Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433799
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 7 2 O n the first day of hunting the party had split, some going after a bobcat, while TR took a number of the dogs and followed the tracks of a big bear. The light was fading fast, so TR decided to resume tracking the bear the next day. When they returned to camp, the other group came back with a 35-pound bobcat, but some of the dogs had incurred injuries during the chase. TR was very aware that there had been a decrease in the number of bears in Colorado. At that time, grizzlies had become very scarce, so he knew they were more likely to encounter a black bear (the cinnamon phase was considered a brown bear at that time). At first light the next day, while some of the dogs nursed their injuries from the bobcat hunt and an unexpected encounter with a badger, the healthy dogs and the hunters set out to pick up the trail of the bear. They returned to where they'd last seen the animal the previous afternoon. Phillip Stewart remembered sighting it on the opposite side of a deep valley. As they neared the spot, the men could see the faded tracks, but were uncertain of their freshness and whether or not they were worth following. Jake kept the hounds back while they tried to determine if the trail was fresh enough to follow. But before they could decide, one of the older hounds slipped away and took off in earnest. When they couldn't call it back, the remainder of the hounds were loosed. By the dogs' determined run, TR soon realized they were on a fresh scent. The hillsides with a northerly exposure, however, still had deep snowdrifts along the ridges. But an overnight freeze had created a hard crust that made the bear's tracks hardly visible and difficult to follow. The men rode and sometimes walked their horses up and over the rugged terrain. Pinyons, boulders, and assorted spruce deadfalls covered many of the gullies and ravines. They worked hard to keep up with the dogs, which were scattered over the hillsides. TR wondered if they'd lost the scent, when suddenly he heard TR and Skip