USA: The Beginning Of The Hunting Season The Fruits So Far

Ardent

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Canada (British Columbia, Alberta), Mexico, Zimbabwe, South Africa (Limpopo, North Cape), USA
We started an outfit on the North Coast of British Columbia just south of the Alaska border this spring, it was a leap of faith for my wife and I and so far, so good.

Here are the fruits of the first two parties through, will be additions as the season progresses,

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Congrats, it's gotten off to a good start.
 
Looking forward to more pics like these :A Way To Go:
 
Glad it has started well.

How is the situation with the fires?

Hope the rest of the season continues to go great.
 
Best of luck, I hope you have a successful career as an outfitter.
 
Wonderful!!!! Good luck sir and I pray you are a smashing success.
 
Appreciate all the kind words, lot of work but making progress. My day job happens to be slowing with the current Canadian economy so it was fortuitous timing getting Wild Coast rolling.
 
Great stuff....

That pack looks just a little on the heavy side.. :)
 
It was a very healthy load, but we didn't have far to go, as the crow flies we were maybe 300 yards from camp when it was shot. Little longer to walk but has to be the easiest bear retrieve I've ever had in boot travel country.
 
Thanks! The dream feels like a lot of work, but anything worth doing is.
 
Nice start, best wishes for the remainder of the season!
 
I spy a double resting on a log!!?? Helluva hunt and beauty grizzly! Don't see too many SxS in the BC backwoods!!

Glad it is going good up there! The weather looks pretty crazy next few days or reports from that hurricane that'll hit upper BC.
 
Yep Merkel 140 .375, good eye few spot that in the circles I've shown it! Yea, weather has been ridiculously dicey, we nearly got washed out of camp salmon swam where our tent was just after we got camp moved. River rose over six feet in just hours.
 
Congratulations on a good start to the season. You were lucky and hopefully learned a valuable lesson on the weather. It does disturb me as a client to hear that you had camp setup in a spot that could of swept all of you away. My rules on a good outfitter / guide is: Safe, Legal, Opportunity for Game, Educational, Fun, and then getting the animal.
 
Thank you for that thi9elsp, while I'm sure we'd enjoy each other's company in person I must bemusedly express concern with your concern. I'll blame the disconnect online.

To quell your fears, I'm going to go out on a limb and surmise you haven't spent much time on the fjords in the BC coast- though perhaps you have and I'd seek your solutions. I grew up here and there isn't a place with an angle less than 30 degrees that doesn't see water flow over it at some point of the year, our terrain goes straight up from the valley floor in sheer rock. Challenging place to pitch tents. We hunt in Sept for bears for this reason, the season opens Sept 1 and we were in there three days early to have our scouting well done and be ready to shoot our bear on day one, or two. We got ours on day two. Should the river rise too much, as they often do, we get in the jet boat beside camp and retreat to the ocean. The nice thing about flooded rivers is the riverboating routes have expanded infinitely.

British Columbia on the North coast, or our neighbours in Alaska, don't enjoy completely safe hunting I'll readily admit. In fact climatically this is the most hazardous place in the world to hunt, with temperatures in the "death zone" just above freezing and drenching wet the vast majority of the time. I fly helicopters for the day job, and fight the weather in that too- there's no escaping it, this is BC. You'll see ten waterfalls dropping a couple thousand feet feeding the river you're sleeping beside from the tent door and watch them grow as the rain pounds louder. Our agreement contains a lengthy disclaimer half the contract long clients must read and sign regarding just the climate, and wildlife concerns. The bears will brush your tent at night, the weather will do its best to break your spirit and camp, and we always have a hell of a hunt.

Many outfitters avoid the North Coast due to these challenges and concerns, in fact despite having the best bears and goats in the region my territory was priced cheaper due to these challenges. You're on your own out here, and require expensive gear- river jet boats, aircraft, large boats for the ocean, and the best camp gear money can buy. If you're from the BC coast, all this is normal and reads as adventure. If you live in a more comfortable setting somewhere tamed admittedly it can be alarming. Quite realistically, I respect those of your concerns this is not a place to come for them. Without trying to wind this into some mystical land of danger, but instead responding as frankly as possible to your concern, yes it's hazardous here. That's part of the reason people come.

