Bear'n A Hole

Two best friends, pouring rain, and a bear in a hole make this New Hampshire bear hunt with hounds as good as it gets.

- Kelly Irwin

We had been saving this new beech ridge for the end of the season. A friend showed it to us earlier in the year, and he harvested a nice male out of it, treed by our hounds. When my good friend, Lisa Feener, had called and wanted to come for a two-day hunt I figured we’d end up on the ridge. She would only be able to hunt two days, but I was very excited. We do not get to spend much time with her as she lives about four hours away.

Early in the week we had a big wind and rainstorm. It knocked out our power, and we were still without on Wednesday when Lisa arrived. Wednesday night brought torrential rains, and on Thursday morning, our enthusiasm waned as we thought about hunting in the pouring rain. However, about 9:30 a.m. we decided we would go for a walk. We loaded Harry, Filson, Halo, Tiny, Ash, and Haley, and drove to some good bear country in New Hampshire. It wasn’t a hard hike where we went, and we free cast the hounds. Life was good. Two girls, who are best pals, walking six fun dogs through a beech stand. The rain had subsided for the time being, and we were enjoying ourselves. The dogs worked did a nice job on cold, rained-out track, but weren’t able to jump the bear before it started pouring rain again. The day ended with good times had by all, but no bear for Lisa.