September 27, 2024 • 24 mins
It’s the first big hunt of Arkansas’s fall season for Brent and the bear camp faithful. They’re struggling with dry conditions, dropping acorns, and the Arkansas heat that just won’t go away. They managed to “scratch a few out” as Brent would say, but the biggest trophy carried home had nothing to do with a bear. It’s time to head to the bear camp on this week’s episode of MeatEater’s “This Country Life” podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to this Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.
From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
I want you to stay a while as I share
my experiences and life lessons. This Country Life is presented
by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
the best outdoor podcast the airways had off. All right, friends,
(00:28):
grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
stories to share Bear Camp. I'm working on more years
at our Arkansas bear Camp than you can count on
both hands. And if you judge this one by the
quality of the bears taken, it wouldn't be close to
(00:51):
the top ten. If you judge it by what I
took home, it's far and above number one. I'm going
to tell you all about it, but first I'm going
to tell you a story. This week, we're doing a
listener story that caught my attention on three levels. One
(01:15):
who was sent in by a lady We need more
of them in the outdoors. Two at the time it happened,
she was a new hunter. And three it has a
good lesson. It was sent in by the Pride of Arcade,
New York, Amelia Martina. Arcade is also the home of
Daniel Frederick Bateman, who died in eighteen sixty nine at
(01:38):
the ripe old age of one hundred and nine. Daniel
was the last survivor receiving a veteran's pension for service
in the American Revolutionary War. But we ain't talking about
old Daniel Bateman. It's a Milia's time to shine. So
in my voice and Amelia's words, here we go. My
(02:01):
name is Amelia Martina, and I'm not the best at
telling stories, but we loved listening to yours. My husband
has been listening to the Meat Eater podcast for quite
some time and we look forward to doing trivia and
listening to this country life. My son will stop whatever
he's doing to listen to your stories. However, now I
(02:22):
have a story for you, so here it is. I
hope you enjoy it now. I was never a hunter,
and even though I am the oldest grandchild, I was
the last of the seven that my grandpa ever thought
would become one. The men always went out every November
(02:42):
on opening day of whitetail season, hoping to get a deer.
All the while the women stayed at home making chili
and desserts for when they came home at lunch and
before heading back out for the afternoon hunt. However, I
loved being in the woods when I was a kid,
making forts and taking walks to find new secret spots.
(03:04):
It's always a fun time. When I got married, my
husband joined the men and the tradition continued. I was
able to go out with him and join the experience,
but shooting with my camera instead of a firearm. I
enjoyed hunting more than I realized, so I took the
proper courses to get my hunting license, and the next
(03:25):
year I was able to join in. So for the
past five years, my husband and I have gone to
my grandpa's property out in the tiny town of Granger,
New York for our hunting tradition. We pack our supplies
and drive over to the family cabin the night before
to spend the night. Now upon arrival, my grandpa always
(03:48):
greets us, making a big deal out of coming over,
and he gives us the I just know that you're
going to get one speech. He shares stories that we've
all heard before, but we never tire of hearing, and
then go to bed, only to wake up before the
sun to get to our blind that we set up
months before, making sure that there are handwarmers for us
(04:11):
and chili in the crock pot, and Grandpa says, all right,
very good, let's go. He patched us on the back
and we head out into the dark, making our way
through the woods, the moonlight lighting our snow covered path
as we make it down to our blind and snuggle
in and wait. Disappointed by the lack of activity, we
(04:31):
decided to pack it up as the last of the
sun led us back to the cabin, telling my grandpa
that we'll be back in a couple days to try
it again. Keeping our promise, we returned with determination, ready
for a day in the woods. We decided to try
another blind that my grandpa had said up, letting us
(04:52):
know his heater is in there so we can be warm.
He wishes us good luck, and away we went. Finding
the lying at the far end of the property. We
slide into our folding camp chairs and wait for the
birds to start singing their morning song, all snuggling into
my husband's oversized winter came on. Fighting heavy eye lids
and the quiet of the forests, I heard my husband whisper,
(05:16):
don't move. Unaware of what he saw, I slowly turned
my head to see where his rifle was pointing, and
I saw nothing, and I heard nothing. Then, as if
she appeared out of the thick brush, I saw her
lumbering through the woods, but quiet as can be, not
thirty yards in front of us, as she turns and stops,
(05:39):
a two hundred and fifty pound beautiful black bear. Just
standing there, holding my breath and bracing for the crack
of the rifle, I waited, but the only noise I
heard was my husband's disappointing size. We saw two cubs
running to ketch up to their mama. In all ah
(06:00):
of what we saw, and shocked by incredibly ghost like
three bears can be in the woods, we just sat
and stared. We watched as they vanished into the woods
as quietly as they came in, and as our heart
rates came back down and we were sure that mom
and babies were far enough away, we ventured out to
see where they could have gone, following tracks as far
(06:23):
as we could until we headed back to the cabin.
