Monday was to be a great 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.  Once I had all of the hunters into their respective sites, it wasn't too long before my cell phone rang, with the news that Mike Healy had watched a bear for awhile before taking it with a well placed shot.  I hurried to his stand and a short tracking job found us looking over a nice boar bear.  Before we had time to get his bear out of the woods, another call came in from Chris as he had killed his first bear.  We arrived at Chris's stand and quickly recovered his bear.  Shortly before the end of shooting time my phone rang again to let me know that Randy Dawson Jr., had also taken a bear that afternoon.  He was shooing a .300 Win Mag and his well placed shot had put his bear down on the bait, so we got there and retrieved his bear in record time.  We then rounded up the rest of the hunters with help from Nancy, and learned that Brian had seen 3 bears on his first day on stand, one of which was a real monster, but he had held his shot since in 2007 he had shot a bear in something like 2 minutes give or take 30 seconds on stand.  Kim watched a sow and 3 cubs on her bait and the last three hunters had seen nothing.  Day one ended with three hunters tagged out and 11 bears seen.

     On Tuesday afternoon after a great lunch provided by Nancy we headed into the woods with the remaining 5 hunters.  I waited in anticipation of another good afternoon of bear hunting.  My phone did not ring on this day, as no one shot any bears.  What we learned around the dinner table later that evening was Randy Sr. had watched two small bears, Brian had seen 4 bears on his bait, but not the monster of the day before, Kim had seen nothing and Ray had watched a sow and 3 cubs.  So 11 more bears were seen on the baits and we had 3 more days of good hunting for the week.

     Wednesday found the guide out baiting in the morning and returning to eat lunch with the hunters.  We then headed out to the stands to hunt bears once again.  On this afternoon shortly before the end of shooting hours, my phone rang and Doug said he had shot at a bear.  I headed to his site and had him fill in the details, then I set about looking for the bear.  There was no blood or other sign so I decided to return the following morning to look with better light.  We gathered up the rest of the hunters and learned that Ray had a close encounter with a sow and cub on the trail as he was leaving the woods, Kim had passed up on a bear, Randy had seen 2 small bears once again and Brian had seen a sow and 2 cubs as well as a yearling bear.  He had also wet his pants when one of the cubs changed form a cute and cuddly teddy, into a blood thirsty monster right before his eyes.  You'll have to talk to Brian to get the rest of the story.  Ten more bears seen for the week and two days left to go.

     Thursday morning found Doug and I looking for a bear.  After finding what looked like a bullet striking the earth below where the bear would have been standing, and total lack of any hair, or other sign anywhere within 100 yards of the bait it was decided the excitement of  seeing the bear had caused him to miss when he fired.  We returned to camp without a bear, but we were going to a new bait that afternoon.  After lunch we headed for the new bait sites.  Later that afternoon Doug called and said he had killed a nice bear.  The Virginia boys had gone 3 for 3 on this hunt.  We got Doug's bear out of the woods, and learned that Kim had seen another sow with 3 cubs, Brian had seen a sow with 2 cubs And Randy Sr.  had seen 2 bears and missed a monster with his muzzleloader.  We spent a good deal of time looking around his bait, but once again the adrenaline that accompanies bear sightings had caused a good rifleman to miss his mark.  A total of 10 more bears was seen on this day.

     Friday found only three hunters wanting to return to the woods.  Randy Sr.  decided he had had his opportunity and hours spent in a tree stand hunting bears do take a toll on your posterior.  Ray, Kim and Brian did not see a thing on this afternoon.  For the week we had seen 42 bears and killed 4.