Pennsylvania Game News - November 2013 - 17

station. We were anxious to look
at the map to see where bears had
been harvested. It is perhaps the
most important piece of in-season
scouting information. Unfortunately,
nothing on the map jumped out at us
to change the original plan we had
already laid out.
In years past, the core of our group
had always hunted bears, but usually
just jumped in with other established
groups from our area or put together
small pushes. However, in our area
there is almost no public land and
most landowners were not willing to
allow our group to drive their ground
prior to deer season. With all of this
in mind, shortly after the close of the
2009 season we had begun to plan for
hunting out of Jasper's camp for the
2010 season. The camp was located
in a good area of the north woods
that consistently produced in both
high hunting pressure and harvest
numbers.
Out of our small cluster of friends,
three of us in this year's group were
on the hunt for bear number two.
Those kills were retold many times
around the potbelly stove, often
not by the successful hunter, but by
one of the other hunters who was
involved. When hunting in a group,
you pretty much just wait all day to
hear the shot of a poster opening
up on a bear. Often, there is just as
good of a chance to harvest a bear
while driving as there is posting. But
everyone at camp knew that anyone
could be the lucky hunter.
At around 5 o'clock on Sunday,
my brother, Aaron, and Bobby
Rougeaux pulled into camp, bringing
our crew number to nine. Aaron had
never hunted bears before, but was
NOVEMBER 2013

eager to see what it was all about.
With camp already at maximum
capacity, Bobby was given the floor
area at the base of one of the bunk
beds. Aaron set up shop on a fold
out bed situated in the kitchen that
barely fit between the counter and
the fridge.
Monday morning came quickly
and soon Eddie was evicting Aaron
from his sleeping quarters to begin
the bacon and eggs. The game plan
called for us to head to where Eddie
and his group had hunted the first
day, and most knew that it wasn't
going to be a good time.
Nine drives had been mapped
out prior to the season and we felt
confident that if we pounded it hard,
we would be able to finish all nine
by dark. With lumberjack lunches
packed, full breakfasts in our bellies,
and a 10-gallon water jug strapped to
the tailgate, we planned to operate as
quickly as possible, wasting little time
between drives.
After being delayed by the
overtime match of rock-paperscissors, we finally dropped J.J. at
the last spot and left for where we
would begin the drive. With the
truck parked, Eddie, Aaron, Troy and
I waited for starting time before we
began to push our way into the brush.
A yell from Eddie signaled the start
of the drive and the four of us began
our push through the thick clear-cut.
Dense saplings, intertwined treetops
and red briars made the going tough.
With visibility limited to 10 to 20
feet we routinely had to stop and
realign ourselves before continuing
forward. Eddie and I were on the
flanks. After just giving a yell to
inform the others that we were at the
17
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2013

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