Troy’s First Bear By Zeke Wilson T WO WEEKS before Thanksgiving I received a call from my friend Troy Tonkin. Upon graduation Troy had taken a job in Texas, with a large mortgage firm. Since moving to Texas, his Pennsylvania hunting outings had been reduced to one Christmas rabbit hunt two years earlier. When I answered the phone Troy informed me that he had both good and bad news. His employer had decided to eliminate the entire Dallas branch of his firm. Consequently, he had booked a flight home for bear season, being that he was now unemployed. With this news I began to assemble a hunting roster, but not too many of our friends share the same enthusiasm for bear hunting as Troy and I. In ad22 dition to the small chance of actually harvesting a bear, most were unwilling to take three days off work. Nonetheless, I’ve been hunting bears since I was 12 and was determined to make the most of Troy’s time home. As opening day crept closer it was evident that our hunting group would be quite small. I had managed to convince longtime friend Mike Neese to accompany Troy and me on our quest. Like me, Mike was self-employed and could manage to take a few days off work. Troy and I had hunted bears for 10 years and knew that our chances were remote with such a small group. While I had been successful in the past, Troy had never even seen a bear during the season and questioned if he ever would. Mike had never hunted bears before and was boiling over with enthusiasm GAME NEWS