Bear Camp

The weeks surroundin' Thanksgiving are some of the most excitin' times for us Pennsyltucky hunters. You catch the peak of the whitetail rut at the end of archery season, then sandwich Thanksgiving between rifle seasons for bear and deer. Meanwhile, ducks, geese and the full gamut of small and upland game are in for most of that time too. Whatever critters you like to chase, it's the time of year to do it.

I love goin' to bear camp, mainly because it's a fun style of huntin' with a great group of fellas. We don't do any stand huntin'... we are drivin' from dawn until some of the fellas start gettin' thirsty, which is usually around mid-afternoon. Some folks think it's a shit way to hunt 'em, but I think it's a helluva lot better than waitin' 'em out on stand or shootin' em over a barrel of doughnuts, which is standard practice in a lot of places.

We had a big group of guys for the opener, which was recently changed to the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We had four good chases, but the bruins managed to elude us.

The bad part about the Saturday opener is that PA still lives in the dark ages and doesn't allow Sunday hunting. The opener used to be Monday, and we'd have a fair group for at least Monday and Tuesday. With the new Saturday opener, the break between opening day and last three days of the season has proven to be a camp killer, with everyone showin' up to hunt on Saturday, then goin' home Sunday to go back to work.

I stayed up to hunt Monday, and was kinda disappointed when only four other guys showed up to hunt. Pushin' the big woods with five guys is foolish at best, so we drove out a few smaller patches, then called it a day early. I ate lunch, then headed back home to tend to the wood pile.

Although the second day was a wash, I still had a damn good time. I'm already lookin' forward to next year.