Excited by our encounter. My grandpa wasn't there, but we
left them a note about the adventure and headed home,
not caring much that we didn't get a deer that year.
Next year would be a whole new adventure, to which
I did get my first deer, a big, beautiful dough.
(06:46):
But that's another story, And according to Amelia Martinez of
Arcade in New York, that's just how that happened. Well, Amelia,
I think you are a good storyteller and our appreciate
you sharing that with the rest of us. Your narrative
describes a hunter's relationship with the game we're entrusted to
look after by learning the rules, the regulations, and the
(07:11):
moral obligations we follow when deciding to legally kill an
animal or let it go, depending upon the circumstances of
each encounter. Now that's a lesson for us all, and
I appreciate you sharing it. Like Amelia's new tradition that
(07:36):
she's sharing with her family in Western New York, I've
been privileged to share one with a group of folks
here in Arkansas that I was initiated in about a
dozen years ago, something we just call bear Camp. It
started out for me as a job and an assignment
to film a Harry Little Hillbilly that looked more like
(07:56):
Harry Potter stunt double with his crazy round glass. This
is then a bear hunting magazine publisher from northwest Arkansas.
When I thought of a bear hunter, although I didn't
know any, I thought of Will Gears character bear Claw
Chris Lap and the greatest movie ever made Jeremia Johnson,
(08:17):
a bearded buckskin and fur wearing gruff old cadra with
a bear claw necklace, whose life experiences were written all
over his weathered face, and the knowledge of bears and
their habits were second nature to his own. Now, except
for the fur trim to buckskin clothes, the gruff demeanor,
and the weather warren face from decades of hard mountain living,
(08:40):
I'd say the rest of it was pretty much on point.
For my friend Klay Nukelem, he hired me to film
him hunting a bear in Oklahoma. And when I say hired,
I mean I offered to film him for whatever he
could afford to pay me, just for the experience, and
he gladly accepted. During our monetary negotiations on the phone,
(09:01):
he caughted me a price of zero dollars, and I
gladly accepted. He was grinding it out and burning the
candle at both ends, trying to make it in the
outdoor media business, a place I was looking to find
my spot in as well. Something told me I was
going to have a good time on this gig, and
if I didn't, all it was going to cost me
(09:22):
was a few days in my time, and I might
get to see a bear in the meantime, something I'd
never seen in the wild. We hunted hard for three days,
never saw a hair or even a track, not one,
and just like that, bear season was over. Acorns were
dropping from the trees before the season opened. And when
(09:43):
that happens, there is no use sitting at a bear
bait site because they ain't coming. Bears will climb over
a mountain of doughnuts to eat one white oak acren.
They know what's good for them and there's no substitute.
They're hardwired for natural mass, and that's what they're thinking
about while they're killing time at a bait site. That
(10:05):
was twelve years and a whole bunch of bears ago,
and I couldn't even begin to say how many we've
looked at sitting side by side, either in a stand
or on the ground. Now the ground was a new one,
I'd admit I thought it was really odd to hunt
a bear from the ground. I knew they had better
noses than deer, and to hunt a deer from the
ground took a lot of wind direction and stand placement
(10:27):
and thought and preparation. Deer can get a whiff of
you in boom, They're gone. Turns out a lot of
times a bear just don't care. That has allowed us
to see a lot of crazy bear behavior all over
the US and especially in remote areas of Canada. I
was hooked from the first time we hunted together, even
(10:49):
though we didn't see a bear. Just the thought of
it intrigued me enough to commit to Any time Clay
needed a camera man, I told him to call me,
and he did, sometimes with a month or two warning
that Sometimes it was hey, can you leave in two
days for a week of bear hunting? My answer was
(11:09):
always yes. I had become just as committed to his
mission of creating interest in the professional and unique content
about bears and bear hunting. I was only betting my time,
but Clay he was betting his future, and that's the
(11:34):
way it would go from then on. I'd go before
season to document the task of baiting the sites, packing
bait into a wilderness along with my camera gear, I
met a handful of people who were trusted to be
in the inner circle, none of which had a bigger
standing than James Lawrence. James is a man that most
(11:55):
of you know through Clay's storytelling, films and podcasts. I
was fortunate enough to be there and to get to
know this man who became my friend because of the
mutual respect we had for wild things that we all love,
and the genuine good time that we all have together. James,
his neighbors, and Clay's parents, his wife, Misty, and their
(12:15):
children were always at bear Camp, and regardless of our
success or failures, the whole pack of them was betting
on us. It was truly a family event that I'd
been invited to join. Now what it started out as
a job turned into something bigger. The contact didn't start
(12:36):
and stop at bear season anymore. He carried all throughout
the year. I saw the mission that Clay was on,
and I wanted to be a permanent part of it.
