Idaho Elk, Mule Deer and Black Bear Blog

Spring Bear Hunt Drop Camps Available

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 01:51:00 GMT

We are only 2 short months away from the “official” opening day of most of Idaho’s spring bear hunting seasons. I say “official” because in normal years, our area, although open to hunt, is normally not accessible yet due to deep snow conditions. Obviously, this year is shaping up to be different and even though it has been a mild winter, I still bet that cabin fever has set in for many.

This year you may want to consider a spring bear hunt drop camp for your cure to cabin fever. You can shake out those cobwebs by hunting at your own pace, pursue (almost) every predator Idaho has to offer using your preferred method of hunting including calls, bait (we will preset for you), or spot and stalk for bear, coyote, fox, mountain lion and wolf.

Our spring bear hunt drop camps consist of packing you and your gear into a preset camp with tent, cots, pads, wood burning stove, cooking and eating utensils and packing out of you and your game from camp. We will preset some baits within walking distance of your specific camp site and show you where they are when we pack you in.

All you need to bring is your personal gear, food and the desire to do your part to protect elk and deer numbers in Idaho! Contact us for more info or questions on the possibility of a spring bear hunt drop camp and best of luck in the other draws!

Happy hunting!

George

Spring Bear Hunt Drop Camp

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

If I haven’t made it clear that I think Idaho is THE best place to hunt, then I suppose you haven’t read enough of our blogs. Predator hunting in Idaho tops them all!

In Idaho, you can hunt wolves, bears, mountain lions, coyotes and foxes all at the same time by either spot and stalk or electronic calls method clear up until June 30 each year. To increase your odds for bear, you can even hunt them over bait. Idaho is becoming one of the last places left where you can legally hunt bears over bait. It has been proven repeatedly that it is the best way to hunt bears AND protect their young. Spring sows almost always, when showing up at a bait, have this year’s cubs in such close contact with them that it is very hard to mistake her for a dry sow.

All that to say, that if you are an avid predator hunter or simply want your chance at a wolf, maybe an Idaho spring bear hunt drop camp may be your best option. You can hunt at your own pace during the day then sit a preset bear bait in the evening to increase your odds of success.

Our Idaho spring bear hunt drop camps consist of us packing you and your gear into a preset backcountry wall tent camp. It has cots with pads, woodburning stove and all cooking and eating utensils. We will preset some bear bait sites that we have used for years and show them to you before we ride back to the trailhead. We pick you, your gear and your game up on a predetermined date and take you back to the trailhead.

All this is available in the months of May and June. For the truly adventurous, you may consider a late April approach. It is up to you. All tags are over the counter (OTC) so obtaining a tag is no problem. If this sounds like the perfect adventure for curing that cabin fever brought on by winter turning to spring, contact us for your back country Idaho spring bear drop camp today!

With Idaho’s large percentage of color phase black bears, open wolf and mountain lion season, ability to hunt spot and stalk, using electronic calls and bait for bears, what are you waiting for? Get out and enjoy YOUR public lands and remember to take a kid with you!

It’s Easier to Find Your Favorite When There’s Lots of Choices

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 22:30:00 GMT

Hi, my name is Tia Hansen (daughter of Kelly Swingruber and George McQuiston). Mom is the head packer and George is the owner of Wild Idaho Outfitters and Castle Creek Outfitters. Mom and I ride about 2,000 miles a year from packing bear bait to taking people for a joy ride and to getting people with their gear to drop camps and back plus packing dead animals.

Being an outfitter’s kid can mean a lot of things. One of them means you not only get to ride a certain horse, but you also have a lot of options. Starting with an old and wise quarter horse mare named Annie (still my favorite horse to this day), next a thoroughbred mare named Blesser who could out travel everything we had when we long trotted, then a stubborn mule named Foster (still my favorite mule to this day). Another favorite is Annie’s daughter Shadow, I was leading pack strings off her when she was only 4! Now I also ride a little young mule named Hermosa which is Spanish for beautiful. I am currently starting a filly named Tornado (and no she is not a bronc she just has a strip on her face that looks like a tornado) who is also out of Annie. I love to ride our stallion also, he is laid back and mellow.

