Our nightly fire had long since burned itself out, but no one in our tent batted an eye or even noticed.  Since our comfort level had vastly improved during the night, there was no need or desire to stoke the fire. 

We later awoke to a morning greeting that was unlike any we had experienced since arriving in camp.  It was downright hot!  By 10:00 a.m. the skies cleared, and the mercury soared to a balmy 84 degrees; quite the change from what we had endured for the past 13 days.

The unexpected heat wave was a welcomed change.  We no longer had to dress in multiple layers or keep ourselves in near-constant motion just to stay warm.  We had been waiting and hoping that favorable weather conditions would prevail for the entire trip.  Now the only questions that remained were: Did the change come soon enough, and did it arrive too little-too late to make any discernable difference?

Monty and Jim were not about to accept defeat easily.  On this morning’s outing, they enlisted the assistance of Nolan and Darrel, who would join them at Jim’s bait site and lend a helping hand in the ongoing search for Jim’s bear.  By working together, more ground would be covered in their quest, thus increasing the odds of successfully locating the wounded bear. 

If nothing else, Monty and Jim simply wanted to try and rule out any possibility that the bear may have been missed or overlooked while executing their previous search attempts, either from lying lifeless in a brushy tangle of blowdowns or by holing up in a patch of thick timber to recuperate from its injuries.  This objective was the driving force behind their commitment, and they would maintain their labors even if it meant finally conceding to the fact that the animal had survived its wounds and was lost for good.