A Bit of History
LeAnn posted this blog on Sunday, February 10th, 2013 at 6:04 am
From my blog posting 6 years ago.
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Sunday, February 05, 2006
Bear!
“Look at these tracks,” I said.
Randy turned back toward me on the deer trail we were following through the woods and bent closer.
“Charlie tracks?” he said.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Charlie’s tracks don’t look like that. These look like a human foot. . .”
I looked at him, and he looked at me. Then we both looked at the tracks in the snow again.
“Bear!” we said.
“But not a very big bear,” Randy said.
“Probably a yearling,” I said.
Sunday morning after we had gotten home from church and had fed the horses and the dogs, we took Pixie and Charlie for a walk through the woods again. It is a bright sunny day, although the northwest wind is cold and biting.
The bear tracks were up in the woods just beyond a small spruce grove.
“Shouldn’t the bears be hibernating now, though?” Randy asked as we followed the bear tracks farther up the slope.
“The raccoon aren’t hibernating, so there’s no reason to suppose the bears are, either. Or at least, maybe not the younger ones,” I said.
“Wanna track it?” Randy asked.
“Not especially,” I said. “I would rather not have to break up a fight between a bear and our dogs.”
“Good point,” Randy said.
For quite a few years there have been bear sightings in the area. The neighbors just down the road, where the horse died last month, had a bear destroy their bird feeders a couple of years ago.
Another neighbor who lives farther away looked out her kitchen window one night and came face-to-face with a bear standing on its hind legs, cleaning out the bird feeder.
And still another neighbor, who has a horse and who likes to ride through the woods, saw a bear and her cubs last spring.
I have never actually seen any bears around here. And this is the first time I’ve seen tracks. Usually the bears are hibernating in the winter, so you don’t get much opportunity to see their tracks in the snow. The tracks are hard to spot under other conditions, although if one crossed the dirt road in wet sand or in the mud, you might be able to see the tracks then.
I know one thing is for certain. If we go picking blackberries up in that woods this summer, I am either going to wear a bell to let the bears know I am there. Or else I’ll spend a lot of time singing. I would prefer not get into a discussion with a bear over just exactly who is entitled to those blackberries!
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