The other evening, Kevin, the kidlets, and myself loaded into the truck and decided to go check out the bear feeder that is located in the woods near our home. As I have mentioned before, we live in a small town, but it is completely surrounded by nothing but woods...privately-owned- by-gigantic-corporation-woods, but woods nonetheless.
And every year, Kevin and hundreds of other poor suckers...I mean hunters...purchase passes and are given keys that unlock the numerous gates to allow them to access these privately owned woods, and I must admit that we do get a lot of enjoyment out of them.
(Bear scat/poo near the feeder in the above picture)
So to answer the age old question of do bears poop in the forest, the answer is yes, they most definitely do. :) The picture of the can with the lid on it (above) is one of the bear feeders that is placed out there, and in case you are wondering what type of food it is, it is some kind of pelleted stuff.
(A view of Mt. Rainier, which happens to be about 50 miles away -as the crow flies)
(A view of Mt. Rainier, which happens to be about 50 miles away -as the crow flies) Speaking of flying, we watched this giant hawk stalking and pouncing on some poor little unsuspecting mousey creature. Oh well, it's good education for the kidlets, right?? Marty Stouffer's Wild America right in our very own backyard...lol!!!!
Okay...back to the fun stuff!!! While we were driving along, we noticed these old bear tracks in a dried out mud puddle. Pretty cool, huh??? Unless you are not in your truck driving down the road (I thought of you Chelsi, I swear I did!!)
Further up the road, we came across fresh bear tracks, and they appeared to be from two different bears. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but there were two sets right next to each other. I had Eric put his hand down next to the tracks to give you an idea of how big they were.
And for those of you who may be thinking that Eric has small hands-which he doesn't- here is a shot of my size nine foot-and really white leg!-next to the tracks.
I was also able to get a good shot of Mt. Baker. It kind of looks like a mini Mt. Rainier, and I wanted to give a shout-out to all of my Northern blogging pals. See, I am not that far away...lol!!!! Just travel over the river and through the woods, and to Melanie's house you will go!
Okay...back to the fun stuff!!! While we were driving along, we noticed these old bear tracks in a dried out mud puddle. Pretty cool, huh??? Unless you are not in your truck driving down the road (I thought of you Chelsi, I swear I did!!) Further up the road, we came across fresh bear tracks, and they appeared to be from two different bears. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but there were two sets right next to each other. I had Eric put his hand down next to the tracks to give you an idea of how big they were.And for those of you who may be thinking that Eric has small hands-which he doesn't- here is a shot of my size nine foot-and really white leg!-next to the tracks.
I was also able to get a good shot of Mt. Baker. It kind of looks like a mini Mt. Rainier, and I wanted to give a shout-out to all of my Northern blogging pals. See, I am not that far away...lol!!!! Just travel over the river and through the woods, and to Melanie's house you will go!Well I hope you are all having a great week so far. It has been in the 80's around here, which is basically unheard of for this time of year. We are all walking around as tan as we normally would be in July. It's great!!
13 comments:
Beautiful!
My father used to be in charge of such said land secured with gates.
He owns alot of what he then managed but I remember him begrudgingly handing key sets out to those who paid their way on the company land to hunt.
Don't know if I ever got back to you on that question - but yes that is my family mentioned in the book. Russ is my cousin and has big shoes to fill as the new President of the company....he was also a great pal when he was younger....
What wonderful photos! The great discovery I made from these pictures is you wear Mary Jane shoes! I love them.
Ha ha ha, you made me laugh, they most deffinatly doo LOL
I read somewhere that the Washington record size black bear, the paw was 4 1/2 inches across! This one looks that size!
So do you ever see the bear near your house? I mean, if they are around it, than they could come to your house right?
That is so cool that you found a paw print! Looks like a big one! I am glad I don't have bears! They are around, but have never seen or heard of anyone seeing one in my neighborhood! But where we go trail riding their are alot of bears, cougars etc. We haven't come across one, yet.
Wow-it's beautiful where you live. And holy-moly that is a big print.
Is bear hunting a big deal out there? And since you have hunters in your family, have they ever considered hunting black bear?
