The exceptional fall weather extending into November made my decision to go bear hunting with my long time pal Jim Bonetti an easy choice.

Jim is a decorated Viet nam veteran who entered the US Army right out of high school. He married his sweetheart Sylvia and they raised and put four children through college.

Jim has worked for over 40 years and finally decided to hang up his lunch pail. The first day after retirement was the opening day of bear season in PA. When Jim called me to ask about bear hunting, it left me with little choice but to say yes.

The only day that I would have would be on the first Saturday as I was off to West Virginia on a deer hunt on Sunday.

I can honestly say that I don’t know much about bear hunting except that I did know that they like thickets and brushy areas … great just what I wanted to do … crawl through thickets and come face to face with a 500- pound bear.

Pennsylvania is the home to one of the largest bear populations in the country and we are also a place that is known for large bears.

WCO Chip Brunst of the Pennsylvania Game Commission recently informed me that Butler County has a solid bear population of over 200 black bears north of Route 422. We would hunt in the Game Lands 95 area and most of the people in the area have either seen or know of someone who has had a bear encounter during the past summer and fall months.

Saturday morning found Jim arriving early before sunrise at my home. I was ready and waiting with my equipment for the day. I was taking along my trusty 30-06 and left the house with these last words from my wife, “Don’t bring home a bear!”

The odds of bagging a bear were not highly stacked in our favor but you never know what might happen. We knew one thing for sure; you’ll never get one by staying in bed.

Our plan was simple, look for areas that would be likely escape routes as large groups start driving out the swampy and thick cover areas. Bears had been sighted in the area and we had found two trees shredded by bear claws and bear tracks as big as saucer plates and that with some other sign indicated to us we were in the right area. As my dad used to say you, are in the right park but good luck finding your seat.

The morning sun came up over the tree line and the rays glistened off the frosty leaf litter. It was a crunchy morning and we each took a vantage overlooking each side of a ridge covered in mature oaks. I heard the distinct rustle of leaves and soon recognized the source … a gray squirrel and then his partner. Squirrels have a knack of putting hunters on edge as they put us on alert as we depend on every sound being our quarry.

Naturally, I tried to envision a black bear walking out of every grapevine tangle and blow down in my cover area. I saw a movement and then some frosty back … was it the bear feeding on acorns? The animal lifted its head and I saw the antlers of a large buck … no it’s not buck season! Every critter was about, but no bear, the hunting pressure was light and the odds of wandering bears meeting us were slowly diminishing.

Later, I learned that in the first three days of bear season, eight bears were taken in Butler County and one not too far from where we were hunting. The largest bear thus far in the 2012 season came from Pike County and weighed in at a hefty 706 pounds.

The harvest totals for the first three days of the four-day bear season was 2,442 bears checked in. This amount is actually a little low for the statewide harvest and bodes well for the hunt in 2013.

The bear population and range of bears has been expanding to all-time highs. There are currently special bear hunt areas, archery and rifle seasons for the largest animals in Penn’s Woods.

Good news for Jim and me, during a deer drive in the same area we hunted for bears I came across the tracks of our bear. He apparently is live and well and will give us a challenge once again in the 2013 bear hunting season.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle