doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bear Track

Nah Mike, we only have Skunk Apes down here. Close Yeti relative...Geo

Geo, instead of inscribing the book, maybe just write a personalized letter to your grandson, fold it over in the book. Then, maybe have some instruction that he gets that book.

I've had authors write personal notes in books to my boy that I hope some day he will find when I'm gone. But, if the folks just want to dump my stuff, it would likely be worth more without the writing inside. No big deal, sounds like it was a great day.

I've seen two black bears here, in the wild, Geo. One on our land crossing a pond dam, and another in the Savannah River swamp. Grandaddy and I had just paddled our bateau through a slough that connected Hershman Lake with Old River. Just as we cleared the slough a bear jumped in and swam the slough, got out on the other side, and shook off like a dog. I can still see that water flying out of it's fur in the early morning sunlight. I feel very fortunate to have seen them.

I see panthers from time to time here, too, some black and some brown.

SRH

Very nice that you and your grandson were able to see a bear.

A few weeks back, my daughter was over to the house and showed me some photos she had taken, hiking a trail at Upper Priest Lake here in N ID.

She had taken a couple of photos of scat and wanted to know what it was. She thought it was Mt Lion, but I corrected her and told her it was from a bear. It was loaded with huckleberries, which at the time were at their prime and a favorite of bears. She said that the scat seemed very fresh. I told her that she could tell how fresh it was by the taste of the huckleberries! Of course, she knew I was pulling her leg!

I wasn't able to identify for her, if it was from a black bear or grizzly.:) The area she was hiking has a sign at the trail head that states: "Caution, grizzly bears in the area," so I cautioned her that she had better hike with some bear spray in grizzly country, which she had!

George, I grew up in Gainesville, Fl...and in the 1950's there were still panthers in what we called the "Big Scrub"...Ocala National Forest. Bears were there too. I spent many days of my youth fooling around in that jungle... Florida only had 2 million people then...still frontier. Still love it. Swamps get into your bones...led me to Vietnam...up into the Tamen Negara in Malaysia, etc.

I get that...Geo

Me, too. Matter of fact, swamps are my bones. That has a lot to do with why I love duck hunting so much.

SRH

Sure fire way to tell the difference between black bears and grizzlies:
Sneak up behind them and give them a swift kick in the hind quarters.
If it runs up a tree, it's a black bear.
If you run up the tree, it's a grizzly!

I know I'm in Canada so this is kinda cheating but.....I'm very happy to live somewhere where bears are still relatively common. Even though they can become a pest depending on where you live. Saw this guy on my way home from the summer cottage last month. Goes along with the bear scat on the cottage island this summer. Only 9 acres so when there is one on the island, it's close. My dog Scout made sure there were only chipmunks while we were there. Although she did find every burr plant on the island!



My son spent the first week of July at Whistler-Blackcombe attending a ski racing camp on the glacier. Every day as the kids took a series of gondola and chairlifts up to the very top of the mountain, at about the half way point they would see one or two grizzlies poking about on the grassy ski slopes. I don't think any of them asked if they could walk down at the end of the day. LOL

Sometimes it's a bit easy to get complacent about them, especially having watched old native women shoo 6 or 7 away at one time (from 5 yards away from the bears!) at an old dump before they closed it. When I lived in Banff, both black and grizzlies would show up from time to time, along with elk, in the town. But the summer I moved away, a girl was killed and several others attacked not 100 yards away from where I lived. They are big, fast and dangerous.

edit to add: And seeing as this is off topic already....my first sighting of wild wolves came when I was in northern Saskatchewan when I was 11. Earlier this month, my son and I saw a wolf cross the highway in front of us, along the north shore of Superior. My son's first wolf. He's 11. I like that symmetry.

I hear that when hiking in Grizzly country it is best to wear bells on your pack in order not to turn a corner in the trail and surprise one. Also a good idea to always carry bear spray.

Easiest way to tell a griz from a black bear is to examine their poop. Black bear poop is full of berries and smells like poop. Grizzly poop is full of little bells and smells like bear spray...Geo