This is my first year getting a bear tag, and I finally got a chance to get up and do some bear hunting this week and found what appears to be some old and new signs. First I found was some timber damage on living trees where the bark was stripped, it appears the bear went after some sap. I’ve read that this is usually done in spring when berries are not available but some of the timber damages look more recent then that(it's still light brown rather than the grey that I saw on the older timber damage). I could be wrong though. Is it possible the bear is still ripping trees in summer and fall?
Secondly I found LOTS of scat in the area I was scouting today. It was a large blueberry field at higher elevation, around 5200 feet. I found around a dozen piles and didn't even walk 1/4 of the field. Undoubtedly more scat than that. Some looked rather recent, no mold on them, still fairly soft. Although I didn't find anything that looked like it was done today, but again this is my first year bear hunting so I haven't looked at a lot of bear scat. This was higher up in elevation, around 5200 feet. I talked to a friend of mine who has a lot more experience than I and he said I should be looking further down in elevation. I'm kind of torn as I can tell there's been a bear there recently, and it's been a rather warm summer and early fall so my logic is bear's may still be pretty high in elevation, but I also know that I'm new to this and want to take advice from someone who's got more years under there belt. Should I keep looking at this blueberry field or find a new spot lower in elevation?
Any help you can offer is much appreciated!
