14 Bears for 14 Wisconsin Hunters and a Scary Tale from Ontario

Mike Foss the Bayfield County bear man and OWO writer finally crawled out of the swamp with his last hunter a happy hunter. 14 bears for 14 hunters was the final tally, which really surprised no one who knows Foss and crew and how hard they work in this beautiful and wild Superior country.

Foss called when his last man in the woods, Rick Sanger of Colorado, scored during the last 10 minutes of the last day of hunting. He had passed on several shot opportunities waiting for a very big bear. The boys are calling the bear he did harvest “the 6000 mile bear” because Sanger had traveled to Washburn, Wisconsin from Colorado, passed on the shots and returned home, then returned to fill his tag, and returned home again, all by truck.

When Foss and Sanger were scouting for a possible stand move, they also came across a large tree with a huge burl.  A burl is an abnormal growth resulting from stress like an injury, virus or fungus.  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Foss said.  “In all my years in the field. It’s just a very large hardwood tree with this huge growth.” The photo below of Mike Foss and the tree was taken by Sanger.

We posted another successful bear story from Ontario bear hunters Dave Bohn and his son Trevor, including Trevor’s ‘Bat Bear’ so named because of the marking on its chest. We post the story and photos under “Bear Hunting”. They hunted with Outfitter Richard Carpenter at Ten Mile Camp.

In the article though, Dave leaves you hanging by mentioning a scary story that happened near his stand long ago. He doesn’t tell you what the story was, just teases the reader.  So I called Bohn and said….I got a Bohn to pick with you…what’s that “Big Foot” like story you refer to?

It seems that 27 years ago, Richard Carpenter and a buddy were cutting the trail for a stand Dave Bohn would sit in decades later.  Richard was cutting with a chain saw and his buddy was dragging logs with an ATV.  Richard ran out of gas and went back to the truck to refill. He noticed elongated but slim, human-like footprints with gnarled-up toes that led to a trailer.

“This was in the spring with patches of snow around,” Dave said.  “The tracks skirted the snow and went to the trailer. Towels had been wrapped by Carpenter around the hold-down straps to prevent them from being cut by the trailer.  The towels were gone. Carpenter lost the tracks deep in the bush.  This guy can see bear tracks on a dirt road at 35 miles per hour.  He is the real deal.  A man of few words who gave me no reason to doubt him.”

Dave was glad he didn’t hear the story until he was in the truck with Carpenter after his successful hunt heading back to camp.

 There now.  Who wants to hunt from Dave’s stand?  Wimps. I’d go myself… but I’m busy publishing.

Speaking of that, deadlines do keep me out of the field too much and I find it interesting that my work commitments bother my brothers and other hunting friends for about two seconds.

“That’s all right,” a bunch of them said Monday preparing for a northern duck hunt.  “When can you have Micah packed?”

So this is how my dog gets stolen, and that is where he is today as I pound keys. The boys are reporting lots of ducks in the north country, including big flocks of ring necks. But the birds are skittish with little hunting pressure to move them around.  They sent photos of Micah below waiting for an opportunity to retrieve so I won’t miss him too bad.  He did get two opportunities on mallards in three days of hunting and performed, I hear, like a pro.

If you want to read an excellent essay on golden retrievers by 6 -year old Lydia sent by her grandpa, we have it posted under “Waterfowl Hunting.” And roam this website as always for news and stories from Badgerland.

Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors.  Shoot straight.

Dick Ellis