From the Field
Quebec Bear 2007
I took my Better Half to Gesti-Faune's spring bear lodge, the Manoir Brule near the City of Quebec. We had a wonderful time with the fishing, scenery and fabulous meals .... and the hunting. There are a lot of moose and a lot of black bear in the area, and a small herd of caribou that the provincial government is trying to nurture. The bear prey heavily on the caribou and moose calves, and so the wildlife authorities have been liberalizing the bear seasons. But wolves have recently moved into the area and I would guess they will soon take more calves than the bears. Temperatures were generally in the 70s, with some 80s and the first night down in the 40s. I was in good shape wearing a Frontier Shirt and Bunlite Pants over 200 gram Ullfrotte, even in the 80 degree afternoons. And mosquitoes couldn't bite through the 2 layers of wool, even though they had no problem drilling my hands through my "bug-proof" mitts. On the last day of the hunt I was running a fever, and switched to cotton pants and a cotton T under my Frontier. With about 5 minutes of light left, this 150-pounder showed up. This was my 2nd bear of the trip. Eggs Benedict with some delicious sides was a typical breakfast, and the meals just ramped up from there, with a multi-course dinner about midnight. The menu also featured the brook trout -- fried and smoked -- that were biting eagerly. I already booked for 2008!
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Here's Debby petting the "bear-triever". This happy little fuzz-ball of a dog is trained to trail bears. Two of the bears shot during our stay were well-hit, but did not go down right away, so the guides called in this little guy who raced through the horrendously thick woods and found the dead bears in seconds flat. The bears did not travel far, but with the woods so thick and lack of a blood trail, they would have been tough to find without the help of the dog.
On the 2nd night of the hunt, this bear came in. I shot both my bears with 12-gauge Partition Gold shotgun slugs. They did not go far, and tracking them, even at night, was no problem. More than one bear guide has told me he'd rather see his clients show up with shotgun slug than any other load. My Omnilite in Tamarack over lightweight Woolpower Ullfrotte was fine for sitting in the warm temps, and for keeping bugs at bay, but it was definitely more than I needed when it came time to get the bear out of the woods!!
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