One Heck Of A Ride

30 The Making of a Hunter The two grizzly bears author took on his week-long hunt in Alaska, 2014. an unopened package of sandwich meat in a box, but the bear didn’t touch it, and he always scrubbed the plane with detergent and bleach after flying clients with fish and game. It cost him $75,000.00 to restore the plane; $3,500.00 just for its large bush tires.) Our camp consisted of two eight-by-eight-foot Cabelas all-weather tents that Luke had the packer, Jerry, set up before we reached camp. One tent was for me; the other was for Luke and Jerry. After unloading my gear and packing my backpack for the next day’s hunt, we were enjoying a cup of coffee overlooking the dry riverbed and making plans for the next day. I was facing toward the trees and Jerry was facing out toward the riverbed when a bear walked behind me, not fifty yards away. It was a small grizzly bear with the markings and coloration of a typical grizzly. Luke and Jerry said we were ninety miles from the coast and, although black bears in the area usually were small, they had thick hair. (I decided not to shoot the only black bear we saw on this trip.) One of the two grizzly bears I shot in a week of huntingwith Luke and Jerry squared 7 feet, 7.5 inches. We hunted by hiking (in hip boots), glassing hillsides, and making long stalks. Although we saw several moose, I’d taken a good bull in an earlier hunt and didn’t need another one. We were eating our evening meal under a propane lantern my last night in camp when Jerry