snow bears

[GBoyd]

Hey guys,

I was walking around grousing today in western Oregon and cut some bear tracks. After a lot of hiking around to figure things out, I found a hollow log. This bear was sleeping here when it snowed on Wednesday, took a walk down the mountain a couple miles then returned to the log. It left again down the mountain probably last night and hasn't returned yet.

My bear season here goes until the end of December. Do you think this bear will be back to this den?

And a more general question: has anybody successfully tracked bears in the snow to kill them in the late season?

[GBoyd]

A picture of the log from yesterday

[MtnMuley]

Absolutely unless he found a better den.

[GBoyd]

I went out again hiking logging roads and cut another set of tracks today, much smaller this time. I followed it for a couple miles, but it ended up in private so I turned back. I followed it back the other way and wound up in some dense nasty reprod and found another den site. This one was pretty cool, with a hollowed out area in a stump. I stuck my head in there and it's obvious the bear had been sleeping in there. There were also some constructed beds, something I'd never seen before. The bear pulled up some sword ferns and bracken ferns and piled them up to make sleeping surfaces. It was pretty cool.

[JakeLand]

That's way cool to see !

[millerwheeler]

Sasquatch  den  very cool den
good luck

[mountainman]

That's awesome!
Tracked them down in the snow, but never during the season. Would be cool to drop one in the snow sometime.
Have seen them twice out in the sagebrush in 2 feet of snow!

[blindluck]

wow, I've never found a den. thanks for taking pictures, way cool!

[boneaddict]

It's funny tracking them this time of year.   They often act like they are drunk. 

[TommyH]

It's funny tracking them this time of year.   They often act like they are drunk.

I snuck into 20 yards of one the other day, and that's exactly what what I was thinking.

[GBoyd]

It's funny tracking them this time of year.   They often act like they are drunk.

I snuck into 20 yards of one the other day, and that's exactly what what I was thinking.

Huh, that wasn't my experience this weekend.

Both of these bears woke up from their den and took a bee's line to the nearest old logging road. They then followed the road straight down the mountain towards the nearest houses, where I had to stop tracking. I get the impression that the cold weather woke them up and they wanted to go clean up the last apples around the houses or break in to someone's garbage.

[GBoyd]

No dice. I checked the hollow log today and it was empty. I don't see any evidence that the bear has been back to it since I was last there.

The other den I checked on my map after posting on this and noticed that I was 100 yards outside of the property where I was supposed to be. Oops! I didn't even think to check where I was when I was tracking because it all looked like one big unit, same age of trees. Obviously I couldn't go back to check that one.

Next year!

[jennabug]

Thanks for posting this.  I found it really interesting.