But I also learned that this wasn't like a deer hunt,
and I don't mean that degradingly towards deer hunters either.
The difference between deer hunting and bear hunting was significant.
In the eyes of the Newcombs and the Lawrences, and
(12:58):
that relevance was transferred to me. Now, Obviously, I thought
it was cool to see a bear in my home state.
And at that time, when I was first introduced to
that world, there were way more hunters who hadn't seen
a bear in the wild than those that had. I'd
grown up deer hunting and seeing deer daily on our farm.
Seeing and shooting a deer was like going to the mailbox.
(13:22):
It was a commonality that we all shared where I
grew up, We coexisted on the same ground and really
only got excited by the big ones, the bucks that
we'd hunt during the season, The big ones that we
longed to have a shot at, were what excited us,
not the endless parade of doze in yere lands and
small bucks that we'd grown accustomed to seeing. We took
(13:43):
it for granted, really, and when you do that, you
become complacent. Now, complacency breeds in attendiveness, and that's how
things slipped through the cracks. By only focusing on what
you're after a few weeks before the onset of the season,
you're not seeing the big picture. To me, that creates
an interest that's only driven by harvest and not a
(14:06):
true appreciation for the animal we're chasing. James and Clay
both study bears year round, and if I wanted to
be able to join the conversation, I'd better learn to
do the same. I studied game camera pictures and read
a ton of articles, a lot of them written by
Clay himself, and I asked James questions and tried to
(14:26):
soak in as much knowledge about bears that I could.
When I was with him, the main thing I did
was listen and try to apply the things I'd learned
to the things I was seeing. Whenever Clay and I
were on a hunt somewhere, him with a bow, me
with a camera, I saw how both of them revered
bears for what they are, a complex animal that roams
(14:48):
the landscape, thriving in unfractured expanses of wilderness, ghostly appearing
and disappearing seemingly it will. I don't know how many
bears I feel with Clay or a campus someone else
had taken when we all gathered to skin it and
rendered down the fat, all of which they shared with me.
And then one day, two days after we'd all left
(15:10):
the camp for home with everyone who'd hunted taken bears.
I got a call from James friend, you know that
bait we thought was dead up on the hill, Yes, sir,
well there's a bear hitting it pretty hard and we
want you to come back over, okay, James, Who am
I going to be filming? James kind of laughed and
(15:33):
he said, well, I think Clay might be filming you.
I could hear the excitement and pleasure in his voice
as he offered me my first opportunity to take a
bear myself. I didn't know what to say, but less
than twenty four hours later, I was sitting on that
bait and Clay filming and kill a bear with only
moments to spare legal shooting light. As a matter of fact,
(15:58):
we'd already shot the end sequence of the hunt and
was in the process of packing up when a bear
walked out less than fifteen yards. And that's when I
knew I'd been accepted into the bear Camp family, an
extension of the newcom and Lawrence family that I do
not take for granted. I've had conversations with Clay about
gifting bears to hunters, and I took all my kids
(16:21):
deer hunting. At the first notion, they expressed an interest
in it, and Clay did the same, but he wouldn't
allow them to take a bear until they had a
true appreciation and understanding of how important it was To
do so, they had to look at it like he
and James did, and how they both taught me to
It wasn't a process of paying dues or completing a
(16:43):
course of study. It was an overall understanding of every
facet of bear hunting, most notably conservation aspect and the
role hunters play in the stewardship of bears. My observations
as a parent tell me that's how my father raised me,
and I've tried to raise my children the same way,
(17:04):
teaching him the totality of how life ebbs and flows
with sadness, joy, failure, and success, all of which you
could experience on a one day bear hunt. I know
I've seen it now this year is those of you
who listened to last week's episode already know my bear
hunting plans were changed at the last minute by a
set of unfortunate circumstances. Disappointed, of course, I was sad,
(17:31):
not even a little bit. I was only going to
skip Bear Camp this year if I had a big
bear coming into my bait that was three and a
half hours away. Now, the baits at Bear Camp were
pretty lean this year, and we'd invited the bear biologists
for the State of Mississippi, Anthony Ballard, and a graduate
student working on his master's degree in wildlife biology, Spencer
(17:53):
Daniels Clay and I met him on a bearden study
they'd invited us to last March in Mississippi River Delta.
