It was about 6-8 years ago, I was on a diy archery elk hunt with two buddies in the Gunnison NF of Colorado. We had pulled two wheel carts 3 1/2 miles up an old logging road and a reservoir excess road to where we ditched our carts. We brought 2 weeks worth of food, fuel, clothing, etc. One week supply in a frame pack and another week supply in a spare duffle each, not too far into the forest we would hang the duffles to be used later in a tree to keep the bears off of them. From there we hiked another 2 + miles up the drainage where we would set a spike camp. I think it was about two days in, I had gotten up before daylight and hiked up to a bench I knew the elk used to work their way to a bedding area. I picked a concealed position where I could sit and watch trails . As I was sitting I began to feel a sharp pain in my low back, to one side, it was a familiar pain, I had a kidney stone moving around. Now I’m no spring chicken at this time, mid to late 50’s, type 2 diabetic with arythmia and a history of kidney stones. I had had then 3 or 4 times prior to this and had been hospitalized once before for the same thing. I was pretty sure I knew what this was as the pain kept getting worse. My buddies and I had split up on this morning trying to locate some elk and I had never heard of an (In Reach). Our way of communicating was handheld radios and we only turned them on around the top of every hour, we would only speak if we absolutely needed to. I figured the stone would pass eventually so I kept hunting and did not try to contact my buddies. To make matters worse it kept raining off and on throughout the day. I stayed put not wanting to move around much with the intermittent pain . I guess it was about 2-3 hours before dark, the rain had stopped and the sun came out so I decided to get out of my rain gear. I was removing my rain bibs when I noticed a bear below my bench with two cubs working my way. I had already gotten one leg out of my bibs so I slipped my boot back on that foot and sat still to watch these bears for awhile. After they milled around below me to about 25 yards at one point for 20 minutes or so they turned and came uphill to the bench I was on and began milling around again, still not seeing me. Before long they turned and started coming my way. I still had 1 leg in my bibs and one leg out, and was only standing in one loose boot with the other tied up. I stood up when they were again inside 30 yards from me and pulled my pistol. Pointing at the sow Bear I talked to the Bear telling her she didn’t want to come any closer or it might get really ugly around here. She stood up on her hind legs and the cubs got close to her legs, she looked me over and thought about it for a few seconds before dropping back down on all 4,s. She stood back up on two legs one more time still sizing me up before soon dropping back down, turning and walked away. Twice she stopped to turn and give me a look as if to decide if she really wanted to leave or go kick some butt. Thankfully she chose to leave. I knew I was still 1 1/2 -2 hrs from camp and daylight was dwindling. With my reoccurring pains and I was out of water I knew I had to head for camp. I made it back just after sundown with a good story to tell. I decided to stay and hunt as heading out now would ruin their hunt as well. The stone never did pass and I hunted with it kicking my ass for 10 days before a forecast of heavy rains for several days ran us off the mountain. On the way out I packed my gear and pulled my two wheeled cart out 5 1/2 miles in a driving rain while fighting the kidney stone. Once out we broke our roadside camp in the rain and drove the 20 hrs home straight through to Iowa. The story doesn’t end there but that is good for now.
