THE OUTDOORSMAN
Catching a bear is the ‘easy’ part By Chuck Carpenter
I
n the late 1950s my dad worked for the a large cage on a stand with a big ole magpie government, helping livestock producers setting on a perch. He turned his head, fluffed with predator problems. We lived at a up his feathers, and looked at me. Grandma little place called Wolf Creek, Montana. tapped her hand on the side of the cage Early one morning he received a phone call and said, “Say hi, Charlie.” The ole magpie that a black bear had killed a lamb on a small stood on one leg, then the other, cooked his ranch not too far from where we lived. He was head, and with an ole cracked voice just like loading up gear in his pickup when I walked Grandma, said, “ Watch it, watch it.” by. “Do you want to go with me?” he asked. Dad waved me over; I thanked the ole We headed out and were soon headed up gal for the cookies and for showing me her a gravel road into some smaller mountains. magpie. The country was beautiful – big meadows Dad had a bag with some gear in it and a with timbered ridges and brush growing along Chuck Carpenter #5 bear trap. This was back before the foot the creeks. snares came along. The old man had some The little ranch looked like a painting, with a small log wooden panels he had made and we put them over the house, a log barn and a couple of small log outbuildings. fence. Dad made a type of cubby with the panels and put Neat, tight fences were around the yard and the pastures. the remains of the lamb toward the back, then placed a third There was a very manicured garden on one side of the panel on top and wired it all together. He bedded the trap house. There were a couple of horses in one pasture and a in the front of the cubby and put in some guide sticks. He dozen cows with calves in another. anchored the trap chain to a long fence post the old man had When we pulled into the driveway, an elderly man come that was about seven inches in diameter and eight feet long. out of the barn and his wife walked out of the house. After We packed the gear back to the truck. Dad told the folks we my dad introduced himself and me to the couple, the man would be back early in the morning and we headed home. told the story of the black bear problem to my dad. The Dad woke me early the next day and we headed off bear couple’s granddaughter had been involved in the local trapping. When we pulled into the small ranch, everything 4-H club and had raised a lamb she called Freckles. After was a wreck! raising ole Freckles and taking him to the local fair, the girl The bear had come back just before daylight. When he discovered that somebody was going to make lamb chops went to finish off Freckles, he stepped in the #5. He wasn’t a out of him. That wasn’t going to work, so Grandpa paid a monster bear but not a small one either. My dad figured he big price and bought Freckles and brought him home to his weighed 225 to 250 pounds. As soon as he was caught, he house to help mow the lawn. The granddaughter could see jumped the fence and tore down about 20 feet of it. He then him when she came out to visit Grandpa and Grandma. went along the fence and wrapped the trap chain around a “Everything was going good until last night,” said the man. power pole and chewed it off. It was hanging there by the “I think it was a bear that come along and killed and ate part lines. Then he dragged the eight-foot log through the garden of Freckles.” and wiped half of it out and climbed up on the porch and Dad and I followed the man around the house to the tried to climb up on the roof. He had one front foot on the backyard. By one of the small outbuildings was what was edge of the roof, the other in the trap. He was doing oneleft of ole Freckles. There were bear tracks along the fence armed chin-ups and scratching on the screen door with his and a big pile of bear scat not far away. Dad skinned out the hind feet. carcass and looked at the bite marks and trauma. “Yep,” he said, “it’s a bear.” We walked back to the pickup to get some gear. The grandma came out of the house with a plate of cookies and a can of orange pop. I was happy with this arrangement; she made really good cookies. While I was chomping them down, she asked me if I had ever seen a magpie? I told her I had. She said she had a pet magpie and she had taught him how to talk. “Would you like to see him?” she asked. We walked around to the side of the house and there was Continued on Page 15 10 OCT/NOV/DEC 2020 | Idaho Family Magazine
www.idahofamilymagazine.com
