I snuck over last week and hunted in the Bridgers a couple of days. Saw one fantastic looking cinnamon bear. Got all excited and in a hurry to make a play on it because it was travelling when we first saw it. Oldest boy and I took off on a round the mountain head em off stalk. We got set up before the bear made it's way out of a patch of timber that we had been hoping he was in. When he came out at a bit over 200 yards I hesitated on firing, (I knew he was not an instant shooter) I eased over to Ben and pointed the bear out. His response when he looked through his binos was, "He's kinda cute." Saved that bears life. Point of all that is, if the other son would have been with me he would have been saying shoot, shoot, shoot!! and really put the pressure on me. After I decided not to shoot and got a good look, I would say it was a bit under 5 ft but nice and round. Looked like it had wintered at Pizza Hut. Younger boy is still shaking his head in disgust and mumbling that he'd a shot that bear full of holes. We all have our individual standards I guess. While we were in the Bridgers we had rainy, foggy, snowy weather and could not have timed it much worse. But in looking back, I think we were going way to high looking for vantage points to glass down on drainages. Probably should have stayed low and walked creeks looking for bear crap and other sign. Took one day and went south to Moose Creek and went for a 12 mile hike and once again never saw so much as a bear turd. All the locals assured me that Moose Creek crawls with bears of both kinds at different times, but I am no proof of it.
If I had it to do again, I would stay as low as possible. Greenhorn, I kinda look forward to seeing what you get for quite a few years now, no pressure, but go kill something, and take plenty of photos.
