It was the late 1980s and I was a 15-year-old boy who absolutely lived for hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, anything and everything to do with the outdoors. There wasn’t much to do in the little village of Cooper Creek, so if you weren’t an outdoorsman you’d be bored to death. I had lots of family around in the area, uncles and cousins who loved hunting almost as much as I. It was springtime and I was already looking forward to the fall hunting season. After church one day, my uncle Harv was talking hunting with me and some others, when he mentioned he had a spring grizzly bear tag. “Oh, you’re so lucky” I said that’s my dream to hunt grizzly bear and a spring tag too. What a way to break up the long wait for fall deer and elk season. Not to mention in the spring the grizzlies are all up high, coming out of their dens and foraging on new growth, grass, and slide lily bulbs. There’s nothing like that high Alpine country, when you reach the tree line with its thin, cool air, open Mountain Meadows and slide shoots. With mountain goats clinging to a cliff above and grizzlies grazing below, that’s my idea of heaven.
“Well, why don’t you come with me?” My uncle Harvey offered. “Yeah, sure no problem. I’d love to.” I said without a second of hesitation. I couldn’t believe that he asked me. Not one hour later Harvey and I were driving up a dirt road looking for the small logging Road that snaked up mobs creek and would bring us to the perfect Spring season Grizzly country. Now seeing and certainly harvesting a grizzly it’s not something that happens all the time. I was optimistic, but truthfully, thinking this day might just be a wonderful drive and hike with one of my mountain man heroes. Certainly I was just happy to be there.
We drove up the old logging road for as far as we could until it was washed out and we would have to leave the truck behind. It was time to hike. We didn’t have too far to go and we’d be back before dark so our packs were light and the weather was perfect. We strolled up the road with uncle whistling a happy tune. This was Harvey’s way. He was always happy, always optimistic and anytime he was hunting or in the great outdoors, he was filled with gladness and appreciation. He was a joy to be around and an excellent Model of a successful man. With his .338 Win mag stainless stocker rifle and awesome Leopold scope slung on his shoulder. A beautiful handmade antler hunting knife on his belt, I was even in awe of his hunting equipment.
The road got more vertical, switch backing the steep parts and some places washed completely out. It wasn’t difficult but those things made it a little slow going. That’s OK lots of time to enjoy the scenery. After a couple of hours we decided to stop for lunch. Harvey had a sandwich and a thermos of tea provided by his loving wife. “Do you ever eat slide lilies?” Harvey asked “no,” I said with the look of bewilderment on my face. I was thinking who the hell would eat a Lily? “Here let me show you” said uncle Harvey. These beautiful little white lilies were popping up everywhere from the steep mountain side. Uncle Harvey grabbed a stick about a foot-long and started digging all around one of the lilies getting to about 4 or 6 inches down he reached in the hole with his hand and popped out a little bulb that looked something like, a small onion, kind of the size of pickled onions you sometimes see in the grocery store. Well, with a little water from his canteen, he washed it off and tossed in his mouth crunch crunch crunch. “They’re kind of sweet” he said and passed me the stick so I could get my own. I dug one out, washed it and knocked it back. To my delight it was sweet, mild and good tasting. “There, now you see why the grizzlies like them so much” uncle Harv said. New spring growth like this make up a huge part of a grizzly diet as they first come out of their winter den.
“Well, let’s get going.” Harvey said as we put on our packs and rifles and deciding we’d better empty our bladders before we continued our hike. Backs to each other Harvey peeing in One Direction and myself in the other. I was about midstream and really enjoying the flow when I heard Harvey whisper “Evan, there’s a bear!” ha ha ha I thought yeah a good one uncle Harv trying to trick me into getting all flustered with my pecker hanging in the wind. “ Yeah right” I replied. “No Evan there’s a bear.” He says again and I’m thinking to myself. Wait a minute that doesn’t sound like a joking voice. So I’m trying to cut off midstream and put everything away as fast as I can while uncle Harv seeing the bear that was now walking away at a very fast clip, knew time was of the essence. The Grizzly aware of our presence only 100 yards away and moving fast. Harvey turned taking the rifle from his shoulder. He made three steps and a dive onto a snow covered mound that would give him a perfect prone lying shot. From the time he started moving and until the shot was fired was maybe five seconds and I could not believe how smoothly, fluidly and fast Harvey moved. In fact, I’m quite certain he chambered a cartridge while flying through the air to land on his belly with scope to his eye and the shot ringing out not one second later. It was poetry, you should’ve seen it. Down went the bear for a quick death from that 250 grain bullet.
Well, we were happy and excited. High five’ing and Hooten and hollering giggling, laughing, happy for our good luck. Just loving the moment, adrenaline and excitement coursing through our veins. “Man that was exciting” said Harv, “but I got to put my jacket on. It’s getting kind of cold” he commented. I wasn’t cold, but I did need to finish that pee that was interrupted. I Glancing down I noticed that my uncle’s fly was wide open and Jam packed with snow. “Ha ha ha! No wonder you’re feeling a little chilly.” I said pointing at his crotch. “what the heck” Harvey exclaimed, as he started digging fistfuls of snow out of his fly. Well, let me tell you that hit my funnybone, seeing this, Grizzly killing Mountain man shovelling snow out of his crotch hoping to defrost his rigging, Well I laughed so hard I just about finished that pee right there. Well, uncle Harv was a good sport and honestly at that time I don’t think anything could’ve spoiled his good mood and he laughed and laughed about the situation as did I.
We spent the next two hours skinning out and cutting up that bear. I got to learn from a master. We took it slow and easy to make sure we did a really good job. Uncle Harvey got that grizzly bear head mounted on a full rug. It hangs in his family home to this day.
Thank you, Evan Giesbrecht for that inspiring and hilarious story. Isn’t it great to remember what an influence we can be on those younger than us or those just starting out hunting. Take a lesson from Harvey and don’t be scared to To invite a young man out to go hunting with you. You’ll make a memorable experience he will never forget.
