Scouting trip behind Olallie Lake (extreme Pic)

**klickitat** · 08-30-2010, 11:13 PM

This is a pictorial of the bear scouting trip I took behind Lake Olallie with my 9 year old son.

Crossing the cedar logs at the end of the lagoon, we enter into a thick grove of high mountain alder and this is what we find. Let me translate "Enter at your own risk, this is my territory."
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After fighting our way through the front door, we pop out into the timber.
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Not 75 yards into the timber we start to see signs of a bear feeding on insects.
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However these are from an earlier time. It looks like the bear has been eating huckleberries for at least the last week judging by this.
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More to come...

**klickitat** · 08-30-2010, 11:31 PM

Moving up the hill we find this tree. Notice that the tree has been scarred and grown over for what looks like decades. At the base of the tree you might be able to make out sawdust and we could see where the bears have been digging into it. In the Spring it is common for bears to dig at trees for sap. Over the years I have found several trees that look like this that are used generation after generation.
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At the top of this hill where we found this tree we crested and found that two draws came together and had plenty of cover. We decided to make a stand and pulled out the predator call. Pretending to be a wounded fawn, we called for about 45 minutes with no results.

Leaving the top of the hill we hit a game trail and find that our bear has been here the day before
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Look here we have a fresh print. This is actually of a calf elk.
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not more than 40 feet down the trail we found this pair of beds that were used by a cow and calf elk.
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In case you needed proof.
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We moved down the trail and found this. What a great place to set snares in a survival situation. You can not tell from the picture but there are actually two trails that converge and cross through these logs.
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more to come...

**klickitat** · 08-30-2010, 11:50 PM

Moving through the timber we walked out into a brushy meadow.
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Elk beds from the night before.
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There were a total of 5 beds in this meadow. Judging by the size and the fact that the cow and calf was not with this group I would say that it was the bachelor herd. This scat was still warm when we came across it. If it had been season we would have stayed on their trail.
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Here is where an elk has been marking it's territory. I did not take pictures (my son had just gotten stung) but there were about four or five others in the area.
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This was our little scouting trip and at this point I quit taking pictures because my son had got stung by a bee and for his comfort I decided to just get out of the brush. We still had another 1/2 mile of thick brush to get out.

**Alaskan Survivalist** · 08-31-2010, 12:26 AM

Any guess as to size?

**klickitat** · 08-31-2010, 12:41 AM

I am taking an educated guess at around 180#. No idea on the elk.

**Alaskan Survivalist** · 08-31-2010, 01:59 AM

A long time ago up here there used to be a outlaw motorcycle club called the Brothers and one of the guys ( I think he was the president) had a taxidermy company. When helmet laws were passed they took black bear hides and glued them to thier helmets. They looked pretty wild looking like they had giant afro's coming down the road. Have any plans for your skin?

**klickitat** · 08-31-2010, 01:30 PM

We did not get this bear. The weather has finally turned a little cooler here though and I am going to be heading out again to see if I can get one. I am mostly after the meat for sausage. I will most like clean the scull and make a couple of bags out of the lower legs.

Unless I get a huge bear then I will not have it rugged. I have a small one on the wall right now, so do not see a need for another unless it is special.