Part 1: Getting to the Bear's Den

Mount Katahdin from Route 11 in Maine.

I had been awake for five hours when we pulled into the IFW office in Ashland at 8am. It was deceivingly beautiful out with the bright sun and deep blue sky but the wind kept the temperatures close to single digits. Still, we knew once we were in the woods, we wouldn't be thinking about the temps.

Our group was fortunate enough to be going out with bear biologists Mitch Jackman, Jake Feener and one of the most well known biologists, Lisa Bates. It was a 17 mile truck ride into the woods from the office followed by a two mile bushwacking snowmobile ride to the den.

This particular den had been marked in January when the biologists had shown up expecting to see mom and two yearlings. Instead, they heard cub cries and immediately left to come back in March. The bear, named King, is seven years old. Her mom BB (for Bartlett Bear) had been denning in this same area until she was harvested during the hunting season a few years ago. After that, King moved back into the are and started denning there herself.

When we arrived near the den, Lisa took a reading to make sure that the collar was working and that they could get a signal helping them confirm the location of the bear.

Lisa checking for a signal from King's collar.

As we got off of the snowmobiles and prepared to hike to the den, Jake and Mitch headed up the hill ahead of us and got to work opening the den and giving King the drugs that would allow them to get information on her and the cubs' health. We could not wait to find out how many cubs and how healthy each bear was, especially after finding out that the last set of cubs did not make it to be yearlings. There are a lot of unknowns when you start opening up a bear's den.

Jake and Mitch at the mouth of the den.

We waited half way down the hill with Lisa while the drugs to take their affect. We talked about being a bear biologist and how you never know what will happen. The day before, Mitch had been the one to administer the drugs to the bear and when he went to do it, she bluffed charged him. Both parties were stunned when her nose actually hit him in the forehead. Neither of them had expected it and shocked them.

The bear study areas in Maine have been going on for years and years. Once the bears become a member of the study group, they become aware of the biologist yearly trip and they know what is coming. Lisa talked about times in which the bears would bite or swipe at the needle coming at them, even though they could easily bite or swipe at the arm reaching in.

Finally, we got the ok and walked up to where Jake and Mitch were. They had pulled down sleeping bags from their packs and laid them on the snow in preparation for King and her cubs to be taken out of their den. Jake asked if any of us wanted to look into the den before any bears were removed. I jumped at the chance.

The den's opening.

There is King!

King in her den.

When we were done with the up close look at the den, it was time to take the cubs out...

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....

So much to celebrate - let's give away stuff!

As you know from my last post, this month I am celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog, 10 years of hunting with my Dad and a milestone birthday. In honor of all three, I want to give away some great Maine stuff to all of you! Rules: 1. Leave a comment 2. On Oct 28 (my big bday), Dad will pick a number and the corresponding post will win. What will you win? A big basket of great Maine and outdoor things! Such as: fly fishing flies, blueberry something, Maine maple syrup, apple butter (to be made by me on Tuesday), something related to deer hunting and a couple of great books signed by local authors. (Pictures will be posted when I am back at a computer). So thank you for your support and for helping my celebrate such a great month!!

So much for respectable stand placement

Dad has hunted on the land that houses the Sky Condo for the better part of his life. About six years ago, we built the SC and started hunting there full time. At that time, there were no other hunters near by. A few years ago, a hunter bought a bordering piece of property, re-did the old camp that was there and brought his buddies along. We haven't had a lot of incidents with them (trespassing last year, putting pink ribbon on my tree seat and lying to us when we asked them what they shot - a search through the list at the tagging station said an 8-point buck). Two years ago, Dad bought a piece of land that is separated from the Sky Condo property by a powerline and a driveway that is privately owned by our hunting neighbor. The land was bought in May and once October came, our neighbor put a treestand up along the edge of the powerline, facing our new piece of property and right next to our traveling path. We were cautious from that point ...

and a strong cup of coffee

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