It was June 7th. I had finally drawn a special limited entry for spring Grizzly in my favorite bear spot. The problem was we were running out of time. The tag would expire in eight days and we still had a week of shutdown. It didn’t take much convincing for Troy to say, “Skip it, we’ll work on the camp later.” Off we went. It took us less than two hours to pack up. The other guides and cooks had planned an-end-of-season celebration dinner but they understood this was really a once in a lifetime opportunity with the way the tags for Grizzly Bears are allocated. Troy, myself and Assistant Guide, Robert Depfyffer, headed off to our special spot, PREDATOR VALLEY. This was a spot that Troy and I had discovered fourteen years before while moose hunting. Year after year we saw fewer Moose and more Black Bear, Wolves and Grizzly. The previous year, we had seen Wolves, a very large Grizzly and had taken two trophy-class Black Bear, all in three days. Now we had a Grizzly tag. I also hoped to take a Wolf.

The drive was two hours from our lodge and we would be driving in the evening – prime time! Last year we spotted Troy’s bear within the first hour of the hunt. This year proved to be no different. We spotted several good bears on the way in but wanted to keep going. We still had several hours to reach our Base Camp. Then the action started…

Stay tuned for Part 2….