I've had experienced people beaten by the weather and terrain here, it certainly isn't Africa. We have less organisational challenges and many more climatic and terrain related ones. It's a challenge I'll face season after season here, and the name I chose reflects that. We're on the Wild Coast. Should you come out with us, you'd likely be very glad to return home if safe is #1 in your criteria and I would suggest other regions and hunt styles if that's the goal. I honestly appreciate the opportunity to discuss this and thank you for the concern, please don't take this as grumbling it's a good question and important aspect to discuss. We have another hunter from California shortly coming to brave the weather in the mountains this time and the challenge was the biggest attraction, it is by no means for everybody. Some of us still actually seek risk, whether that be personal risk, risk of not harvesting your trophy due to severe weather, severe terrain, leaving out entirely dangerous game hunts in Africa. For a good few risk is the a spice and price of life. Good hunting to all!
 
Ardent,

Quite a long winded answer to frankly tell me I don't belong in your challenging environment and your perception that I don't know a thing about risk, weather or hunting in harsh places.

I've hunted SE Alaska, the Teton Wilderness, Absorokas/Crandall drainage (day after we finished our hunt a hunter ignored his guide and slid down a cliff to his death), Zimbabwe (cape buffalo - the PH I had was killed the next year on a wounded charge) and the New Zealand west coast (3 days in the tent due to gale force winds / rain) - saw the rivers rise and stay risen 6 - 8 feet for over three days. Someone in another part of the area drowned when they slipped walking a trail.

I don't avoid risk, but I do expect a proper respect for nature and the weather. Your description of the camping area being gone due to the rise in the river seemed to reflect a disregard for the potential of the flooding and I would expect a guide to choose a more wise area to eliminate that risk. But, alas, if you have no other choice due to the severe cliffs, then good for you.

When I say safe, I mean safe by eliminating the risks where possible (flash floods, walking around an icy trail, poor handling of firearms, etc.), showing respect for the environment you are in and although pushing oneself not intentionally put oneself in an unmeasured situation.

Hopefully you continue to have a good season and many future ones.

John
 
Thank you John for the less windy reply to my long winded reply, the fact is you offered a much needed window for explanation and it is honestly appreciated. I respect your opinion and experience, and in the same breath this isn't my brother or my first rodeo either and our time here sometimes for the worse, even in our "reasonably young" 30's is measured in decades not trips. I feel forced to chest thump on that, as our operation is being questioned- and that's fair. So forgive the horn tooting there, we've thankfully both had our chance. We both make our careers outdoors, here, and we grew up here and the BC and Yukon wilderness is our entire passion and provider. She can be mean however.

Long story short, we had the best plan available for a camp in the surrounding conditions, and every year we'll be forced to move at least a couple times. You set a decision point, in my case I usually set a white rock down four feet or so below camp and if that's crossed, you move camp. Reason we don't immediately go to where we move to is the risk of losing the boat, you stay near it until you can't, then you pull the boat up on the flooded area as we did and do. That's a reflection on the North Coast, not us unfortunately, it is a vicious little existence on the strip of rock and gravel sandwiched between the North Pacific and the mountains. It also means a lot of work levering it back to the water the next day. But fortunately we wouldn't have it any other way. Have also enjoyed the areas you've mentioned (generalizing Wyoming) and excluding NZ because we have our own version here in BC, and the same hunts buff, lion, Zim, etc. They're a lot tamer and I don't mean that as a chest thumper, if anything it's a criticism of our own area. People have died here too, and recently a guide fell last year from a cliff with the previous territory owner, that's the risk. All the best John, and good hunting to us both,

Angus Morrison
 
Angus,

I am glad you gave me the details. Knowing that you are measuring and monitoring the levels is in my speak - being safe!

John
 

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