Outdoor Adventures

[trkyhntr]

As requested by Ksquared on another board, this is a group shot of most of the guys who participated in that drive, along with part of the entry in our camp logbook for this bear hunting season. Hunting, especially bear hunting, can be grueliing, but when you have a great group of guys to do it with, it can be a wonderful experience.

Friday, November 20 did roll around, but I got to camp on the Wednesday preceding that. I hunted two days for bear with the crossbow, but did not see any bears nor any sign of them. We did not even have any photos of bears on the game cameras, so I wasn’t holding out much hope for a great bear season when Dave and Judd rolled in that afternoon, followed by Crawford and his buddy John. We partied a bit that Friday evening, but made the call, bright and early on Saturday morning. All journeyed to their chosen stands.
Right away in the morning, the Giovannitti camp and their hunters put on a drive in Alex/Glade Hollow, but were not successful in moving any bears. Most of the shooting we did hear, and we did hear more than most previous years, seemed to be coming from the area around Ursina, with some to the Cranberry Lake area, but absolutely nothing close to camp.
That afternoon, Dave and I went to the Giovannitti camp and left a note asking whether or not we could get together for some drives on Monday. Mark got back to me that evening and suggested we visit on Sunday, which we did. Crawford and John left on Sunday to return home, leaving Dave, Judd, and me to work on filling a bear tag. In our visit to the Giovannittis, we made plans for them to meet at our camp on Monday morning at 6:30 AM. We did three drives that morning in the area of camp, but moved only deer and turkeys. One buck sighted on the first drive was a huge ten point that walked almost under the Hollow double stand. After the third unsuccessful drive, John McDermott, who hunts with the Giovannitti group, suggested that we try one last drive over on the western edge of Somerset County along Augustine Road. The area driven was actually in Lower Turkeyfoot Township, Somerset County, but only a few hundred yards from the Fayette County line.
The drivers walked over half a mile east on Augustine Road, and then dropped downhill toward the Youghighenny River to form their skirmish line. As with many drives, the two on the bottom of the line went a bit off course, which was fortunate since they probably were the ones who drove a smaller, but adult, bear uphill. We speculated that when the bear got in sight of Augustine Road there probably was someone walking there or a car/truck going by, so he altered course to the East and this brought him past my stand position. I found an opening in his path and when his head hit my sight, I squeezed the trigger. The bear dropped on the spot. I had made a slightly lucky shot and hit him in the neck, breaking it cleanly. I then yelled out, “Bear down!” There was some confusion below me because a couple of the drivers and standers, thinking the drive was over, were standing there talking when I touched off the shot. I’m not sure they believed me, but when the group arrived on the spot, we were in possession of a genuine black bear.
I’m not sure who was the happiest among the hunters. Mark later told me that this was the first bear the group had taken, and this was really a great thing for their group. Lots of back slapping and photo taking ensued, and then four of the younger guys each grabbed a paw and up the hill they went with the bear. Below: a group photo of the bear gang. A couple of guys are missing from the photo, including Judd Hartman, who was taking the picture.