The sow wanted on the bait, and she was bigger than the boars. The first boar in became aggressive with her and she barked her cubs up a tree. The boar stood his ground, but wouldn’t come any closer than forty yards to her. The two other boars sat on their rump or belly to watch the show from a distance. The sow sat on her rear and turned her head from the cubs to the other boar for quite some time. Finally she began moving toward the bait again. The cubs scrambled down the tree and moved toward her. The boar gave her a “Woof” and she barked the cubs up a tree again, and one of them ran right at me and up a tree near me. The sow saw me for the first time, with her cub treed a short distance away, and now found herself between me and an aggressive boar with her cubs treed. She looked very upset and began popping her jaw repeatedly, and the boar issued another “Woof”.
At this point I was thinking things were getting a little hairy, and I glanced at my bear spray hanging within reach. She finally turned and walked away, with her cubs joining her. She paused at the edge of what I could see, as darkness was setting in. Yet another boar was approaching the bait from a completely different direction, and he looked to be nice sized. As darkness set in, he never offered an angle appropriate for a bow shot. It was time for me to depart, and I had six black bears within sight! With bow and bear spray in hand, I walked out of the wilderness to my truck. Most of the bears were in that 150-200 pound range.
I began the drive out of the wilderness to the distant town where I was staying, only to realize the front of the “HBEAST” truck had dropped down onto the rim of the right front tire. The thought of bugs and a flat tire in the middle of nowhere was not very appealing! Getting the spare tire down was a piece of cake, and I had a wheel wrench in the back of my truck. I found the “puny” jack under the seat, and wondered how I was supposed to jack the truck up with this little piece of garbage. Someone was looking out for me, as a pair of headlights appeared out of the blackness. Two Canadians in their twenties (hunters) offered to lend a hand. I told them things were looking good except for this junk jack I had. They had a mini floor jack in their truck and the front of my truck was up in no time. When finished they refused a tip for use of the jack, we exchanged email addresses and off they went.
One of those nights I won’t forget anytime soon.
