Where are they?

[7mmfan]

So I've been up to an area a couple times now, where my buddy shot his bear and saw at least 10 others last year, and there is absolutely NO sign  . The black berries are just flowering and there are a few salmon berries around. The huckleberry and blue berry bushes don't even have baby berries on them yet. Do you think this is why they aren't around this year? If so, where would they be? I know they eat lots of grass and like skunk cabbage and what not but I can't seem to find any sign in the associated areas around this place either. I rode about 10 miles of logging roads on my mtn bike yesterday and only saw two very old piles of crap, one of which I found last time I was up there a month ago. This is up around monroe and I noted that many of the spring bear guys saw very few bears up there this year as well, did the population take some kind of a major dip from last year? Any thoughts?

[runamuk]

The weather stunk this spring so look for food bears like to eat find what they are eating right now, roots, shoots, trees, bugs.....the berry fields will be where they are when there are berries 

[BOWHUNTER45]

I hunt up high for bear .. but I am not much into it until September ... lots of hunters like to go in AUGUST which is fine if you can find a good patch of salmon berries a bear is feeding on ... September rolls around and the whole senario changes... in September I like hunting blue berries up high and in october I try finding a patch of Oregon grapes ..Oregon grapes are the ultimate bear food on the westside come October.. The hardest thing about hunting areas like this it is thicker than heck and you need to definately be above the areas so you can look in and see them ..and the fun part is going in and retrieving one once you shoot one .....I will be sure to take more pictures of some of the areas I hunt come September ....which are steeper than heck but lots of bear and maybe because no one wants to go down and pack them back up .....hahahaha

[saylean]

They'll show (and they are around). Wait till those berries get ripe...ya cant hunt em now anyways. There is a spot I hit up, its no good in August...come September, and late september, you cant hardly walk in there without seeing a bear.

Good luck~!

[7mmfan]

I kind of assumed that that was the deal. There are a ton of berry bushes in there so when they finally get berries I'm sure the bears will move right in. Just a little frustrating going into a place thats had so many in the past and not even seeing a pile of crap! Oh well, hopefully things shape up come middle of August.

[JimmyHoffa]

The scat piles I found today had grasses in them and some strips of leaves that looked like it could be from skunk cabbage or something with a similar leaf structure.  Most of the others I'm finding look like grass and buds mixed with the usual bear mud.

[woodman]

can you put up a trail cam. I have several hundred pictures of bears this spring in an area that looks as if it has no bears most of the time. I can go to my cams and not see a bear and then check my card and there will be a bear on it 20 minutes before I got there. They are very elusive, but once you can start patterning them, you will start to see them. I also have been amazed to learn how many bears can live so close together and still seem as if there are none. In one area alone I can identify 9 different bears on my cams.

[180-GRAIN]

I went to my spot this Saturday and scouted around also. Berries were not ripe yet either. Give it until the opener and bears will be where you seen them before. Just have to wait for the berries to rippen a little and they will show. The spot I hit is lower elevation and it works the same every year, august 1st through about the 15th you will see bears every day you are in there. After that they disappear, and then I turn my attention to the higher elevation blueberry and huckleberry fields.