Pennsylvania Game News - July 2019 - 19

As Robert Ruark said, "You gotta
hunt to be happy." But, enough's enough.
You're bored and the bugs are driving
you nuts.
So, you figure "nothing's gonna show
anyhow..." and you raise your hand to
swat the bugs from your face.
There he is!
You're sitting there like a ninny with
your hand halfway to your face and a big
boar chuck is drilling a hole through you
with his beady eyes.
His head is halfway out of a hole you
didn't know was there, protruding just
enough so he can see you, and that's not
far, his eyes being darn near on the top
of his head.
He is hard to see in the lengthening
shadows. Plus, he is in an escape tunnel
that has no dirt around it to make it obvious because it was dug from underneath.
But, you noticed him right away
because you've studied every
inch of the terrain for two
hours.
But, that chuck has studied this field morning and
evening since the first time
his mother let him first venture
from the den he was born in. And
he sure knows you're there.
It's a showdown. If you don't
move a muscle, or blink, or breathe too
hard, or the bugs don't drive you crazy,
he might come out. Or, then again, he
may just not like the situation and back
down the hole.
So you sit, frozen. His eyes are so good
that if you blink too much, literally, you
won't see him again.
You know there is no way out of it.
He had to have seen you start to swat at
your face. Even though you're backed up
against a tree with brush around it, you
must stick out like the proverbial sore
JULY 2019

thumb. Your face and the hand halfway to
it must glare like snow. If you try to snap
off a shot, he'll be gone before the rifle
is off your lap. So, you put all systems
on hold.
"Son of a gun," he's starting to give in.
He's three quarters of the way out of his
hole, standing at the edge. "Come on, just
a little more," you urge silently.
He just stands there. You're going
bananas trying to stay still and he acts like
a ceramic figurine. He eyes you for a good
full minute. It seems like ten or more.
He must have decided everything was
kosher 'cause he's climbing all the way
out now.
Boy! Is he big. He looks like a big fat
gray grub when crawling on all fours.
He's so fat that he ripples when he walks.
The low evening sun glows on his fur.
The light shines on his light-colored guard
hairs and you see why they call grizzly
bears, which have the same appearance,
Silvertips.
He's upright again. He does resemble
a bear in a lot of ways. You admire him
as modest as he is.
You can tell he's been in this pasture for
years, and he hasn't been around that long
by being stupid. He's had to contend with
foxes, hawks, owls, dogs, farm machinery
and countless people.
The den had to be located and engineered to keep out the rains and to be
warm enough for hibernation. It had
to have several tunnels to drop down
when threatened from the outside and to
scramble out if the den were to be invaded.
He might have had to dig several times
before he got it right.
Now that he is bolt upright, he no
longer looks fat and clumsy, but, muscular and sleek. His size, grizzled face
and threadbare chest show his age and
experience. He drops again to continue
19
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2019

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