Pennsylvania Game News - November 2010 - 23

in anticipation of our adventure. With Troy’s flight arriving Saturday evening, Mike and I were in charge of scouting. No bears had been seen in our area during the early fall. Consequently, we decided to focus our search in the northern part of the state. Because none of us owned a camp, we had to drive for our scouting and hunting ventures. Knowing this, I decided to scout Game Lands 31, between Coolsprings and Anita in Jefferson County. The Friday afternoon prior to the season found Mike and me scouring the Game Lands for bear sign. Unfortunately, we had received more than two inches of rain earlier in the week and our efforts proved fruitless. We did locate a thick hillside that seemed to be a place a bear would seek sanctuary. Finding three vantage points was relatively easy, and as we walked out we felt confident in our chances. As we neared the truck I mentioned to Mike how I would have liked to have seen some sign. Just then I looked down and saw a large pile of bear scat. In a bear hunter’s mind, that was the icing on the cake for us. On Sunday morning we sighted in our rifles and finished up early. With nothing else on our plates, we decided to take a quick last minute scouting trip. Driving through the mountains felt good, as we continued to mention how it really looked like bear country. Between Brookville and Sigel, I suggested we head toward Richardsville. As we rounded a bend we spotted a bear along the side of the road. After taking some pictures, we quickly changed our plans for the opening morning. Unfortunately, we were walking into this new spot blind. Upon returning home we spread out a topo map and attempted to locate places to hunt. While it was a daunting task, the reassurance of a bear in the immediate area helped us feel better about our odds. Troy and Mike decided to watch a large power line, where the chance of seeing a
NOVEMBER 2010

rousted bear might be good. I decided to cross a stream and head for a steep ridge that overlooked the laurelchoked bottom. As the sunlight began to climb over the mountains it was obvious that a lot of other hunters knew that bears were in this area. By the time I was in position I had seen nearly a dozen hunters. At around nine in the morning a bear was taken 200 yards away from me. Other than seeing a few deer, our day was basically a bust. As the day came to an end, I tried to console Troy and Mike by explaining that we still had Tuesday and Wednesday. The ride home involved some serious head scratching, as we tried to decide where we would hunt the following morning. On the way, Mike received a call that he would have to do some dozer work on a strip job pond the next day. This meant that it would be just Troy and me. In light of this, I decided that we would hunt around the Rochester Mills area, where we knew hunters would be driving all day. At 6 a.m. Troy and I were slipping on our hip boots, preparing to cross Little Mahoning Creek. From the map we could tell the area we would be hunting was basically inaccessible, and we hoped that would work in our favor. The night before I had mentioned to Troy that the only thing I didn’t like was that a new gas well might have been drilled after the map was printed. Sure enough, we hadn’t walked 50 yards when we came to a freshly built gas well location with an access road. Shrugging our shoulders, we parted ways to our stand positions. Other than a large flock of extremely vocal turkeys, the morning was quiet. By 9 o’clock I had not heard a shot and could not feel my toes. I called Troy on the radio and we decided to rendezvous and make a few
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Pennsylvania Game News - November 2010

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