Spring bear in East Cabinets

[CWeeks]

Looking at bear options, oldest son will graduate from high school next year and would like to do first western hunt with him. Hunting partner hunted moose few years back, west and south of Libby and reported seeing several bears, just wondered if someone with experience would comment on our chance of seeing a bear or two if we hunted about a week towards the end of May. I'm good just seeing some new country, but feel the need to at least give him an opportunity at a bear if I walk him all over those drainages.

 

[Mountaindreamer]

I just took my son on his graduation hunt in that area this spring.
We attempted a backpack hunt in the southern Cabinet range. We went the last week of May and the snow was so deep we couldn't get around. We ended up hunting N.F. land south and west of the Cabinets. Terrible weather. Rain 4 1/2 days out of our 6 day hunt.
We saw 1 bear on the last evening down along a creek. He was 50 yds outside of the public land on private. We hiked up to Rock lake twice and saw some bear sign there. Its a cool place and we got to watch some mountain goats for a while before fog hid them from us.

 

[CWeeks]

Thanks for the reply, I'd be ok with trying to hit the snowmelt right and seeing some new country, but given the travel distance and expense involved, I'd like to have a better chance of harvesting a bear, although a week in that country would be a good introduction to mountain hunting for a beginner.