Spike Buck and four bears

[Dale Lilly]

Near the little Weiser river, not far from Fruitvale, Idaho, I shot a very nice spike buck. dressed it out and carried it down the mountain to our camp. Having seen signs of bear near where I killed the deer, I decided to return to the scene and see if the buried remains attracted a bruin. I settled between two trees, partially behind bushes and waited about thirty yards from a well-worn trail. In about half hour I saw a large black bear coming. I knew she would take the easy way to buried treasure, raised my .50 caliber Lyman Great Plains and set the trigger. Whoa! What is that smaller patch of black? This is late October but here was a small bruin following mama. I lowered the rifle and waited; soon another little rascal showed up. I was now relaxed with the gun laid on my lap. Mama turned back and said "woof" about three times and I spotted a third little guy half way up a small Aspen tree. Mama popped both kids on the bottom, they sat down and she went back to get the wayward tike. She approached his tree, said "woof" again a couple of times. He did not respond. To my surprise she simply walked up to that little tree and gave it a healthy swat about two feet below naughty boy. He came tumbling down and, without hesitation, ran quickly to the waiting siblings. They went to the buried leftovers and began to dig. I sneaked out another direction and returned to camp. I am forever grateful that I did not pull the trigger. The experience was worth a lot more than a bear hide. Polecat