Carter was excited to draw a bear tag in a cool area this year. He had offers to go out with several guys he knows who run bear dogs as a hobby. He invited me to go along (or did I ask if I could come?) Anyway, what a neat experience! This is how it works...When we reach the hunting area, they bring their dogs up to ride on the top of the truck. They are belted in nice and safe. Then they drive slowly down the road until the dogs catch bear scent and start barking. They release one dog to take off and see if it's a good trail. If it's not, the dog comes back, but if it takes off howling, they release the pack. They all crash through the forest following the bear - sometimes for miles, until the bear finally climbs a tree. The dogs keep it treed by making the loudest racket you've ever heard. We follow the GPS radar things in their collars (and the noise). When we arrived we took lots of pictures and watched the bear a while. It wasn't huge, but it was beautiful, and it's sure something you don't get to see everyday. It was fun watching the dogs work, too. You could tell they just lived for this. They were amazing! Carter went out the next week again and took the Teachers Quorum for an activity, and Jayden got to tag along on that trip. Carter had no intentions of actually shooting a bear (unless they treed a monster, I suppose) but we had some neat adventures just watching them.
