We got an early start today and spent a few hours looking for bear.
We hiked in a mile to the base of a large overgrown cut where I found some recent sign a week ago. On a game trail we found one fresh pile of bear crap. It was pretty small and consistent with the other sign I found.
We tried some fawn distress, cub distress and goat distress with not even a hawk checking in on us. After calling for an hour and a half I took a short walk searching for sign.
Stump
Rotten log
These peels are about 10 days old and by judging claw marks, teeth marks and other sign in the area I am pretty sure it is a small bear.
I set up a trail camera in this Alder that had older claw marks.
I angled the camera to face this patch of grass right off a trail in the middle of the cut. The grass in this area had been nearly eaten to the ground.
All of this sign is in a strip about 60 yards by 30 yards and it parallels the base of the hill. We were set up only 50 yards away from the bulk of it.
After setting up the camera and taking some pictures we headed out. Nearing the trailhead I could hear a couple people talking and as we got closer I could see it was a couple mountain bikers getting ready for a ride. Actually it was more like a pre-ride hitting of the pipe. They still don’t know we are near and I say loudly, “good thing we aren’t the popo!” They about come out of their skin, quickly compose themselves and say laughingly, “it’s an inhaler, for asthma”.
We were running out of time and I wanted to check on another area we had been hunting so we hustled down the road and made the short walk to this swamp where at least one bear had been feeding on grass. The only reason we went here was to scout and set up a trail cam.
I am pretty sure that at least two bears are in this area. There are no less then a dozen piles of crap in a small area, but only one seemed to be recent or at least I didn’t see it a week ago when I was in there. The bear/bears are only feeding in a small area no bigger then 20 yards by 30 yards and there are many piles of crap of various sizes and ages in this little grass island.
Newest turd.
Couple older.
Large pile with keys for reference. This one is at least 10 days old.
There is nothing of size to attach the camera to so I had to find a big branch and ram it in the mud next to a small bush. Then I broke off some huck branches and stuck them in the mud along the one side that could be seen if anyone ventures back there.
This one is from the blind.
