Hunting the Late, Late California Black Bear Season - Pictures

[The Trinity Kid]

Afternoon everyone. Merry Christmas to everyone (since this thread was started on Christmas,).

Here in California, general black bear season goes from September to December 31. I've been working and/or sick since July, and haven't been able to go out hunting much. But in this last week or so of season, I'm hitting the woods. And, living in the age of technology, I have a camera in my phone to document it. So that's what this is.

I'm not putting pictures in this first post, just because my computer doesn't like it when the first post in a thread I open has pictures in it.

I'll start with my rifle.

Winchester M70 Featherweight. In 280 Remington. I'm shooting factory 140gr Cor-Lokt bullets because that's all I can get my hands on at the moment. With this load the rifle shoots about 1.1" at 100 yards. I haven't had a chance to take it out farther yet.
I'm using a Vortex Diamondback 4-12x40 BDC. I zeroed at 25 yards, and it is hitting 3" high at 100y like it should.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

The first time I made it out was the 23. Me and a friend drove away from town about two miles, then up the road that goes to the fire lookout outside of town, on top of a 7000ft mountain. We went up to about 4500ft, then parked and started out walk. There is an old mining ditch that runs across the face of the mountain (it supplied water from up higher to a mine about 10 miles away. Impressive engineering, but that's another story), and we followed this ditch. We came across this track about 100 yards down the trail.

The temperature at that elevation was about 30F and the forecast called for snow. It didn't snow while we were out, but it did snow earlier that morning around 3am.
This next picture is the first place we stopped to glass. The other side of the canyon is 600 yards. We were there for maybe 40 minutes before pushing on.

Remember earlier I mentioned a mining ditch? Well, this is a siphon on that ditch. Basically what this is, is a way for them to get water across a canyon that was too deep/far for a trestle, and the ridge didn't continue on for the ditch itself. So what they would do is put a pipe and run it straight down the side of the mountain and back up the other side. The pressure generated by the water falling was enough to push it back up the other side a ways, sometime to within 10 feet of the beginning elevation. Most of these siphons were disassembled and the steel sold for the war effort in the first World War, but some were too far out to be worth carting a 24" diameter steel pipe in 25-50 foot sections by mule.

After the first glassing spot, the terrain decided not to lend itself to seeing anything. For most of the next mile, visibility was limited to about 15 yards. This picture was looking down from the trail into the gully from a seasonal creek.

This picture is of some sort of scrape. The ground was too hard to leave tracks in the mud, and pine needle duff isn't exactly great track laying material. There were several more, but this one was most impressive. But this is where we got the closest to a bear that day. We heard it up the hill about 15-20 yards down the trail, walking through the brush, but we never got a look at it. The foliage was too thick to fight through quietly, and he caught our wind. We continued on the trail because it wrapped back around and would offer a ~500 yard shot back at this spot. Naturally he was gone by then, but it was our best option just then.

This was a track we found in the same general area as the last picture. The 280 cartridge is there for a size comparison, but this picture just doesn't do it any justice. My best guess is that this was a 6-foot bear in the 250lb zone. I think I've seen it before when I was scouting the area in May and early June.

I think this picture shows how thick and steep the area is pretty well. The trail is going up right there, and the brush you see on both sides of the trail is thinner than that just off camera.

This picture is as we were coming into the edge of a wildfire area from the summer. If you're curious, just google "Helena Fire California 2017."

Another of a handline a helicopter crew put in. The fire jumped it up higher, but stopped at a secondary line.

This is a tree that before the fire was perfectly round, and 5 feet in diameter.

Apparently you can only upload 10 pictures at a time, so on to part 2 of day 1.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

Part 2 of December 23, 2017


Again, this is still in the fire, but it gives a good view of how steep the area is without the underbrush. This was on a north face of the mountain, so it was still snowy. And ridiculously slippery.

Here was our lunch stop. By this time it was about 2pm, so we were ready to eat. The temperature had gone up to about 40, but our food was still frozen. Do you know how hard it is to eat a frozen Rice Crispy? Or wash it down with slushy water.

This was the last picture I took for the day, of my baby. Again, the picture doesn't do it justice, but the sun was gleaming on the bluing and the scope had caught the sun and was casting a rainbow on the ground.

After that we walked back to the truck without doing much glassing, since the friend I was with needed to get home.

And that was the first day of my "Week (ish) of Late Season Bear Hunting

 

[HARPERC]

Glad your health improved enough to get out. Thanks for the pictures!

 

[Barrelnut]

Sounds like a good day in the field. Pics really brought the story to life. Thanks for sharing. Good luck on your next trip.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

Thanks for the nice words.

Continuing with the story. On the 24, I didn't do any dedicated hunting. I brought my 9mm when I took the dog for a walk, and naturally that was the day I saw a bear. He was an older boar around 200lbs, dark brown but not quite black. This picture is his front foot.

This next picture was from about 1/2 mile back toward the truck. Bears aren't the only predator in these hills!

This last picture is just clouds, with a house silhouetted against them. I know the people who own it, one of which is a highway patrol officer.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

On to the 25th!

I didn't get out into the woods until 11, and only got to hunt until ~3, but I covered a lot of ground.
This is in the same canyon as the one I was in on the 23, but instead of driving to the top, I started at the bottom.

And here's another Mountain Lion track.

This picture doesn't show how steep this was, but it's where I walked up. It was a fire line, put in by a bulldozer. It's 250 feet tall, and gets there in about 50 horizontal feet. I don't feel like doing any Pythagorean theorem at the moment, but it was steep. And covered in wet clay, so it was slick.

The red circle is my truck from the top.

At the top, I took a quick water break. Removed a layer, took the rifle off of the backpack and on my shoulder, ate a granola bar and caught my breath. And the hunt was on.

This road continues for about 200 yards, before it gets to where I was headed.

Which was this clear cut. At the widest point across, it's about 450y. Longwise, it's about 900, which is farther than I'm comfortable with this rifle.

The oak trees didn't drop any acorns until very late this year. We still have trees dropping right now, so there's a good food supply for game animals.

You can see all of the deer tracks in there.

And I'm pretty much out of pictures in this post, so on to part 2.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

Part 2 of the 25.

This is where I set up to glass. I walked all the way around the rim of the cut and was about half way down the other side. I had a bush to my back, and a stump to put my backpack on as a rifle rest. I was only here for around 45 minutes, but in that time I saw a coyote, two does and a buck. Unfortunately, deer season ended two months ago, and I didn't want to scare any bears by shooting the coyote, so I didn't take any of them. From where I was sitting to the top of the other hillside was 600y. Looking down canyon I could see about 550.

After my 45 minute glass, I continued down this side of the cut. It drops down into the treeline again near a year-round creek.

I found a few tracks, but none were terribly fresh. There is an old logging road at the bottom that leads back to where I started, so I took that.

The brush is so thick that you can only see about 20 yards at the most. But there were a lot of Live Oaks, and they still had acorns on the tree, so I didn't rule seeing a bear out.
But then, the road comes back into the "no shooting" area. Which, granted, is too dense to shoot anything anyway, but still. That feeling of knowing "it's over for today" never feels good.

And that was pretty much the end of my hunt on the 25. I still had a little more than a mile to get back to the truck.

 

[Catahoula]

Part 2 of the 25.

This is where I set up to glass. I walked all the way around the rim of the cut and was about half way down the other side. I had a bush to my back, and a stump to put my backpack on as a rifle rest. I was only here for around 45 minutes, but in that time I saw a coyote, two does and a buck. Unfortunately, deer season ended two months ago, and I didn't want to scare any bears by shooting the coyote, so I didn't take any of them. From where I was sitting to the top of the other hillside was 600y. Looking down canyon I could see about 550.View attachment 86539 View attachment 86541
After my 45 minute glass, I continued down this side of the cut. It drops down into the treeline again near a year-round creek. View attachment 86542 View attachment 86543

I found a few tracks, but none were terribly fresh. There is an old logging road at the bottom that leads back to where I started, so I took that.View attachment 86544 The brush is so thick that you can only see about 20 yards at the most. But there were a lot of Live Oaks, and they still had acorns on the tree, so I didn't rule seeing a bear out.
But then, the road comes back into the "no shooting" area. Which, granted, is too dense to shoot anything anyway, but still. That feeling of knowing "it's over for today" never feels good.View attachment 86545

And that was pretty much the end of my hunt on the 25. I still had a little more than a mile to get back to the truck.

