Wilderness Bear Hunting Question

[Ken424]

First off, let me start out by saying I live in Nebraska (we don't have bears in this area) and I have never been on a bear hunt.  I was reading an artical in the February issue of Outdoor Life Magazine called "12 Amazing Adventures."  They had one "adventure" for every month of the year.  For May they had an Idaho wilderness bear hunt and a small write up.  This is what it stated:

"Killing a trophy spring bear in Idaho's Selway Wilderness without the aid of an outfitter may be the hardest hunt in America.

For starters, you have to hike roadless ridges for 20 miles or more just to reach productive areas.  Survive that and you can start hunting.

The headwaters of the Selway River east of Lowell have high bear densities, but this is part of the largest roadless area in the lower 48, and getting here without outfitters' pack stock requires the weight-reducing savvy of a veteran backpacker, the stamina of a marathoner and the hunting ability of Artemis.

Climb to a promontory and glass south-facing slopes and avalanche chutes for bears that crave tender grass when they emerge from hibernation.  You'll need to be a good judge of bears, because you don't want to squander your energy, or risk a catastrophic fall, in pursuit of a sub-par Yogi.  The Selway contains a high percentage of color-phase bears.  You're allowed to take two bears, if your back can handle the load."

Here is my question:  This is a bear hunt in May and I would think that the tempurture would be warm in Idaho, at least during the day.  If a person were to shoot a bear in the afternoon, you would have to wait until the next day to make the 20 mile hike back to the truck to get the meat into a cooler.  Wouldn't that be way to long for the meat to out in the heat?  I would think that the meat would go bad by then.  Am I wrong?

I'm not sure I would ever try to do this, I was just curious.

[ihookem]

  The meat would be rotten by the time you got it to the truck. It lasts maybe two days at 50 degrees. The only advantage you would have is bears don't have much fat in the spring. At 70 degrees you might have 10 hours.

[Paparock]

Erased by Paparock

[tundragriz]

I am not familiar with the law or custom in Idaho but in some places bear meat is not recovered.  It takes me 4 heavy loads to pack out a "trophy" black bear.  2 trips each with 1 hind quarter and 1 shoulder, one trip for loins and other misc meat, one trip skull and hide.  For a 20 mile trip you will also be carrying some supplies on every trip.

If you had pack horses the meat would be fine.  From what you have written if you wanted to salvage all the meat, it would be impossible with a wilderness 20 mile path each way, unless you had a few people to act as packers.