If you have followed this blog for any amount of time, you may have noticed that I am a fan of black bear hunting. They are the reason I dove as deep as I did into hunting. The black bear has kept me in the field more than any other animal out there. And each spring that comes by my mind starts to get overloaded with thoughts of traveling deep into the backcountry in search of black bears.
Now, if you are new here, let me first welcome you and introduce myself. My name is Josh Kirchner and this blog is an online journal of my hunting experiences. I have many loves and one of them is black bear hunting.
For the spring of 2025, I had two spring bear hunts planned. One would take place in my home state of Arizona and one would pull me to the rugged landscapes of Idaho. Both of them would be backpack hunts and both of them would be difficult endeavors. With that said, I couldn’t wait for either.
My Arizona hunt landed me in a very special place in which I have an immense amount of history. It was the first place I ever did a solo backpack hunt. Shocker, it was for black bears. Ever since then, I have tried to come into this unforgiving place year after year. There is one bear I have been chasing in there for almost 8 years now. He resides in the back of my mind on a regular basis.
As much as I like solo hunting, I was blessed to have a good friend Brian with me as well as a new friend Marshal. Having good company in the backcountry makes tough hunts feel not as tough, and this one? Well, it was nothing short of tough.
To sum things up, we saw one bear on this hunt after 6 days. And it wasn’t just “one bear.” It was THE bear. We watched him head towards a cliff face and never saw him come out. For 3 days we sat and watched that cliff face for any sign of him. We were left with more questions than answers. My ultimate assumption, though, was this. I believe we witnessed that bear coming out to do what I’d call a food survey. With it still being early spring, the bears weren’t fully out and about yet at the elevation we were at. My guess is, he saw what he needed to see and decided to lay down for another week.
As much as I love my Arizona bears, after the slow hunt we had, I was more than ready to get up to Idaho. From the looks and sounds of it, my trip was planned perfectly in terms of timing. Spring was sprung, the weather looked pretty decent, and we’d be there throughout the week to hopefully avoid any weekend crowds.
In the 5 years I had been coming here, no other time have I had as much pep in my step than this one. I just felt good. Lots of training took place in preparation for spring and I was noticing the benefits through and through.
While I had the only tag on this hunt, I was joined by my friend and cameraman Dillon. He’d follow me around the mountains for the next week, documenting the journey. Our hopes were lots of bears, no ticks, and heavy packs. We got all of that…pretty much at least.
When it was all said and done, we saw bears every day, Dillon saw 4 ticks, and we indeed walked out of that place with heavy packs. I was able to harvest a great mature boar back there and it just felt amazing getting back to the truck and loading him up in the cooler after such a physically demanding hunt.
That’s the short version. Of course, I will be putting together a full film on the hunt and I cannot wait to share that with you all here.
Now that those two spring bear hunts are in the past, I sit here in reflection. We are so lucky that we get to embark on adventures like this and I feel so grateful for each year I get to spend in the mountains. Last year was a tough one on the hunting front. Weather was not on my side and neither were a lot of other things. The results were slim. My freezer felt it and so did my stomach. Those rough hunts motivated me, though. So, in a way, I have to thank them. You can’t have great years without the not-great years. Cherish all of them. Each has their own purpose.
As far as what’s next for me this season, I’m going to go try my hand at some Arizona turkey hunting, and then it’s back after bears in my home state. Aside from that, I’ll be shooting my bow a ton and training my tail off. I’ll keep you all posted throughout the year. Thank you and I hope you’re out there working towards your goals. Go get what you deserve!
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