The wind had switched a little bit more out of the east. It was swirling around and a little bit stronger than the day before. It was cooler, damp, and overcast all day. The bear were definitely a little more nervous today. With a little extra activity in a couple of the spots they have become more cautious.

Brian N. headed back in to his ladder stand today about 1:00pm. Nothing showed until about 5:00. Two small boars came in and left and that was it for him.

We put Leon in the reserve stand today. Jerry had checked the camera earlier in the day but did not bait. When he took Leon back in a couple hours later the bear had been in there and rooted around looking for food. We thought it would be perfect and they would come back in as soon as they heard the truck and the baiting, but nothing showed all afternoon.

Brian H. and I went back to his same stand. Jerry drove in with the quad to bait as we climbed the tree and got settled in. When we were set he drove off, and about 4 minutes later we heard a twig snap and within 1 minute the first bear appeared.

About a 250# bear, we never got to see if it was a boar or a sow, but just a few minutes later 2 more bear appeared but never ate, they were nervous. And they could smell us as the wind swirled. The 3rd one looked to be 300# and Brian said he would take it if it offered a shot, but it just never came in. It put its nose up in the air a couple times and went into slow motion mode and just snuck away down the road, sniffing all the brush along the way and lifting his nose occasionally. The first one rolled the stump filled with goodies out into the trail, but it sat there the rest of the eve. Without any other bear touching it.

A couple hours later Brian saw a bear walk across the trail about 75 yards out, it circled around and was in the bait in a few minutes. We think it was a sow about 225 to 250lbs.

It would sneak out of the brush and pick at the bait, it never came out in the open very often. It would grab a mouthful and then walk down a log and disappear for a minute or two then come sneaking back. It did this about a dozen times before it finally left for good.

This a pretty cool pic I got of this bear.

We had other bear downwind of us at times too. Brian got a glimpse of another one once, and we heard brush breaking different times. It just wasn’t a good day for bear nerves.

This pic isn’t very good, but..

He showed up just as we were getting packed up to get down. He didn’t want to leave and we had to walk past the bait to get out of there. When I got a few feet away he backed up a little bit, then a little bit more. Then I finally just figured the heck with it and started walking past then he turned and scooted out without incident. Maybe I should have let him spray us for cover scent? Well even though we didn’t get sprayed we still got SKUNKED for the day!

The lighting conditions were much better for photography, but I also think the bear could see better today. They looked at us more often for sure. I think with the bright sun the day before they saw more light dark contrast and movement and didn’t notice us up in the tree. But today with the drab colors I think were more of a presence in the tree. The tree is not very big and with 2 guys up there I think they know what’s up. Plus they are obviously getting bothered with our scent a little more than they are used to. We decided that tomorrow we would give this spot a break.

Stay tuned for Day 3…