Annie is 27 this year and is carrying another baby, she is still my favorite horse because all my siblings and I learned to ride on her, and she took great care of us. She knows the difference between a beginner and an advanced person, she knows steep country, how to work cows, and I think my family (except George, he likes his horse named Diesel) could all agree that Annie is still the favorite! On the other hand Foster (the mule) recently passed in November of 2021. He is what we called one of our A team mules. I rode him miles and miles and miles in the back country, and even tried to show him in 4-h but he didn’t want any part of it so I just decided to ride him in the mountains. Sometimes Foster wouldn’t let anyone but me catch him because he knew where all the treats came from! Or if we were on a trip and his favorite horse wasn’t there (George’s horse Diesel) Foster would travel all the way home to be with him. He also threw me off a few times. I know you are probably thinking why did you like him so much? Well, it’s because he took care of me and in return, I did the same, and eventually he quit doing most of those bad things. I also remember one time we were on a really steep narrow trail, and everyone got off to walk but me. Before I came along he did his fair share of packing, Foster was George’s mule at first but then I started riding him and stole him fair and square!

People often ask me do you remember your first ride? Was it scary? How old were you when you first started riding? The truth is I don’t remember my first ride! I don’t remember being scared. Because I started riding horses in my mother’s womb!

So, if you want to ride 2,000 miles a year, I would suggest you have at least a few good animals that you love and cherish!

Contributed by Tia (Assistant Wrangler for Wild Idaho Outfitters and Castle Creek Outfitters)

Spring Bear Drop Camps

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:34:39 GMT

With Idaho’s 2021 spring bear season beginning this week, we are grateful that we are pretty much booked up on our guided hunts, but new for 2021, we are offering spring bear drop camps for those DIY hunters who to prefer the challenge of hunting on their own and more of the spot and stalk element of bear hunting.

This is a more affordable option over guiding, puts you in charge of your own schedule and may just be the ticket for that pent up wintertime cabin fever!

We will pack you into a back country camp, drop you off, show you a couple of pre-baited sites you can sit in the evenings and leave you to your own hunting experience. We will then come pick you up at a predetermined time and hope to hear tall tales of faraway places and hopefully be able to congratulate on a well-placed shot on an Idaho bear!

For more info on this new option from Wild Idaho outfitters and Castle Creek Outfitters this year, contact us!

Best of luck with spring bear hunts this year and remember to get out and enjoy YOUR public lands!

Aaaand They’re Gone!

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 11:00:00 GMT

As has been the case for many a year, Idaho put their nonresident big game hunting licenses and tags up for sale on December 1, 2020 at 10 am.

It didn’t take long for those who logged on to the fish and game website to buy them that day to realize that it was going to take a little effort and a great measure of patience as there were literally thousands upon thousands of would-be nonresident Idaho hunters with great hopes and anticipation of getting an early Christmas present in the form of an elk and/or deer tag of their choosing.

Sadly, for many, their dreams of hunting this great state of Idaho were dashed at checkout when the tags were sold out more rapidly than one could enter their credit card number in the checkout cart.

Again, sadly, Idaho resident hunters were successful in reducing the number of nonresident tags so dramatically this year that many of the units’ tags sold out in literally hours verses weeks and months as in the past.

All hope is not lost however, as Idaho hunting outfitters will all have an allocation of tags this year available for nonresident hunters who choose to book with an outfitter for their 2021 and beyond Idaho hunting adventures.

So, if you still have an inclination to hunt Idaho, contact us or another Idaho outfitter and get “on the calendar” for next year and get out and enjoy YOUR public lands!

