Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Simon’s wife Selena interviewing<br />
the hunters.<br />
needed sustenance. Over lunch, Lars<br />
explained that bear meat is dense and dark<br />
and best slow-cooked in chocolate. With<br />
just a few months until Christmas, Selena<br />
and I decided to surprise family back home<br />
with a less-than-traditional meal this year<br />
– if our hunt turned out successful. Still no<br />
bear spotted, but we were far from downbeat.<br />
That afternoon we met up with the<br />
other guides to exchange information. Today<br />
marked a significant leap forward in our<br />
search – Mattias had spotted what looked<br />
like a lone bear a few miles away, plus he’d<br />
found two paw impressions in some soft<br />
mud nearby. He reckoned they were just<br />
a couple of hours old. Measuring seven<br />
inches, Markus estimated the bear to weigh<br />
at least two hundred kilograms. If you’re<br />
after a truly heart-pounding hunt, then<br />
enter bear territory. All sorts of thoughts<br />
were now rushing through my mind. An<br />
involuntary physiological reaction of ‘fight<br />
or flight’ hormones coursed through my<br />
body. There is an apex predator in the local<br />
vicinity. Is it watching me right now? Am<br />
I its prey for today? Suddenly the atmosphere<br />
between the guides changed from<br />
jovial to extremely focused.<br />
We continued trekking in the direction<br />
of the paw prints, with the leashed<br />
dogs’ noses pointing the way forward. We<br />
walked quickly to try to catch up with the<br />
bear. Hopefully it was resting under a tree<br />
after feeding all day. Sadly we found no<br />
other sign and the trail eventually went<br />
cold as darkness fell, with the dogs circling<br />
the last spot of scent. We trekked home in<br />
the pitch dark in silence. The disappointment<br />
was immense.<br />
Back at camp, our steaming wet socks<br />
were drying on the rail high above the log<br />
burner, as we huddled around the heat<br />
source to devour our evening meal. With<br />
just five full days of hunting, we were fearful<br />
that we might not be successful. “If we<br />
return home empty-handed, then this trip<br />
just becomes part one of our journey to<br />
harvest a bear,” Selena reminded me before<br />
quoting the well-known adage: “The best<br />
hunter in the world will not do half so well<br />
as the luckiest hunter in the world.”<br />
Sadly that was to be our only encounter.<br />
Hunting is all about highs and lows,<br />
and this particular trip was certainly one to<br />
remember. Investing in a failed hunt only<br />
adds to the satisfaction of success in the<br />
future. My friends will tell you that I am<br />
rarely lost for words, but this bear hunt left<br />
me dumb. I make my living as a wordsmith<br />
but I will have to consult a thesaurus to find<br />
sufficient superlatives to describe just how<br />
unique it is to hunt in Jämtland. •<br />
19
Change language