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      Monday looked to be a decent day to hunt bears.  The guide returned from a morning of baiting to enjoy lunch with the hunters prior to getting them out to their stands.  The afternoon looked to be a bit more windy than I had hoped for but it still looked to be a decent day for bear hunting.  The folks were not in their stands too long when my cell phone rang with the first bear of the season being taken by Brant Hall.  Brant's bait is set 1 mile back from any traffic, and he shot a nice mature boar bear.  Brant quickly informed me that the bear was down right at the bait.  By the time I had Brant's bear loaded in my truck, it was time to start picking up the other hunters.  While Brant and I waited for the end of shooting hours, Treg called to say he had shot a bear.  I told him to go back to camp with Nancy and once I returned we would go recover his bear. 

     When we picked up Indiana Jon, he had quite an eventful afternoon.  He had high hopes of getting some good footage.  When I had placed him in his blind I had gone down to freshen up his bait.  The barrel needed to be adjusted, when I reached down and grabbed the barrel to move it, I was looking at the business end of a skunk.  I quickly darted away, and cautiously tilted the barrel so the skunk could scamper off.  Jon missed this action as he wasn't quite set up when it all took place.  He was visited that afternoon by a cow and calf moose, that got very close to his blind, and provided some great video footage.  He did see a nice bear, but it saw his camera and spooked before he could decide whether he wanted to shoot it or not.  No one else had seen any bears.

     Once we returned to camp, I gathered up Treg and took Indiana Jon a with us to get some footage of Treg's bear.  It took a little time to find the bear, as they do not leave much sign, but it only was about 25 yards from the bait.  It was a nice mature bear that Treg had made a good shot with his rifle.  We then headed to the tagging station with the bears and returned home with 2 bears for the guys on the first night of the season.

     Tuesday arrived much the same as Monday.  We had another great lunch, and then headed out to the woods to hunt bears.  Jon Greathouse, "Pennsylvania Jon", wasn't in his stand too long when he observed a bear feeding at the bait.  I headed up with Treg to look for the bear, as it was only 3 o'clock or so.  It took some time to find the bear, as it ran 75 yards or so, before expiring.  We gathered him up and headed to the tagging station, and back to camp to get it in the cooler.  When shooting hours had expired I headed out to gather up the remaining hunters.  I then learned that Ray & Kim had each seen a bear.  Jeff had observed a medium sized bear acting nervously at the bait, and right at dark had shot a nice large boar.  Indiana Jon had a quiet afternoon at his stand.  So Tuesday put two more bears in the cooler, and now we had three hunters remaining to fill their tags.

     On Wednesday we left a little later as we only had three people still hunting.  A logging operation unexpectedly commenced in the area we had been hunting, so I had to move everyone to new sites.  We didn't see any bears on this day at all.  We returned to the lodge for some food and story telling and looked forward to Thursday.

     After lunch on Thursday Ray, Kim and Indiana Jon joined me for the ride out to their stands.  Ray got out first, and we saw a bear run off as we headed into the bait site.  I left him at "Sniper Rock" for the afternoon and got the others out as well.  I had intended to watch a  bait with my video camera, and had just gotten settled in when Ray called to tell me he had shot a bear.  I gathered up my gear and headed back to locate his bear.  It took a little time to find it, even with a perfect double lung shot, but Ray had taken a nice bear with a very large white blaze on its chest.  That was to be the only bear seen by the hunters on this day.  We headed back with a stop at the tagging station.

     Friday found me with two hunters remaining.  After lunch we headed to two new sites.  I had high hopes that at least one of the hunters would fill their tag on this afternoon.  It was a perfect afternoon to hunt bears, but as hunting bears goes, Indiana Jon did not see anything, and Kim saw only a sow with two cubs.  We returned to the lodge for a great steak dinner and some story telling.  The first week of the season had the group of seven hunters see 10 bears and take 5 bears.