Great reads!!!
I absolutely love spot & stalk bear hunting. This year I hiked a total of 145 miles in the woods. Did'nt get a bear but had a great time. I have let 18 bears go since killing my last one. Just seeing a black bear or grizzly is such a treat.
Keep it up!
Thanks, Kirk

 

[The Trinity Kid]

On to the 26

I couldn't get out to hunt until almost 11pm. Partly it was weather. The other part was because my grandma was parked behind my truck and slept late. It gave me a chance to walk my dog before going out though, so I guess there's that.

I went to an area that is close to where I have been, about 5 miles as a bear meanders. 4 miles by highway, with an added mile or so of walking uphill. The weather was cloudy in town, and the place I parked my truck at the gate was fogged in.

100 feet up the mountain and conditions had gotten worse. About 10 yard visibility.

With this picture I was trying to show how steep the road was. The camera was level, facing the road. In the area covered by the frame, the road goes up almost 15 feet.

Another 100 or so feet up, and the fog was starting to thin out...

Until it broke 900 feet above where I started out.

I was heading up to the tree line, which is another 100 feet.

This picture was from a little farther up than the last, showing one of the areas I was planning on glassing later on.

And this is at the tree line.

The reason the mountain is so devoid of trees down low is because of forest fires. This mountain has had a major fire burn all or part of it in 2001, 2006, 2008, 2014 and 2017. Every time the replanted trees get a foothold, they burn down. This particular area last burned in 2006. I started hunting in 2007, when all of the trees here were still saplings. Some of them are 15 feet tall now. And there is no shortage of deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds (including turkeys), coyotes or bears. I see at least one bear a year up there. But not since May this year,

And this brings me to my first glassing spot. This is the edge of the burned area, which for some reason hasn't burned in almost 100 years (1920s, according to the local newspaper). In any case, it was logged a couple of years ago, making an excellent place to glass for game. At the widest, it's about 250-300 yards, and 500 yards from top to bottom. I glassed for nearly an hour before it got fogged in. Then I packed up and went to that spot I showed earlier.

On to part 2.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

Part 2 of December 26.

While I was in the treeline, I took advantage of the good cover to have a snack and change from my black hoodie (which is nice and warm, and decent as a concealing garment) into one of my Christmas presents that I got in October. This is a Kryptek shirt, lightweight model. It's better at blocking the wind than the hoodie, and I was moving from dark backdrops to a grassy hillside. The facemask was because the canyon I was going into was pretty windy and I didn't want my ears cold.

From there I made my way down through the trees to a spot where I hunt for deer. Straight across is about 300 yards. When the fog isn't slowly rising, the view down into the thicker brush is about 500 yards. But, with the fog it wasn't particularly worth a picture. Only about 50 yards of visibility.

I glassed here for around an hour and a half before it got fogged in as well. In that time, I saw two deer, a fox and about 10,000,000,000 mosquitoes. This picture is zoomed in as far as my phone will go. The red circle is around the hindquarters of one of the deer I saw. Both were does, by the way.

Of course, this spot got fogged in too. But I had one final place up my sleeve. It's around the other side of the mountain, and I've had good luck there in the past. It's a big bowl on the hillside that is protected from the weather and has a natural spring that provides water year round. There is a herd of about 35-40 deer that beds in it all year. Last year I had a 5x5 buck in that herd patterned, along with a 3x3, 3x4, large fork and a spike. I didn't get to be out there on opening day of season and someone killed three of the smaller bucks. The big one is still on the loose, according to a friend who saw him the day after season this year.

These next two pictures were taken within 15 minutes of the first. It shows how fast the fog was actually moving.

Needless to say, that ended my hunting in that area. But it was just as well, since by then it was almost 4:30pm.

But, there are still a few days to go.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

Well, nobody ever claimed the internet was perfect...which is good, since mine has been down the past two days.

But, here is the report for December 27.

