with each other for a change of pace.  Well as luck would have it Trace saw a shooter bear and took aim with his bow and released an arrow around 3pm.  He called me and we tried to recover his bear.  Unfortunately the arrow had missed its mark and the bear eluded us.  When I picked the other archers up we learned that Joshua had another visit with his resident small bear, with no other hunters having seen any bears.  We headed back to camp for another meal, stories and laughter.

          Thursday found us checking Steve's snares again.  Once again, no bears snared.  We ran some baits and headed back for lunch.  After lunch we headed back out to hunt one more time.  As we drove towards Joshua's site at a pretty fast pace, I caught a flash of brown, just as a large bull moose almost joined us in the cab of my truck.  Joshua is probably still trying to calm down from that encounter. Today the day passed with no hunters seeing any bears.  Everyone was learning that hunting over bait is hunting.  It isn't easy.  We headed back to camp, ate, laughed and slept.

          Friday found us heading to check Steve's snare again and we also placed Joshua out to hunt the morning. Today as we approached one of Steve's sets we heard metal rattle, and got excited.  Well the rattle was made as the bear pulled out of the snare and ran off.  Boy this snaring thing is pretty tough.  We ran some baits and headed back to pick Joshua up for lunch.  Joshua had no more than got in his stand when he saw his small resident bear again.  After lunch we headed back out to hunt.    I got everyone out with hopes of someone taking a large bear.  That evening I picked up the guys and learned that Joshua had seen the small bear and a very large bear.  He just could net get a shot, as the bear kept its vitals unexposed.  Finally Todd saw his first bear, but did not have a good shot. 

          Saturday morning we headed out to retrieve Steve's snares and head back to camp for brunch.  Today however we found the snare contained a nice boar bear that Steve quickly dispatched with his Contender.  We headed back to camp to photograph and skin the bear.  Well the second week found nearly everyone having seen a bear, but only 1 bear killed.  We had 11 bears spotted with 4 hunters in the woods, and 1 bear snared.  Although there are not a lot of pictures of hunters and their bears for this week, it will go down as one of the most enjoyable weeks I had as a guide.  I had a good group of guys here that patiently waited to have a bear  present a good shot, unfortunately for the hunters the bears kept the shots offered in the low percentage area, and the hunters wisely passed on those opportunities.  That is bear hunting.