As soon as we all got into camp, the positive
flow switched to a negative ebb. Big bears that had
been hitting the baits began tapering off and going nocturnal.
The number of acorns that were hitting the deck all
(18:15):
over the mountains weren't helping either. That was keeping all
the bears busy and only trickling in right after daylight
and right before dark. Opening day wasn't going to be
what it had been in the past few years. James
and I talked, and I don't think we'd ever had
an opening day where someone didn't get one since I'd
started coming, and yet here we were bearless on opening day.
(18:41):
Now that wouldn't remain, as two out of three did
take bears on the evening of Day two in the
morning of Day three. Significant accomplishments considering the conditions and
all the factors we had working against us, but still
not the best part of this year's camp, Not for
me anyway. I've known James for years now. We shared
(19:03):
a dangerous expedition into the wilderness of northern Saskatchewan, chasing
barriers with Clay and a couple other close friends. One
year that truly tested our resolve. James and I were
in a boat together with a guide in the weather
we endeared crossing a massive lake was unlike anything I
had ever seen. The waves were three to four feet
(19:25):
at unrelenting. The five and a half hour boat ride
was horrendous, and there were several times I wished I
wasn't there. I was scared, and I'm not ashamed to
admit it now. I have no doubt that you could
have looked at my face then and known yourself firsthand.
But James never said a word, changed expressions, or exhibited
(19:48):
anything other than a glare of contempt. As the next
set of waves battered the boat we were trying to
stay inside of. He was riding the storm out, just
like he'd ridden the storms before when he'd gotten sick
with a sickness that takes a lot of folks out,
but it didn't get James. And on that trip, James
(20:09):
didn't get a bear, when all the other hunters in
camp did a few months later, I was back at
our Arkansas Bear camp with James and Clay and had
the pleasure of filming James hunting on the land he'd
grown up on in the Washington Mountains. On the way
over to our spot on opening day, I turned my
camera on and started recording James without him, knowing best
(20:32):
way to keep someone from being camera shot and measured
in their responses if they're reserved and the quiet type,
all of which James Lawrence is. It's one of the
best interviews I've ever filmed. It was real and heartfelt,
and you could see the emotion in James's face as
he talked about his grandmother and the place we were
(20:54):
going to hunt and what it meant to him and
his family's legacy in the mountains. I didn't want the
ride from his home to where we were hunting to end,
but it did, and in short order we were in
a tree and with his bow and me with that camera.
James killed a big bear that afternoon, and we struggled
(21:15):
to get it loaded in his truck, but eventually we did.
And the look in his eyes and the smile on
his face that afternoon, after I hugged his neck and
thanked him for allowing me to share that moment with
him while we stood over that bear, is one that
I will never forget. I'd never seen that look from
James before. I'm positive that was the day I understood
(21:36):
how James felt about bear hunting and the deep rooted
connection he had with the land, and that he'd officially
adopted me into his own. It was beautiful. I saw
that same expression last week when I watched James give
someone who meant a lot to him in an item
that meant a lot to him, something that he was
(21:58):
proud to give to that person he loved and respected.
The next day, he and I sat at bear camping,
just visited for a while, and when he got ready
to leave to go feed his cows, I walked him
to his truck, just James and me. He told me
as he leamped toward his truck, the years and the
miles showing more evident now than ever on that tough
(22:19):
old mountain man that he lived for these days each September.
He told me he enjoyed getting ready for bear Camp
more than Bear Camp itself, as if the activity and
the anticipation of all of us being together was as
exciting as the event. He put his hand on my shoulder.
I thought to brace himself as he struggled just a
(22:41):
bit to get into his truck. But when he didn't
reach for the door, I looked at him, and he
was looking at me right in the eyes. I saw
that same old look we'd shared as we stood over
that bear he killed all those years ago, and the
same look he had when I saw him give that
gift the day before. He smiled at me and he said,
(23:05):
I love you, Bud. Bear Camp the least important thing
we do there. It's hunt bears. Call it bear camp,
deer camp, or coffee with your friends and family, whatever
you want to, but find a circle of folks, start
(23:26):
one yourself. When people can be together, folks you want
to share your life with, it'll bless you beyond anything
you could ever hold in your hands. Biggest trophies you'll
take home in your heart. I promise thank y'all so
much for listening to me and old Clay Bow here
on the Bear Grease channel. I'm glad you're in this
(23:49):
circle and you can help make it bigger by sharing
it with other folks you think might like it and
knocking us out of review. If you have time, we
sure appreciate it. Until next week, this is at Reeve.
