Bear Hunting

What did the Johnson's do for Labor Day weekend? Well y'all, we went bear hunting! Cory sold the idea to me as an opportunity to go camping in the wilderness. We went into the Frank Church Wilderness area, which is just outside of Challis, Idaho. To get back into the wilderness area, we had to drive on a road that was just wide enough for one vehicle at a time. It was just like in the movies - one false move and you fall off the edge of the mountain. Here Cory and Brady are assessing the steep drop below. And take note of that peak in the distance that has a white speck on top; we'll come back to that later.
Here I am getting strapped into my pack. I about fell over backwards when I first put it on.

Our campsite was about a three-mile hike from the truck. On the way, we took a small detour to go up to the look-out. Remember that white speck I mentioned earlier? Well, this is it. The view from the top was amazing! All you could see were mountain-tops for as far as the eye could see. This look-out is used to keep an eye out for fires during the summer.

Amazing view from the top of the look-out.

If you look carefully in this picture, you can see the road that we drove in on along the ridge of the mountain.

We came down from the look-out and got our packs strapped on and were ready to start hiking again. And then Cory saw a bear across the valley. Those boys dropped their packs like they were on fire. It totally reminded me of the "stop, drop and roll" technique. Brady got a shot off but they missed the bear.

So we continued our hike into the wilderness. And just in case it wasn't already crystal clear, the forest service put up this nice sign that informed us that we were officially entering the "primitive area."

We camped near this beautiful lake.

At 5:00 a.m., the boys were up and ready to go bear hunting. I would have loved to stay at camp and sleep in, but I didn't have a gun and there were wolves everywhere. So I went on the bear hunt too...mostly to pack the food and take pictures.

The excitement was high and the boys had tons of energy early in the morning. They kept a steady eye out for any sign of wildlife.

And about three hours into the day, this is what they looked like. Apparently hunting bear is quite exhausting. So while they napped, I sat in the sun and read my book. After about four hours, Cory announced that he was bored and we went back to camp and took a nap.

We did see another bear by the side of the road on our drive back to Challis, but it was long gone by the time we got out of the truck and went back to find it. Final score at the end of this hunting excursion = Johnson's: 0, Bears: 2. I'm sure there will be a next time, though!