Critter, you are the man!!  What a fantastic hunt that will be!  I too have dreamed of a griz hunt since I was a young kid.  Unlike Hunter25 thinks, the time (ten months) will FLY by.  I booked my African hunt over a year in advance and time went by quickly.  I spent a lot of time working up my loads, getting my gear ready and dreaming.  I think the anticipation is a huge part of the hunt.  I wouldn't miss that for anything.  If you had taken the first hunt, you would have cheated yourself out of ten months of dreaming and planning.

I've only seen one grizzly in real life and it was plenty scary.  I had killed a moose the day before and as we neared the area, we came on this younger (only about 7 feet) bear sniffing around.  I can tell you that all my partners had their rifles at the ready.  I wasn't carrying because I had filled my tag.

Glad to see you've done your homework on a good taxidermist.  It's worth getting the best on an animal like that.  Too bad you're going north so far east of me.  I'd invite you to spend the night with me, either going up or coming back down.  I live just off I-5, right on the Canadian border, and you'd be more than welcome to stop by either way. 

As far as your meat and hide, you might think about building a small wooden cooler lined with Styrofoam.  I have one and it will keep meat cool for a full week.  If you're interested, I'll send pictures and tell you how we did it.

Congratulations on getting to go and I sure hope you keep us all in the loop.  Take tons of pictures.

Thanks for the offer of a bed.  I have pretty much all of the trip going up figured out.  I'll spend a night or two with my sister and brother in law in Utah and then head north to Eureka, Montana which is only 6 miles off of the border then head the rest of the way the next morning.  Doing it this way my first leg from my home to my sisters is 370 miles and then up to Eureka is around 750 miles then another 200 to the trail head.  The trip home will be the same except for the stop in Montana.  I'll just make a straight bee line to Utah and spend the night, but I may stop over in Idaho depending on how I feel coming home.   

After talking to the guides I am not sure about the meat.  From what they say grizzly meat in the spring is pretty rank so I'll have to wing it.  The only requirement is that I either bring the hide or meat out but not both so I'll figure it out one way or another.  One of my consolations prizes is that I can also harvest a black bear so I may bring two bears back instead of one.  What's a little bit more money for the taxidermist?  I have also checked out a couple of taxidermist so far but I need to get to Grand Junction and check out the one that Elkkll06 suggested for me.  I'll probably do that while I am scouting my antelope hunt out next month. 

As far as what I am shooting, it will be my .340 Weatherby loaded with 225 grain Barnes TSX bullets at around 3,000 fps.  I have my first loads loaded but I just need to get to the range and check them out.  If I can't get satisfaction out of those loads I'll go back to my elk load of 185 grain Barnes XLC boat tails at 3400 fps.  Either one will do the job with energy to spare. 

FullCryHounds, thanks for the advise.  I have been around bears here in Colorado and know that their senses are quite keen and you need to pay attention to what is going on around you as far as wind currents.  The guides that I have picked have been in the business for 25+ years and all of the hunters that I have talk to that have hunted with them say that they are A+ guides so it sounds like they know what is going on.

So I believe that I have just about everything covered so far and can't wait until I head up that direction next May.  It's going to be a great birthday present to myself.