Sign it up, y'all, be careful
Welcome to this Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.
From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
I want you to stay a while as I share
my experiences and life lessons. This Country Life is presented
by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
the best outdoor podcast the airways had off. All right, friends,
(00:28):
grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
stories to share Bear Camp. I'm working on more years
at our Arkansas bear Camp than you can count on
both hands. And if you judge this one by the
quality of the bears taken, it wouldn't be close to
(00:51):
the top ten. If you judge it by what I
took home, it's far and above number one. I'm going
to tell you all about it, but first I'm going
to tell you a story. This week, we're doing a
listener story that caught my attention on three levels. One
(01:15):
who was sent in by a lady We need more
of them in the outdoors. Two at the time it happened,
she was a new hunter. And three it has a
good lesson. It was sent in by the Pride of Arcade,
New York, Amelia Martina. Arcade is also the home of
Daniel Frederick Bateman, who died in eighteen sixty nine at
(01:38):
the ripe old age of one hundred and nine. Daniel
was the last survivor receiving a veteran's pension for service
in the American Revolutionary War. But we ain't talking about
old Daniel Bateman. It's a Milia's time to shine. So
in my voice and Amelia's words, here we go. My
(02:01):
name is Amelia Martina, and I'm not the best at
telling stories, but we loved listening to yours. My husband
has been listening to the Meat Eater podcast for quite
some time and we look forward to doing trivia and
listening to this country life. My son will stop whatever
he's doing to listen to your stories. However, now I
(02:22):
have a story for you, so here it is. I
hope you enjoy it now. I was never a hunter,
and even though I am the oldest grandchild, I was
the last of the seven that my grandpa ever thought
would become one. The men always went out every November
(02:42):
on opening day of whitetail season, hoping to get a deer.
All the while the women stayed at home making chili
and desserts for when they came home at lunch and
before heading back out for the afternoon hunt. However, I
loved being in the woods when I was a kid,
making forts and taking walks to find new secret spots.
(03:04):
It's always a fun time. When I got married, my
husband joined the men and the tradition continued. I was
able to go out with him and join the experience,
but shooting with my camera instead of a firearm. I
enjoyed hunting more than I realized, so I took the
proper courses to get my hunting license, and the next
(03:25):
year I was able to join in. So for the
past five years, my husband and I have gone to
my grandpa's property out in the tiny town of Granger,
New York for our hunting tradition. We pack our supplies
and drive over to the family cabin the night before
to spend the night. Now upon arrival, my grandpa always
(03:48):
greets us, making a big deal out of coming over,
and he gives us the I just know that you're
going to get one speech. He shares stories that we've
all heard before, but we never tire of hearing, and
then go to bed, only to wake up before the
sun to get to our blind that we set up
months before, making sure that there are handwarmers for us
(04:11):
and chili in the crock pot, and Grandpa says, all right,
very good, let's go. He patched us on the back
and we head out into the dark, making our way
through the woods, the moonlight lighting our snow covered path
as we make it down to our blind and snuggle
in and wait. Disappointed by the lack of activity, we
(04:31):
decided to pack it up as the last of the
sun led us back to the cabin, telling my grandpa
that we'll be back in a couple days to try
it again. Keeping our promise, we returned with determination, ready
for a day in the woods. We decided to try
another blind that my grandpa had said up, letting us
(04:52):
know his heater is in there so we can be warm.
He wishes us good luck, and away we went. Finding
the lying at the far end of the property. We
slide into our folding camp chairs and wait for the
birds to start singing their morning song, all snuggling into
my husband's oversized winter came on. Fighting heavy eye lids
and the quiet of the forests, I heard my husband whisper,
(05:16):
don't move. Unaware of what he saw, I slowly turned
my head to see where his rifle was pointing, and
I saw nothing, and I heard nothing. Then, as if
she appeared out of the thick brush, I saw her
lumbering through the woods, but quiet as can be, not
thirty yards in front of us, as she turns and stops,
(05:39):
a two hundred and fifty pound beautiful black bear. Just
standing there, holding my breath and bracing for the crack
of the rifle, I waited, but the only noise I
heard was my husband's disappointing size. We saw two cubs
running to ketch up to their mama. In all ah
(06:00):
of what we saw, and shocked by incredibly ghost like
three bears can be in the woods, we just sat
and stared. We watched as they vanished into the woods
as quietly as they came in, and as our heart
rates came back down and we were sure that mom
and babies were far enough away, we ventured out to
see where they could have gone, following tracks as far
(06:23):
as we could until we headed back to the cabin.
