Steve Bartylla brings you along as he bowhunts Northern Wilderness Outfitters in Alberta, Canada

Setting Up The Bear Hunt
It all began with an email from Dr Dave Samuels. He had an opening on an Alberta bear hunt and wanted to know if I’d be interested. Simply put, Dr Dave is one of the most well connected individuals within the hunting industry. He also has a passion for harvesting incredibly large animals. Over the course of a lifetime of hunting, the combination of the two has allowed him to build a list of five star outfitters. I knew that this would be a hunt that was too good to pass up. Without thinking twice, I booked a hunt with Northern Wilderness Outfitters.

My first step in preparing was information gathering. Visiting Northern Wilderness Outfitters’ web site, www.huntingalberta.com, I was thrilled with my findings. 

First, I was unaware that I would receive two black bear tags, as well as a timber wolf tag. Knowing it was a wilderness hunt, I was also surprised to find that the tent camp provided electricity to each tent, no more than two hunters were assigned to each four man tent, hot showers were on site, a full time cook was employed and that no more than two hunters were assigned to each guide, often only one. 

Most amazing to me was that, despite being only two hours shy of the Northwest Territories and truly in the middle of the bush, getting a cell phone signal was not an issue.

After speaking with several guides from Northern Wilderness Outfitters, I knew this would be an unbelievable hunt. With more territory than many states, they ran over 200 baits, constantly creating new stations to upgrade their lines, for a total of 54 hunters. Typically, the client is the first hunter to sit the bait. The exceptions are those that are known to sport multiple 300 plus pound bears. 

The icing on the cake was the vast amount of land at their disposal, along with power boats, ATVs and 4wd trucks for access, allowed them to set up a rotational scheme that rested lines as much as five years between hunts. From this, along with their eagerness to provide more references than I could ever contact, I knew that I’d be hunting large, ignorant bear.

Excitedly, I called my friend and cameraman, Trevor Wilson. After a brief discussion, we decided that driving would be our best option. Not only would it make it easier to get all of our gear there, but I was pretty confident that we’d be filling up early. With that decided, we each prepared for the 24 hour drive to a hunt of a lifetime.

Northern Wilderness Outfitters’ wilderness camp is far from roughing it. With electricity, running water, showers, a kitchen and a full time cook, it has all the accommodations one could ask for.

To book a spectacular bear, trophy whitetail, moose, caribou or elk hunt, contact Northern Wilderness Outfitters via their web page or by phone:  Toll Free 866 204 8299 ext 0644. On the web at www.huntingalberta.com