FLETCHER’S LANDING TOWNSHIP, Maine — When you’re hunting in the woods by yourself, you are in control of the situation.
You decide where to go, how to get there and what tactics you want to employ in your quest to harvest your target animal.
I had no experience hunting black bears and I certainly have never run a bait site. But hearing so many stories recently about pursuing the black ghosts of the Maine woods made me want to give it a try.
I reached out to Registered Maine Guide Mike Clough, the owner of Green Lake Guide Service. He offers single-day hunts and said he had an opening, so I jumped on it.
Mike is super personable and knowledgeable, so I had no qualms about relinquishing my usual control over the hunt to him. I would still have to sit still in the stand and make a good shot.
It was relaxing and exciting to simply show up in Ellsworth and meet up with Mike and other hunters for a short trip to the area where he had been refreshing the bait in 55-gallon plastic barrels, daily late in the season, for the previous seven weeks.
Mike had already put two hunters in the stand upon our arrival and this time he, a fellow guide and some friends also planned to sit.
One by one, the hunters were deposited at their stands and blinds and Mike dropped me off at a promising site at the end of the line. It was a gorgeous, quiet sit, especially after the light breeze subsided.
I was entertained by a determined blonde-backed porcupine that circled the bait barrel several times, climbed onto the logs placed in the opening of the barrel and even scratched and chewed on it.
The bears that had been seen visiting the site previously on the trail camera did not make an appearance.
With the sun sinking fast, a shot rang out a few minutes after 6 p.m. It came from the direction where Mike had planned to sit for his first hunt of what had been a busy season.
About 10 minutes later, I heard two more shots from a different direction. All I knew was that it had to be another of the nine hunters connected with Green Lake Guide Service.
Not long after, with darkness having consumed the woods, I unloaded, climbed down and walked back out to the road to wait for Mike. When he arrived, I immediately asked whether he had a bear down. He shook his head, without saying a word.
He finally conceded that he had shot at a bear, but missed. The bear had come from behind and to the left of his ground blind, breathing loudly, and was within 20 feet. However, Mike was at a bad angle and had to try shooting around a tree before the bear saw him.
As we went to pick up another hunter, Mike was gathering intel via text message about the other shots, which it turned out were fired by one of his friends. He was certain that he had connected, but the bear had run off.
Everyone gathered at a meeting point, at which point some of the men were dropped off at their vehicles and headed home. Six of us remained to help retrieve the bear.
It was dark by the time Mike and I arrived back at the site at about 8:30 p.m., and the rest of the group had already begun the track. The shoothunter described his encounter and was certain that his shot had connected.
Initially, the men had discovered what appeared to be a promising amount of blood on the ground and on some trees and bushes. Slowly and methodically, we pushed through thick bushes and fir trees.
It was pitch dark, so the work was done with the aid of headlamps and flashlights, which lit up small areas of the forest floor. Mike stayed near the front, behind a determined hunter named Chase, and placed flagging tape on branches to mark the course.
With virtually no hands-on tracking experience, I wasn’t able to provide much help, especially since my glasses had snapped in half before I even headed to my stand. Mike had found a small zip tie, which we used to keep the lenses tethered together and enable me to see.
Slowly, but surely, the blood trail began to diminish. There were no signs that the bear had laid down. Despite starting to entertain the idea the animal was going to survive its wounds, the group pressed on.
The search continued for more than 2 1/2 hours and covered more than a mile, albeit literally inches at a time. Chase often was on his hands and knees.
Finally, with the evidence no longer visible, the men determined that the bear was not mortally wounded. Even a tracking dog, they reasoned, was never going to be able to catch up to a bear that was effectively eluding their efforts.
It was after 11 o’clock when they called off the search and we began our walk over blowdowns, rocks, branches and holes back out to the road. Out on the road, Mike’s flashlight illuminated a set of eyes in the distance.
It turned out to be a large deer, which had stopped nearby as we walked up the road. Finally, it moved back into the woods.
There was undeniable frustration among the group that the bear wasn’t found.
“It happens to everyone,” one of the hunters said, trying to ease the disappointment.
We did everything we could to find the bear, but they are tough and resilient animals. Earlier in the season, a bear harvested in the area by a hunter using a rifle was discovered to have a razor-sharp broadhead from another hunter’s arrow lodged in it.
For me, the experience confirmed some important realities of hunting.
First, there is no guarantee an animal is going to present itself, even a bear on a bait site. And sometimes even the most experienced hunters miss, or don’t make a perfect shot.
It was important for the group to make every effort to track the wounded bear and make sure that if it was dead, it was recovered. Or if it was still alive, that it was expected to be able to survive.
The hunters took those necessary steps and Mike, in his role as a guide, made certain that he did everything in his power to eliminate any doubts.
There won’t be any bear meat in the freezer for me this winter, but enjoying a day in the woods was rewarding and fun.