Excited by our encounter. My grandpa wasn't there, but we
left them a note about the adventure and headed home,
not caring much that we didn't get a deer that year.
Next year would be a whole new adventure, to which
I did get my first deer, a big, beautiful dough.
(06:46):
But that's another story, And according to Amelia Martinez of
Arcade in New York, that's just how that happened. Well, Amelia,
I think you are a good storyteller and our appreciate
you sharing that with the rest of us. Your narrative
describes a hunter's relationship with the game we're entrusted to
look after by learning the rules, the regulations, and the
(07:11):
moral obligations we follow when deciding to legally kill an
animal or let it go, depending upon the circumstances of
each encounter. Now that's a lesson for us all, and
I appreciate you sharing it. Like Amelia's new tradition that
(07:36):
she's sharing with her family in Western New York, I've
been privileged to share one with a group of folks
here in Arkansas that I was initiated in about a
dozen years ago, something we just call bear Camp. It
started out for me as a job and an assignment
to film a Harry Little Hillbilly that looked more like
(07:56):
Harry Potter stunt double with his crazy round glass. This
is then a bear hunting magazine publisher from northwest Arkansas.
When I thought of a bear hunter, although I didn't
know any, I thought of Will Gears character bear Claw
Chris Lap and the greatest movie ever made Jeremia Johnson,
(08:17):
a bearded buckskin and fur wearing gruff old cadra with
a bear claw necklace, whose life experiences were written all
over his weathered face, and the knowledge of bears and
their habits were second nature to his own. Now, except
for the fur trim to buckskin clothes, the gruff demeanor,
and the weather warren face from decades of hard mountain living,
(08:40):
I'd say the rest of it was pretty much on point.
For my friend Klay Nukelem, he hired me to film
him hunting a bear in Oklahoma. And when I say hired,
I mean I offered to film him for whatever he
could afford to pay me, just for the experience, and
he gladly accepted. During our monetary negotiations on the phone,
(09:01):
he caughted me a price of zero dollars, and I
gladly accepted. He was grinding it out and burning the
candle at both ends, trying to make it in the
outdoor media business, a place I was looking to find
my spot in as well. Something told me I was
going to have a good time on this gig, and
if I didn't, all it was going to cost me
(09:22):
was a few days in my time, and I might
get to see a bear in the meantime, something I'd
never seen in the wild. We hunted hard for three days,
never saw a hair or even a track, not one,
and just like that, bear season was over. Acorns were
dropping from the trees before the season opened. And when
(09:43):
that happens, there is no use sitting at a bear
bait site because they ain't coming. Bears will climb over
a mountain of doughnuts to eat one white oak acren.
They know what's good for them and there's no substitute.
They're hardwired for natural mass, and that's what they're thinking
about while they're killing time at a bait site. That
(10:05):
was twelve years and a whole bunch of bears ago,
and I couldn't even begin to say how many we've
looked at sitting side by side, either in a stand
or on the ground. Now the ground was a new one,
I'd admit I thought it was really odd to hunt
a bear from the ground. I knew they had better
noses than deer, and to hunt a deer from the
ground took a lot of wind direction and stand placement
(10:27):
and thought and preparation. Deer can get a whiff of
you in boom, They're gone. Turns out a lot of
times a bear just don't care. That has allowed us
to see a lot of crazy bear behavior all over
the US and especially in remote areas of Canada. I
was hooked from the first time we hunted together, even
(10:49):
though we didn't see a bear. Just the thought of
it intrigued me enough to commit to Any time Clay
needed a camera man, I told him to call me,
and he did, sometimes with a month or two warning
that Sometimes it was hey, can you leave in two
days for a week of bear hunting? My answer was
(11:09):
always yes. I had become just as committed to his
mission of creating interest in the professional and unique content
about bears and bear hunting. I was only betting my time,
but Clay he was betting his future, and that's the
(11:34):
way it would go from then on. I'd go before
season to document the task of baiting the sites, packing
bait into a wilderness along with my camera gear, I
met a handful of people who were trusted to be
in the inner circle, none of which had a bigger
standing than James Lawrence. James is a man that most
(11:55):
of you know through Clay's storytelling, films and podcasts. I
was fortunate enough to be there and to get to
know this man who became my friend because of the
mutual respect we had for wild things that we all love,
and the genuine good time that we all have together. James,
his neighbors, and Clay's parents, his wife, Misty, and their
(12:15):
children were always at bear Camp, and regardless of our
success or failures, the whole pack of them was betting
on us. It was truly a family event that I'd
been invited to join. Now what it started out as
a job turned into something bigger. The contact didn't start
(12:36):
and stop at bear season anymore. He carried all throughout
the year. I saw the mission that Clay was on,
and I wanted to be a permanent part of it.
But I also learned that this wasn't like a deer hunt,
and I don't mean that degradingly towards deer hunters either.
The difference between deer hunting and bear hunting was significant.
In the eyes of the Newcombs and the Lawrences, and
(12:58):
that relevance was transferred to me. Now, Obviously, I thought
it was cool to see a bear in my home state.
And at that time, when I was first introduced to
that world, there were way more hunters who hadn't seen
a bear in the wild than those that had. I'd
grown up deer hunting and seeing deer daily on our farm.
Seeing and shooting a deer was like going to the mailbox.
(13:22):
It was a commonality that we all shared where I
grew up, We coexisted on the same ground and really
only got excited by the big ones, the bucks that
we'd hunt during the season, The big ones that we
longed to have a shot at, were what excited us,
not the endless parade of doze in yere lands and
small bucks that we'd grown accustomed to seeing. We took
(13:43):
it for granted, really, and when you do that, you
become complacent. Now, complacency breeds in attendiveness, and that's how
things slipped through the cracks. By only focusing on what
you're after a few weeks before the onset of the season,
you're not seeing the big picture. To me, that creates
an interest that's only driven by harvest and not a
(14:06):
true appreciation for the animal we're chasing. James and Clay
both study bears year round, and if I wanted to
be able to join the conversation, I'd better learn to
do the same. I studied game camera pictures and read
a ton of articles, a lot of them written by
Clay himself, and I asked James questions and tried to
(14:26):
soak in as much knowledge about bears that I could.
When I was with him, the main thing I did
was listen and try to apply the things I'd learned
to the things I was seeing. Whenever Clay and I
were on a hunt somewhere, him with a bow, me
with a camera, I saw how both of them revered
bears for what they are, a complex animal that roams
(14:48):
the landscape, thriving in unfractured expanses of wilderness, ghostly appearing
and disappearing seemingly it will. I don't know how many
bears I feel with Clay or a campus someone else
had taken when we all gathered to skin it and
rendered down the fat, all of which they shared with me.
And then one day, two days after we'd all left
(15:10):
the camp for home with everyone who'd hunted taken bears.
I got a call from James friend, you know that
bait we thought was dead up on the hill, Yes, sir,
well there's a bear hitting it pretty hard and we
want you to come back over, okay, James, Who am
I going to be filming? James kind of laughed and
(15:33):
he said, well, I think Clay might be filming you.
I could hear the excitement and pleasure in his voice
as he offered me my first opportunity to take a
bear myself. I didn't know what to say, but less
than twenty four hours later, I was sitting on that
bait and Clay filming and kill a bear with only
moments to spare legal shooting light. As a matter of fact,
(15:58):
we'd already shot the end sequence of the hunt and
was in the process of packing up when a bear
walked out less than fifteen yards. And that's when I
knew I'd been accepted into the bear Camp family, an
extension of the newcom and Lawrence family that I do
not take for granted. I've had conversations with Clay about
gifting bears to hunters, and I took all my kids
(16:21):
deer hunting. At the first notion, they expressed an interest
in it, and Clay did the same, but he wouldn't
allow them to take a bear until they had a
true appreciation and understanding of how important it was To
do so, they had to look at it like he
and James did, and how they both taught me to
It wasn't a process of paying dues or completing a
(16:43):
course of study. It was an overall understanding of every
facet of bear hunting, most notably conservation aspect and the
role hunters play in the stewardship of bears. My observations
as a parent tell me that's how my father raised me,
and I've tried to raise my children the same way,
(17:04):
teaching him the totality of how life ebbs and flows
with sadness, joy, failure, and success, all of which you
could experience on a one day bear hunt. I know
I've seen it now this year is those of you
who listened to last week's episode already know my bear
hunting plans were changed at the last minute by a
set of unfortunate circumstances. Disappointed, of course, I was sad,
(17:31):
not even a little bit. I was only going to
skip Bear Camp this year if I had a big
bear coming into my bait that was three and a
half hours away. Now, the baits at Bear Camp were
pretty lean this year, and we'd invited the bear biologists
for the State of Mississippi, Anthony Ballard, and a graduate
student working on his master's degree in wildlife biology, Spencer
(17:53):
Daniels Clay and I met him on a bearden study
they'd invited us to last March in Mississippi River Delta.