Nothing.

I took that day off because we were forecast for lightening, and crawling around the side of a mountain in a thunderstorm wasn't appealing. So instead me and my brother went to the range and burned some ammo. My mother gave me a new rifle rest for Christmas, so we used that to perfect our zeros. The range we were at only goes to 150y, but we sent a couple down that far. My 280 had ~1.5" group with 140 Core-Lokt factory ammo. The 308 (including my brother's flinch) grouped at 2" with 150 Federal Power Shok.

On the 28, a friend wanted to go with me, so he took off work early so we could get out around 2pm. Naturally, things didn't go as planned and we weren't leaving my house until 3:30. But, we got out and had time for a few minutes of glassing.

The ridge directly across from us is about 400y.

New post for December 29 next

 

[The Trinity Kid]

December 29.

I got out around 1:30 to a new place. Some friends of mine had a bear get into their chicken coop this week, but their land borders huntable forest. When I got out, the fog was beginning to burn off, but it was still pretty thick in a lot of places. This first picture shows the side of the hill I climbed from the truck.

This next picture is from about 50 feet up, looking back at the truck. It shows how bizarrely the fog was pocketed.

From the top, I followed the ridge for about a mile. The whole time, the only bear sign I saw was a pile of scat that I'd guess was over a month old. Not a good sign.

This next picture was of the river, primarily. Though I did glass that closer ridge for a few minutes.

This is Mount Shasta, and Trinity dam in the foreground.

This picture is where I had lunch. It was on the North face of the mountain, in a shadow, and there was still ice, despite the ambient temperature on top being 55.

From there, I headed back along the ridge toward the truck, and then turned, following a smaller ridge down a ways. I glassed in this spot for around two hours.

By the end of that two hours, the sun was beginning to go down, so I headed back to the truck. I got there quicker than I expected, so I made a quick stop on the way home. I've never seen a bear at this next place, but it was only a five minute detour, and it was higher up, so it was still light.

From the top looking back at the truck.

So that was my day on the 29. I didn't see any bears, or much sign, but it was a day hunting, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

 

[The Trinity Kid]

Now for today, which is the 30th of December.

This is just about closest I have gotten to a bear this season. I made it out of the house at 10:30. Later than I'd wanted, but the earliest I could. I decided to go to the same place I went Monday. I've seen bears there in the past week (just not with a rifle), but it's been pretty crowded with tourists. But I said heck with the tourists and went for it.
Once I got off the main trail and onto an old logging road, I found a set of fresh tracks within 50 feet. The mud there is kind of weird, in that it will settle back into a print and erase it within about an hour. These prints were so fresh that the hair was still imprinted. That was when the rifle came off of the frame pack and into my hands.
I tracked the bear through this mud for around half a mile before the topography changed. This first picture shows how the mud is strange with tracks. You can see my tracks on the left, and the bear on the right.

Just after I took this picture, the road ended, turning into a narrow trail along the inside of a canyon. The bear tracks disappeared for a minute, so I climbed the clearcut that I didn't take a picture of to see if the view was any good. It wasn't, so I climbed back down and followed a hunch, taking the trail in the direction the bear had gone. I found the tracks again ten yards farther, and it was on again.
I tracked for another quarter mile, until the bear turned up into a steep, thickly vegetated draw. It was so thick that I couldn't make it up with my pack. I was fortunate, because on the other edge of the canyon there was a fire break from the recent fire in the area that goes all the way to the top of the mountain. So I hopped on that and raced that bear to the top. This picture is about 500 feet up.

The whole time I climbed, I could hear the bear in the bushes across the canyon. But the brush was so thick that I couldn't see more than a few feet off of my little expressway. That was beyond frustrating. This is from the top, 1500 feet up from where I lost the tracks.

The fire break crosses an old road at this point, so I was able to grab a sip of water, and then make a dash for the place where the other wall of the canyon also meets this road.
When I got there, I found I was just a little too late. But I had more tracks to follow. About 1/4 mile farther, I found where the bear had peed. The temperature was still around 35-40, so the urine was steaming it was so fresh.

I'm having a computer issue, apparently, so I'll have to make part 2 in a while.