Ummm, Moosie, I didn't film my own hunt although I won't argue the fact that my abilities with a camera still have plenty of room for improvement.
Ovis, I hunted with a local that lives on the island. He eats, sleeps, and breathes bear hunting in the spring and deer hunting in the fall. So I had a major Ace up my sleeve so to speak. We traveled mostly by boat. We also drove a few logging roads and went on several hikes. The most productive method was glassing the shoreline from the boat. It was all spot and stalk. However I saw bears pretty much everywhere we went. I saw bears at the boat dock, from the gas station, while standing in the local sporting goods store parking lot, and while traveling from town to the boat dock. There is no shortage of bears there. It's one of the few places I think a guy could actually effectively road hunt bears, but that wouldn't be much fun. However cruising the shoreline in a boat was a much more interesting way to do the hunt. The hiking can range anywhere from extremely easy (on a gravel/sand beach), to about as difficult as anything on the planet. If one must hike through the logging slashes to reach a bear, one takes one's own life in one's hands. It is something you have to experience first hand as the written word can't do it justice. The mountains are very steep, the foilage is so thick in some places that you can't get through it. Then there's this interesting stuff called Devil's Club. It should be renamed Pure Hell. Now I have hiked in plenty of steep, nasty places. Remember I've been dumb enough a time or two, to follow Greenhorn around. The difference up there is that everything is excessively slippery and usually wet. Many of the locals have steel corks on their boots. That is one thing I would do differently. Corked boots would definitely be the way to go and help a lot in the traction department. The rocks along the coast are razor sharp so your boots will be pretty thrashed by the end of the hunt. As for other gear buy the best insulated rain suit you can find. Polartech Fleece worked quite well. I also had Cabela's MT050, but I wasn't that impressed by it's durability and it was not 100% waterproof. I'm still looking for the perfect raingear. It needs to be 100% waterproof, breathable, quiet, and durable. I'm open to suggestions on this. Other manditory gear would include Butler Creek flip up scope covers, and a stainless steel rifle would be much better than a blued rifle. The salt water in the air up there rust's steel at an unbelievable rate. As in your rifle may be fine in the morning and covered with rust by mid afternoon. You will live through your binoculars so buy the best you can afford. I would also recommend that your rifle caliber starts at a 30.06 and go up from there. These are very big bears and you don't want them to run into the thick stuff after you shoot them. It's best if they die "right-now" as tracking can range anywhere from difficult to impossible. I honestly don't know how bowhunters find half of their kills up there. I suspect they lose quite a few. I was very fortunate that all three bears we killed died in the open. It would get ugly real fast had they made it to the trees. Other reality checks while there are food is not cheap and gas when I went a few years ago was $2.00 a gallon. I'm sure it's more now. If one split the cost of food, gas, housing, and boat rental with one or two other guys the hunt could be done for less than $2000.00 each including airfare. Pretty hard to do it for any less, guess that's why the guided bear hunts up there are nearly double what they are anywhere else. This was probably more info than you wanted, sorry.
Bottom line the worst part of my whole hunt was the day I boarded the plane to leave. I didn't want to go and would have loved to stay another month or two. I can't wait to go back someday.
NO, but you did film quiet a few bears. And they were cool seeing them all. It was also cool seeing how thick/steep the hills were. Put in perspective the hunt.
