“Well, it’s been quite the quest for a big bear. 5 trips to Alaska, along with numerous hurdles and life lessons. But it’s done. We were stuck in King Salmon for 2 days waiting for the winds to calm down enough to get to camp in the Katmai National Preserve. The lodge that was 6 miles from my camp reported winds reaching 101mph! So the 10 day hunt turned into 8, but we knew we were in a good area, and I trust my guide and outfitter Cabot Pitts 100%, who guided me on Kodiak last Spring. But after getting to camp the wind picked back up, blowing steady for 6 more days, no less than 25mph and sometimes gusting to 50 or more. Highs were forecasted to reach 50 degrees, but we never even saw 40. And for 6 days we saw not 1 bear. Spring was late and they weren’t pushing out of the dens. But we stayed optimistic and tried to hide from the wind in little depressions in the hills. Two things that’s nice when the hunting sucks is a nice roomy tent(s) to come back to each night, and good food. And Cabot pre-cooks all his meals and vacuum seals and freezes them before each hunt, and they are outstanding. We ate ribeyes, moose lasagna, moose stroganoff, moose meatloaf, smoked pork jambalaya, homemade chocolate chip cookies, but saved the famous moose enchiladas for the night we got a bear down. The sun doesn’t set until almost midnight this time of year, so it makes for very long days when the weather sucks. Many days of glassing miles and miles of the same terrain, waiting for that moment that your brain recognizes a different feature than the other 800 times you looked at that particular spot. Day 6 we were watching the plane pick up the other hunter and guide about 6 miles from us and move them to another camp. Cabot and I discussed moving also, but we both felt good about our spot. So we stayed. And as the plane flew the last person and gear out of the other camp, I heard Cabot say “I got a bear spotted”. I looked at it through my binoculars and it was two bears, one much bigger than the other. Oh a sow and cub I said, better than nothing. Cabot said “no, that’s a sow and big boar”. My world literally changed in a matter of seconds. They laid down in the snow and away we went on our 4 mile stalk through the snow and up the mountain. We got within 1200 yards and dropped our packs and chambered a round. We got up to where the bears were and they were gone. So we peeked over the side of the mountain and they were walking down at 150 yards. I regret not giving Cabot time to get the video camera on, but the first good shot he gave me I took it. Perfect shot and a dead bear that I’ve been after for a decade. We went back and got the packs and made the 300’ near vertical descent to my bear. He’s a battle scarred warrior, scars on his face and all over his body, one claw ripped out on one paw, one eye infected from a fighting wound, and even one testicle ripped and torn off lol. Packing him out meant a 300’ vertical ascent. It sucked. Bad. Cabot is a beast, I thought my 100 lb pack was heavy until I tried to carry his. Every bit of 140+. Almost couldn’t stand up. And we packed that up the mountain. Now it’s dark and we have 4 miles back to the tent in the blowing wind and freezing rain and sleet. Got in at 2:30 am exhausted and soaked. I confessed to Cabot that I began hallucinating during the last 30 minutes or so lol. But we celebrated with moose enchiladas and some Jack Daniels Sinatra. I wouldn’t trade one single second of the trip.”
-Jack Dickerson
Squared – 10’2, Skull 27’+
Jack hunted Dall sheep in 2019 with Henry Tiffany and guided by Cabot Pitts. Having quite the success, Jack harvested a excellent Dall sheep on day one of hunting measuring 39 1/2″x 13 1/2″ and 10 years old green scoring 162″. On Day 2 Cabot called in a pack of wolves and Jack was able to get the huge Alpha male from the pack of 8, the hide measured 7 1/2′ nose to tail. Day 3 was icing on the trip, with jack placing an perfect shot on a 7’4 interior male grizzly.
