This hunt was kicked off at the 2009 SCI convention in Reno. My grandfather (Papa) and I went there to meet our outfitter for Africa and become certified measurers for SCI's trophy records. Somehow along the way we ended up booking a bow hunt with Colin Paly of Northern Edge Outfitters. Then a month or so later Papa called me to tell me he had found another outfitter that had an actual lodge that way we could get my grandma (Nana) and my girlfriend Samantha to join us. He figured since we were already headed to Alberta we might as well head up a week early to hunt at Buck Paradise's Green Lake lodge the week before. 
   We arrrived on a Sunday and since hunting is prohibited on Sundays there we had to wait. The next night Sam and I went down the lake to a stand they called Burnt Stump. Within half an hour we had our first bear come to the bait. We watched several bears before I heard Sam say that there was a big bear coming in. My view was obstructed at first but as soon as he came into sight I knew he was a giant bear. As I grabbed my bow Sam turned on the video camera. He finally presented me with a shot so I stuck my arrrow right behind his shoulder. Sam thought I had missed and hit the barrel. After reviewing the film it was confrimed that my arrow and Rage broadhead had made a clean pass through. I radioed my guide, Corey and we began to track the bear as soon as Corey arrived. At first there wasn't much blood but about 20 yards down the trail we began to find big pools of it. Just as we spotted the bear he rose up on us. Corey passed me the shotgun so that i could put it down before it charged or tried to run off again. After the shot hit him, hte bear ran another ten yards then cratered. He was almost to big for the us to prop on a log for pictures (actually we had to settle for a log on the ground rather than the original log that was slightly elevated). Since he was so hard to prop up we decided to skin him there rather than carrying it 100 yards back to the boat. His skull came out to 19 & 8/16 making him my third SCI gold medal bear. His pictures are at buckparadise.com under the 2009 Bear Gallery then click on Josh Jones.
   After our week at Green Lake we went back to Edmonton to meet up with Monty and Daniel for the second week. The next morning after saying goodbye to the girls we met Colin who drove us up to camp. In the zone we were hunting in Sunday hunting was allowed so we hitthe stands that night. Even though it poured rain on us that night Monty managed to arrow a big black bear. The next night his luck continued and he got another really nice bear. It was blond on top but faded into chocolate. Daniel took his very first bear the next afternoon. On the second to last night I got my bear. A couple hours after I had been on the stand I saw him coming through the trees. He was scratching his back on a tree and looked dark chocolate. But when the sunlight hit him he looked cinnamon or blond. By the time he came into the open I had already stood up and had my bow in hand. Every time he was about to come onto my side of the barrels he looked up at me then went back behind them. The barrels were chained to two trees that were about a foot apart and eventually he stopped beind them so that his head was behind th left barrel and I could just barely see his front shoulder to the right of the tree on the left. I figured this was the only shot he was going to give me so I drew down on him and sent my arrow between the trees. He ran 30 yards at the most and began to death moan for nearly a full minute. I couldn't see where he fell and we couldn't find any blood but I knew he was down. Finally, we found a tiny drop of blood that showed us the angle he had run from the barrel at. At that point we just looked up and saw hi laying right there. I didn't fill my second tag but Daniel took an old dry sow that same night and Papa shot a sow the last night in camp. Our bear pictures should eventuall end up on Colin's website and they will definitely be posted here as soon as I can load them onto my computer.

Tags: Bear Archery Bow