While on my walk checking things out I followed a set of bear tracks off our place. He actually came in from across the street. Same path I found last hunting season. Any of you other northerners seeing signs?
Funny story about bears- A friend related a story about visiting the Great Smoky Mountains NP. He and his wife had stopped at the ranger station before entering the Cades Cove area. A ranger was chatting with several people. One lady asked, "When do you let the bears out so we can see them?" After gathering his thoughts (probably along with stifling a big horse laugh), the ranger stated the bears were wild and free to roam anywhere they wanted.
Funny story in 2000 there was 1 million acres of tress that blew down in the Boundary water canoe area. I was sent up part of a saw crew to clear portages so people could get back out. It was July and hot as hell and you could not imagine how much cutting we had to do to make progress. We got briefed and prepped and were ready to cut at sunrise. We cut like crazy to get to the first campsite made it there where we would eat lunch. Granted people had endured one hell of a storm but they were not injured. By the time we had cut our way to their campsite we had drank a half gallon of water each sweated and cursed fought bugs and tension bent timber that will bind a saw or throw it back at you. They asked us if we were there to carry their gear out for them.
Bears get flooded out of there dens this time of year. They have no problem coming up and laying at the top of their den. Went for a cross country tour Yesterday morn. Found a spot where wolves had pulled a bear out of a den, killed n consumed it.
I walk looking down because of more than a few face plants in a beech woods(surface roots). I rounded a clump of brush and right into a blk bear that had been watching me cut tops. Close enough that I could see the flies on his snout. Strange how your mind works and how fast! In a second I had worked out 3 options and out comes. Thankfully it wasn't a female with cubs and my Gator was nearby. Made a dash for the Gator. Got in and he was still just watching me until I turned on the engine. You don't always react the way you think you would. We actually stared at each other for a few moments before I chose the dash over the yell option. I figured way to close to pizz off by yelling at him.
My neighbor went out and clapped and yelled at a bear in the dark that was wrecking her feeders. I had a camera not far away so I checked the chip. It was a big old boar, I printed off the picture and gave it to her she about pissed herself.
Twice within a week I was in arms reach of a bear. During college, I spent a summer in California as camp counselor at a summer camp. The camp was in the Sierra Nevadas outside of Fresno. There was a mama bear and her two cubs that kept breaking into the kitchen for food. The first encounter I had was at two o'clock in the morning. I was walking to the back of the mess hall to do laundry, I walked around the corner of the building and there she was. Fortunately, she was as surprised as I was. I yelled and jumped at her, scaring her off. I didn't see the cubs with her that time or I do not think it would have gone that way. The second time, I volunteered to sleep in the mess hall on the weekend when the kids were not there in an attempt to scare the bear off. I woke up to the sound of a pounding noise. I look over, the mama is standing on her hind legs with both front paws on the top window half of one of the doors trying to force the door open. This time she had the cubs with her. The maintenance guys had boarded up the windows in the kitchen that she had figured out how to open. The stupid camp director wouldn't let me have a gun or bear spray so I had a baseball bat and a siren function on the camp megaphone. I walked up to the door and blasted the siren at the bear. Fortunately, it scared the bear off and it didn't return the rest of the summer. If it hadn't, all that bear had to do was push the glass hard enough to break it and it would be on me. Needless to say, that was the only summer I counseled at that camp. That was in 2003, California has been messed up with wildlife management for at least that long. I am not at all surprised that they are dealing with mountain lions in LA.
I worry more about meeting a skunk in the dark then a bear. Have had many hundreds of bears within 20 yards and have only been really concerned 2 times. Certainly not saying chit can't go wrong but, they are not the critter movies try to betray.
I'm hoping to see this one visit this year around April. My #1 target bear, beautiful color phase IMO.
