This coming spring I’ll be heading into the Idaho backcountry for a spot and stalk archery spring bear hunt. The past few years I’ve done this hunt with a rifle and been successful doing so. It’s always brutal and I always look forward to it. With this being an archery hunt, the physical demands will be even greater and I’ve been chipping away on backcountry prep little by little to prepare myself.
Going on 4 years now, I have gone to Idaho during the spring to hunt black bears. Since my first trip, which was actually solo for 8 days, I have looked forward to this hunt every year. The first year I missed several bears. The second year I made a bad shot and couldn’t recover a bear. And the third I finally laid my hands on my first Idaho black bear. These were all backpack hunts with my rifle. There was one thing on my mind the whole time. A dream.
Arizona bear hunting is something that I fell in love with many years ago. From the beginning I was hooked. I remember sitting at a water hole, not knowing what I was doing in the least, and having a bear stroll by me. A few years later I’d get my first Arizona bear and the fire inside would burn even brighter. This past October I returned back to the area I got my first bear in and was greeted with a flood of emotions, as well as made new memories. The film of this hunt is called Imprinted, and I am so thrilled to share it with you below.
At each start of a new year, I always feel like I am rich with time. A whole 365 days is ahead with a long list of adventure hunts planned. And each year it blows my mind how fast those 365 days fly by. So quick that sometimes it’s hard to appreciate things in the moment as they happen. In light of that, I’m going to treat this as a reflection post. One that takes a look back on the 2023 hunting season.
I can’t believe it’s already December. Where does the time go? I’ve been doing my best to soak up the time with family and enjoy the holidays. Hope you’ve been doing the same. Along with that, I’ve been working on something I’m extremely excited to share with you all. It’s a new bear film called Imprinted and it documents my 2023 Fall Bear Season in Arizona.
High country mule deer hunting is something that I have really grown a love for over the last handful of years. It speaks my language. Steep and deep backcountry, glassing for bucks, and then playing the chess match that is sneaking in close to bow range. From Utah to Colorado I slept in the dirt and tried my hand at putting the moves on big velvet mule deer. What started as a hunt for a deer, soon turned to a hunt for Perspective. Which is the title of this new film and you can watch the teaser below.
Fall is officially here, and if you’re anything like me, you’re getting hit with the warm and fuzzies. Hopefully, the fuzzies are in the form of big mule deer antlers! This new film of mine may not be a mule deer film, but I am super proud of it. Dillon Flint and I backpacked into some of the most rugged country in the lower 48 this past spring and what we got out of it was “The Most.”
Since I was a child, doing difficult things has been something I’ve been drawn to. There is a beauty to it. It’s challenging and keeps one on their toes. Should you come out successful, no matter what that difficult thing is, the reward is so much greater. It means “the most” to struggle and then succeed, than it does to succeed without struggle.
This past Fall hunting season was no doubt an incredible one. From trekking high into the alpine to calling for black bears in the dense timber. My time spent living in the dirt and out of my backpack was time well spent. One hunt in particular though really stole my heart. And that was hunting mule deer bucks during October in the Idaho Backcountry.
This Fall has sure been an eventful one and I couldn’t be more grateful. I just returned from a wicked trip hunting mule deer in the Idaho backcountry. While the trip was rather short, it was a great hunt that ended with a great surprise(hint hint…). And the best part, all of it is on film.
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