As soon as we all got into camp, the positive
flow switched to a negative ebb. Big bears that had
been hitting the baits began tapering off and going nocturnal.
The number of acorns that were hitting the deck all
(18:15):
over the mountains weren't helping either. That was keeping all
the bears busy and only trickling in right after daylight
and right before dark. Opening day wasn't going to be
what it had been in the past few years. James
and I talked, and I don't think we'd ever had
an opening day where someone didn't get one since I'd
started coming, and yet here we were bearless on opening day.
(18:41):
Now that wouldn't remain, as two out of three did
take bears on the evening of Day two in the
morning of Day three. Significant accomplishments considering the conditions and
all the factors we had working against us, but still
not the best part of this year's camp, Not for
me anyway. I've known James for years now. We shared
(19:03):
a dangerous expedition into the wilderness of northern Saskatchewan, chasing
barriers with Clay and a couple other close friends. One
year that truly tested our resolve. James and I were
in a boat together with a guide in the weather
we endeared crossing a massive lake was unlike anything I
had ever seen. The waves were three to four feet
(19:25):
at unrelenting. The five and a half hour boat ride
was horrendous, and there were several times I wished I
wasn't there. I was scared, and I'm not ashamed to
admit it now. I have no doubt that you could
have looked at my face then and known yourself firsthand.
But James never said a word, changed expressions, or exhibited
(19:48):
anything other than a glare of contempt. As the next
set of waves battered the boat we were trying to
stay inside of. He was riding the storm out, just
like he'd ridden the storms before when he'd gotten sick
with a sickness that takes a lot of folks out,
but it didn't get James. And on that trip, James
(20:09):
didn't get a bear, when all the other hunters in
camp did a few months later, I was back at
our Arkansas Bear camp with James and Clay and had
the pleasure of filming James hunting on the land he'd
grown up on in the Washington Mountains. On the way
over to our spot on opening day, I turned my
camera on and started recording James without him, knowing best
(20:32):
way to keep someone from being camera shot and measured
in their responses if they're reserved and the quiet type,
all of which James Lawrence is. It's one of the
best interviews I've ever filmed. It was real and heartfelt,
and you could see the emotion in James's face as
he talked about his grandmother and the place we were
(20:54):
going to hunt and what it meant to him and
his family's legacy in the mountains. I didn't want the
ride from his home to where we were hunting to end,
but it did, and in short order we were in
a tree and with his bow and me with that camera.
James killed a big bear that afternoon, and we struggled
(21:15):
to get it loaded in his truck, but eventually we did.
And the look in his eyes and the smile on
his face that afternoon, after I hugged his neck and
thanked him for allowing me to share that moment with
him while we stood over that bear, is one that
I will never forget. I'd never seen that look from
James before. I'm positive that was the day I understood
(21:36):
how James felt about bear hunting and the deep rooted
connection he had with the land, and that he'd officially
adopted me into his own. It was beautiful. I saw
that same expression last week when I watched James give
someone who meant a lot to him in an item
that meant a lot to him, something that he was
(21:58):
proud to give to that person he loved and respected.
The next day, he and I sat at bear camping,
just visited for a while, and when he got ready
to leave to go feed his cows, I walked him
to his truck, just James and me. He told me
as he leamped toward his truck, the years and the
miles showing more evident now than ever on that tough
(22:19):
old mountain man that he lived for these days each September.
He told me he enjoyed getting ready for bear Camp
more than Bear Camp itself, as if the activity and
the anticipation of all of us being together was as
exciting as the event. He put his hand on my shoulder.
I thought to brace himself as he struggled just a
(22:41):
bit to get into his truck. But when he didn't
reach for the door, I looked at him, and he
was looking at me right in the eyes. I saw
that same old look we'd shared as we stood over
that bear he killed all those years ago, and the
same look he had when I saw him give that
gift the day before. He smiled at me and he said,
(23:05):
I love you, Bud. Bear Camp the least important thing
we do there. It's hunt bears. Call it bear camp,
deer camp, or coffee with your friends and family, whatever
you want to, but find a circle of folks, start
(23:26):
one yourself. When people can be together, folks you want
to share your life with, it'll bless you beyond anything
you could ever hold in your hands. Biggest trophies you'll
take home in your heart. I promise thank y'all so
much for listening to me and old Clay Bow here
on the Bear Grease channel. I'm glad you're in this
(23:49):
circle and you can help make it bigger by sharing
it with other folks you think might like it and
knocking us out of review. If you have time, we
sure appreciate it. Until next week, this is at Reeve.
Sign it up, y'all, be careful
Host
Clay Newcomb
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