“The RF read over 400, which is a little far for me to shoot, so I dropped elevation and got set up on a stump at 290. I had a dead solid rest and waited for the bear to quarter just a bit as it fed up hill. Jody said he saw the bear buckle well before he heard the shot…..I aimed for the base of the bears skull, knowing my bullet would drop a few inches, which hit him square between the shoulder blades. He dropped and slid to the bottom, I racked in another shell and heard the bear moaning from the canyon floor….dead bear!
Then I looked to the bottom of the canyon and realized, Holy Hell, that’s steep and will take hours to get’em out. It’s near dark, so the decision was made to come back in the morning, when we’d have all day to pack the bear out.
Sounds familiar, right? That is why we spend the off-season working out so we can get to those spots that the game is unpressured and get them out of there. (Usually boned out in a backpack). What makes this story unique though is that Kirk had just finished the American River 50 mile Endurance Run seven (7) days before .
Kirk Edgerton has been featured here before with hogs, deer, bear, and elk with both rifle and bow. He makes no bones about the fact that he is not the best shot in the world, or the stealthiest critter in the woods. What he will take credit for, is the time and effort he can put into hunting due to a fantastic level of fitness from a grueling and varied training schedule.
Many people in the Sierra foothills know Kirk as the marketing director, and US Track and Field certified coach for a running store. Or maybe they recognize him astride a mountain bike competing in endurance races. In any case, Kirk seems to excel at endurance events.
Mountain biking has been Kirk’s strong suit. He competed in a 13 week, 12 race series and finished 2nd overall in the competition which included over 500 racers. He also qualified for the National Mountain Bike Championships , finishing a strong 7th in his class.
But being at the top of his game in one sport wasn’t enough. Kirk began running at the urging of his wife, an avid runner, and well respected part of the running community herself.
He started with a local trail run series on weeknights, and built up distance. Before long he was certified as a coach, and leading a trail running group along portions of the Western States trail near his home.
In 2009 he ran the California Invitational Marathon in a smokin’ time of 03:14:47. That is fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. But the trails called to him. Kirk claims the trail runs are less hard on his body than the road marathons.
In the first 3 months of 2010, he helped a group runners train for the 50 k Way to Cool Trail Run. he finished the 31 mile course in 5:09:21.1 for 77th place out of all 309 male finishers.
Five weeks later he embarked on a 50 mile odyssey at the American River 50 mile Endurance Run. This time he placed 43rd out of 415 men with a time of 7:53:54.
And that is what brings us to the quote at the beginning of this article, seven days after finishing a grueling 50 mile trail race, Kirk is back doing what he loves. Hunting in the West.
The Oregon spring bear that Kirk shot just seven days after running a 50-mile trail race.
