Due to a virus infestation and subsequent reinstallation of my software photos of 2009's hunt are currently unavailable.

      The second week looked to be another great week weather wise for hunting bear.  Having had an exceptionally rainy summer it was nice to have been blessed with drier conditions to hunt bears.  Following Mondays lunch we headed for some of the bait sites in the Medway area.  After getting everyone situated in their stands, I found a place to wait for the end of shooting time to arrive or a cell phone call from a fortunate hunter.  Well the phone did not ring on this afternoon, but upon gathering up the hunters I learned that Jon and Chris had each seen bears on their baits and Zach had heard a bear run off as he climbed out of his stand.  Jon had seen 4 bears, and Chris had seen 2 bears.  No other hunter had seen or heard anything.  We headed back to the lodge for some of Nancy's great cooking and some rest so we could do it all over again the next day.

     Following lunch on Tuesday we headed out to the bait sites once again.  On this day once again there were no calls, but after getting everyone gathered up after dark I learned that Chris had seen 4 bears, and Nate saw 1 small bear briefly on his bait.  No other bears were seen on this afternoon, so we headed back for more food, stories and some laughs prior to getting some sleep in preparation for Wednesday.

     Wednesday is typically a pretty productive day of the baits for some reason.  So I had high hopes of some action as we headed to the woods.  After I got the guys in their stands, I decided to wait for the end of shooting time in a tree stand myself.  Shortly before dark I noticed a tree swaying back and forth behind my bait.  There was no breeze, so I thought a bear is coming.  A few minutes later I could see the bear coming through the tall grass around the bait.  I watched the bear for 10-15 minutes before it slipped silently back into the trees.  Shortly after that I heard a distant rifle shot and figure Jon had seen a bear as he was the only firearm hunter I had that week.  Jon did take a bear, 1 of the 4 he had seen on his bait.  Zach had a shooter on his bait, but did not have enough light to make a good shot, and Chris had seen 2 more bears on this afternoons sit.  Nate and Dave passed the afternoon without event, but Steve had a bit of action at his site.  On Steve's bait he had a couple of cubs come in and feed and then head off towards their unseen mother and shortly after that a yearling bear came to the bait and decided to head off in the direction of the cubs.  When he found the cubs he also found mom, and Steve said the screams from that yearling getting thumped by mom were quite exciting.  Well once again Wednesday proved to be an active day with 10 bears seen on the baits.

     Thursday after lunch we were to head out once again in pursuit of bears.  We went to some fresh baits on a different network of roads.  So far everyone but Dave had at least seen a bear on bait, so I was hoping to at least get Dave in front of a bear today.  Well the phone did not ring on this day, but Dave did see a bear.  A BIG bear.  Zach saw a sow and 2 cubs, but no else saw anything.  Steve had hunted from dawn till dark.  That is tough to do, but Steve is a tough hunter.  Well we headed back to the lodge with out any bears, but we had a few stories.

     On Friday we were going to give it one more try.  After a great lunch we headed to the woods.  I put everyone out in their stands, then I took Steve to a different bait.  We set up his pop up blind on the bait site that Steve's good friend Larry had taken a bear two years prior.  I went and sat on the bait that Steve had hunted on Thursday.  As luck would have it shortly before dark a nice bear came into my site.  I had multiple opportunities to shoot this bear, but it was not a bear I wanted to shoot.  Shortly after the bear had made its way into the shadows my phone alerted me to a call.  Steve had released an arrow from his crossbow at a bear.  Since it was nearly dark I gathered up the rest of the hunters before going to look for Steve's bear.  I learned that Dave had seen his second bear, but as he attempted to draw on it, it spooked and slipped away.  I was hoping for a quick recovery of Steve's bear as the Craig's were set to leave early in the morning.  Well there was no blood trail, and we could not locate the bolt.  I decided to return in the morning and look again after the sun came up.  Steve changed his flight arrangements after we arrived at the lodge and we enjoyed a great steak dinner and had hopes of finding the bear in the morning.

     Saturday morning arrived and Steve's family headed to New Hampshire to catch their plane to Arizona, and Steve and I prepared to go scour over the bait site to try and locate the bear he had shot at.  We spent the morning looking and relooking over the area.  We broke the area up into a grid and poured over every square foot of ground, and found no sign the bear was hit.  Steve and I headed back to the lodge for some food and then went to a different group of baits to sit for that afternoon.  We did not see any bears on this day, so the week ended with 1 dead bear, and 27 bears seen on bait.