Even though we had gotten an elk, the year before with the rifle, Harry, Bud, and I wanted to try archery hunting again in the Donnelly area in 1989. We were disappointed that the bulls were through bugling, during rifle season. To get the bull elk all riled up was the fun part of the whole trip.
September 13th, we loaded up the trailer house and pickups with our normal hunting gear, then headed for Donnelly again. The plan was to camp in the same place as the past two years, above the Island Ridge. We know the area as well as possible, besides, it was only a short walk from camp to hunt. Travel time to Donnelly was about two hours loaded as we were. At Barker Lane, we headed up into the open hunting area. Boise Cascade Corporation has the timber rights in this area, and they also own much of the land outright. They have never tried to stop the hunting in this area. We went up past the Island Ridge to the road where we wanted to put the camp. We parked the trailer house in the same place as before with the lean-to out in front using the pipes for braces. Putting up the pipes takes less time and makes more room for cooking and storage. We put carpet on the ground for warmth, and it was cleaner to walk on. We put the potty chair in some trees away from camp and out of sight of the road. Soon, a comfortable camp was set up. This would be our home for a week or more.
Now with camp all set up properly, it was time to run down for our visit with Joe and Vicki. We always let them know we are in their country in case of any problems at home. They were happy to see us and to see that we were back for the archery season. They reported seeing elk in the field each evening, so we were hopeful about finding one to shoot. The first few days we hunted close to camp and on the Island Ridge. We saw elk each day, but they would keep just out of reach. It was as if they knew how far an arrow could travel and we were not much of a threat to them. One afternoon, Joe came to camp having a problem with his compound bow. He had missed an elk that morning, which really upset him. We had a target set up for practicing, while in camp with nothing else to do. Joe shot an arrow at the target, but it hit the ground about halfway. Harry and Bud had a good knowledge of how the compound bows should work. They looked it over and found the arrow rest was loose, causing a backlash when the fletching hit the rest. No one could have shot an arrow straight the way it was configured. We had some glue to stick it back where it should be, then by tightening down some screws it stayed in place. This corrected the problem; Joe was happy to have it fixed. Later on, he shot a nice bull elk with it.
The fourth day we went out in the truck to look for elk in the Patty Flats area. There did not seem to be anything around that looked like an elk. Even the deer were hiding from us. We went back to our own side of the mountain, walked, drove, and looked everywhere, but no elk. It was getting late in the afternoon by this time, might as well go back to camp. Just as we pulled into camp, a black animal came out of the lean-to. At first, we thought it was someone’s dog. It was a cub bear; Mama Bear and a second cub was still in the lean-to. Mama bear and the other cub heard us drive up, so they charged out to see what was going on. They all ran up the road, then stopped to challenge our presence. We had our .357 pistols in the trailer house, which we quickly retrieved. We started firing in the air hoping to scare them away. The cubs decided to climb the pine trees nearby, while the old sow Bear sat in the road deciding what she should do. One cub climbed a pine tree without any limbs on it, so it did not have any cover to hide him. He came back down as fast as he could and went up another tree that was bushier. The other cub did not seem to like being up in a tree with all the noise going on. She left the tree and headed up the road on the run. Meanwhile, the mama bear was making jesters like she was going to charge the camp. We did not want to kill her because of the cubs. While she was sitting in the road, Harry shot at the ground as close to her rump as possible without hitting her. The bullet cut a groove in the dirt where she was sitting. It must have smarted really badly, because she let out a loud growl and headed up the road as fast as she could, then jumped off the road into the brush and trees. She t○○k one cub with her but left the other in the tree. She headed out over the mountain and never came back for the other cub. She must have decided to put some distance between herself and the camp. Time to assess the damage, an old sow bear with cubs can make a shamble of a camp in a brief time. They were not there for awfully long. They had eaten some bread and butter, most of a cake, Some raw Peaches, and a few cookies. They did not have time to get into the ice boxes with meat and milk in them. We felt fortunate to only lose a few things which we could live without. After supper, we Were too tired and shook up to bother with playing Pinochle. Every once in a while, the cub in the tree would let out a bawl for mama, which made us pretty nervous. We were leery about going outside the trailer house for quite a while in case she came back. We hoped the cub would get tired and go looking for his mama. Nothing to do but go to bed hoping to sleep a little bit during the night. About midnight, the cub decided to climb down from his tree. He must have still been hungry, because he came back into camp looking for something more to eat. The garbage bag was put up in Harry’s truck to keep it up away from the bears, if they came back. The cub climbed into the back of the truck to get into the sack. I went outside yelling loudly which scared him off. We hoped he was gone for the night but just in case he came back I unhooked the tailgate but left it up so it would hit him on the head if he tried to get into the truck again. It was not long before he was back. He did just what we thought, he started to climb into the truck. The tailgate came down on top of his head, smacking him a good lick and scaring him badly. I went out again to see what was going on. I could hear him running away; so, I fired the .357 pistol down the road after him. He must have gotten the message because he never came back.
The next morning, I fixed a leisurely breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. We were not in any hurry to leave the camp alone again. The bears might come back and really tear the place up. We have heard stories of the damage they can do. We had just finished eating when a caterpillar tractor came rumbling up our road. The driver gave us sad news, we could leave the camp where it was, but a logging crew was on its way to log the area. The driver was clearing out the road for the trucks to haul out the cut logs. We sure did not want to be camped where a dozen logging trucks and other equipment would be going past the camp ten feet from the door all day long. The way we looked at the situation, we had no choice but to move camp. The camp was taken down in a brief time, then we headed down the mountain to find another campsite. It was too early to go home, besides Montie Davis was coming up to hunt with us for the rest of the trip. Down about three miles was a Side Road with many tall trees and a grassy meadow. This place was off the main road, but not hard to get to. We put up the e lean-to and all the tarps again. We have put the camp up so many times, we are old hands at it. We relocated to the new camp by noon. The temperature was a lot warmer only a few miles down the hill from the other camp. We would make the best of it and still do some hunting. Before we left after lunch, we left a note for Montie and put up some signs on the new road for him to find the new camp. We went out checking for tracks on our motorcycles. We rode all the roads and some of the places that were not roads. We were on our way back to camp when we met Montie coming in. We chatted a bit, but I did not tell him about moving camp. I wanted to see if he would see the signs we put out. He took off up the road going like sixty. He was going to beat me to camp, so he thought. He never saw any of the signs on either side of the road. I could not catch him, so I stopped at the side of the road to wait for his return. I knew he was headed for the old camp. It was not long before he came back, looking very sheepish about not knowing where he was going. I showed him the signs to poke fun at him. We then went on into camp to get his gear put away with ours. We explained the move and we would still be able to hunt the Island Ridge from there.
Bud wanted to take a short walk off the hill towards a large valley below us. He was sitting on the hill watching for elk, when he heard the cub bear down below still calling for his mama. We hoped he would not find the camp again, but we heard no more from him. He was old enough to find food to keep him going. The next morning, we went down some ridges towards the fields. blowing the budges and trying to find an elk. However, the elk just was not in the mood to answer us. There were tracks in the trails where the elk had been traveling at night to feed in the fields. Since Montie came to hunt, hoping to find an elk, we stayed the rest of the weekend. We hunted hard and cooked some good meals. We enjoyed the camping trip, but it would have been nice to have shot an Elk. Sunday afternoon it was time to break camp again and head for home. We had some wild experiences and hope they never happen again.
We arrived home in the early afternoon with plenty of time to put everything away to be ready for the next trip. When everything was put away, we sat around talking about where to go and what to do next year. We wanted to go back to Donnelly next year, for archery again.