I'm not sure I'd be nonchalantly posing near bear paw prints in the middle of their neighbourhood like that. Sounds like you had a great day though. We up here in the north have been enjoying fabulously blue skies as well. It makes it all the more tortuous to have to spend the day inside working. Needless to say, the window near my desk is covered with nose prints. :o)
Stephanie-I figured they were your relatives. :)
Gail-Glad that my Mary Janes made you smile. They are by Keen, really durable, and really
comfy. :)
Reddunappy-LOL!!! They are pretty big prints, aren't they?
Paint Girl-Yes, a wayward bear does occasionally makes its way into town. We live on a street that dead-ends to a large, forested field, and there are often elk out there. In the fall, you can hear them bugling...too cool! Oh, and just so you know, those large prints were about 7-10 from my house. :)
BEC-Thank you, and yes, bear hunting is a big deal around here (with pretty much every hunter buying a bear and cougar tag as well as deer and elk ones)but they are almost impossible to find, because baiting and hound hunting has been outlawed. My hubby shot and killed a cougar that was following him one year (it is on our wall)but so far, the bears have outsmarted him. They are really secretive and shy animals...at least around here. :)
Carolynn-LOL!!! What you can't see from the pictures is the truck, with it's doors open and Kevin and Katie sitting there being our sentinels. :)
Hey, I'm glad you stopped by my blog! I have not been blogging much because I've been out riding Jack practically every spare second I have! Don't you love the weather lately? I can't believe it :-) Those bear track pictures are amazing!
LOL- HAHAHAH!!! "they are very sercretive and shy animals"... yah...Not so much around these parts! lol I have a big print like that on my garbage about a 100 feet from my front door. Now...as for hunting bear here please keep in mind that this is just what I have been told, not something I know from personal experience... Americans like to hunt bear here but while SOME canadians do it is not as ...?respected? to hunt anything here that you do not plan on eating or using. Some people eat bear but not a lot. Some canadians really have an issue with the amount of American's that come here to trophy hunt. From my understanding trophy hunting is much more acceptable in the US than it is here. I dont have a stong opinion either way. Most people just hunt moose and deer here because they eat them.
Anyways KEENs are the BEST!! I had my eye on a pair just like yours last year. I need to get new ones!
Oh...and as for bear poo...as far as I can tell they prefer to poo on trails and roads. It seems that all the trails here are covered in bear scatt.
Chelsi-No offense taken here, as I am NOT a fan of hunting at all...lol!!! Down here, it seems that the pursuit and kill of an animal are the main reasons that most (not all!) hunters "hunt." There are several men and women who do hunt for the meat, but killing a bear or cougar is obviously more for bragging rights (in my opinion anyway!).
Now...there is a huge bear over population problem (down here) that has happened largely in part to people enroaching on the bears territory, and partly because most hunters cannot effectively hunt another predator without baiting or tracking them with dogs.
Unfortunately there is no easy answer to the dilemma, but I agree with you 100% about the whole trophy hunting thing. Most of the men I know would love to head up to Vancouver Island and nab them a black bear. Why?? So they can brag about it and hang it on their wall.
(Okay...I better shut-up now, or I am going to do some serious offending!!!) To any of my readers who hunt, just know that I am opposed to uneccesary hunting, but I am surrounded by hunters...help!!! LOL!!!
Those prints are so cool! I'll tell my sis there is another blogger out there that takes pics of animal poo! :-) She will occasionally take pics and brag about her dogs' poo!
lol! Yep, you're a true blogger taking close-ups of poop to post on your blog. lol! That is just too cool. I also liked seeing the bear pawprints and the comparisons with hands and feet. Your shoes are adorable!
Wow! I had no idea you wer so close to those volcanoes. Are you in an evacuation zone, too?
Beautiful views, though :)
~Lisa
Hi Melanie! Good to hear from you. Totally cool finding those bear paw prints!! Those look pretty big to me. And, I couldn't agree more with you regarding the hunting thing - most hunters, but not all seem to be all about the bragging rights and the "thrill kill". I have no respect for anyone like that.
And, I too love your Keens. They are the most amazing shoes ever!!
So comfy, and they take a beating.
Our weather has been unseasonly hot too - I'm loving it. But, since the big storm we had last Thursday, things have cooled somewhat, it's still nice and seem to be warming back up again. And, it's less than 2 weeks from summer. Seems like we all waited forever for spring, and now it's almost summer already. Yikes!! Time goes too fast for me!
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