Happy Memorial Day

Fri, 22 May 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Memorial Day is here again, signaling the unofficial start of summer. There’s much more to it however, than picnics and beaches. Memorial Day is an official Federal Holiday in honor of military personnel who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. We shouldn’t forget that. Even if you don’t know anyone personally who has given their life for our freedom, you could still visit a national cemetery, attend a parade, or just sit down and reflect on our great country and what it took in lives to make it great.

God bless America,

Joe Cavanaugh

Fine-Tuning Last Year’s Gear List

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 05:00:00 GMT

I imagine most people who prepare for outdoor adventures make a list of gear and clothing to take before they pack, that way they don’t forget any critical items like toilet paper. I make my lists in spiral notebooks, the younger generation probably makes their lists on smartphones. Years ago, I started saving my gear lists to make trip-prep more efficient the next time around. Lists can be quite specialized. I have gear lists for summer scouting trips, lists for deer hunting trips in the Ozarks, and lists for backpack, elk-hunting trips in the Rockies. All of them include gear and clothing specifically chosen for the activity and season at hand.

When I keep up to my tasks, I’ll get my gear list out several weeks or months after I take a trip and “fine tune” it. Basically, I cross items out that I took and did not need and add items that I did not take but needed once I was there. The list is then stored, until I begin preparing for a similar trip in the future. I date the covers of the spiral notebooks where I keep my lists, but they’re scattered about and can be time consuming to find. A better approach would be to organize your gear lists electronically, where they’re easily accessible.

April is a bit early to start packing gear for a fall hunt, but it’s not too early to start researching the gear you needed last year but didn’t have or repairing any gear that has been damaged. Going over your gear lists will remind you of these things. Waiting until the last minute might not allow enough time to make the right purchase decision, or the item you’ve decided on correctly might be sold out. You could also wait until the last minute to repair something and then find that you need a new one. High-end equipment is often expensive or critical to the outcome of your hunt, and the purchase of such can demand a great deal of thought. Availability can also be inconsistent.

Over the years I have accompanied some very skillful hunters who carry minimal equipment. Still, at some point each one of them has had to choose the gear they considered indispensable for a specific hunt; and the less gear one takes, the more refined the choices seem to be. To these minimalists, carrying a piece of equipment far from home that they don’t need is just as unacceptable as neglecting to take something they do need. Fine-tune your lists now and you’ll have it right by fall.

Good hunting,
Joe Cavanaugh

Winter Book Review: Elmer Keith’s Big Game Hunting

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:00:00 GMT

Over much of the country we’re in the dead of winter now, with cold winds, deep snow, and bitter people to deal with. Next hunting season feels so far away. I can think of no better approach to stay focused on hunting and cope with nasty winter weather than to find a warm, quiet place and get absorbed in some good hunting literature; and, no other hunting book is more fitting to the Northern Rocky Mountain region than Elmer Keith’s Big Game Hunting.

Although Keith is most famous for handguns and big-bore rifles, what really keeps me coming back to this book year after year is Keith’s acute observations of nature. Elmer Keith was a superb naturalist, though he’s not necessarily as renown for it as he should be. If you want to enhance your knowledge of the game animals inhabiting Idaho, this is the book to read. Many of the stories in the chapters on elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and black bear take place here in Idaho, including hunts in the North Fork, Middle Fork, and main Salmon River drainages, the Selway, Lochas, and Clearwater drainages, and the Flathead drainage in neighboring Montana.

Elmer Keith’s Big Game Hunting not only informs you of animal behavior, but also provides useful information on wilderness camping, packing, woodcraft, and of course there’s plenty to read on guns, bullets, and shot placement. The chapters on “How to Look for Game”, and “Still-Hunting” are timeless. Keith’s writing draws from years of hands-on experience as a cowboy, wrangler, hunting guide and guided hunter. Every time I read this book I pick-up some useful bit of information on game, or I am reminded of something I recently observed in the field, but hadn’t fully noted yet. Whether you’re planning a DIY, drop camp, or guided hunt in Idaho this fall, understanding the game animals you’re after is key to consistently filling your tags.

Good hunting,

Joe Cavanaugh