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Oh yes, I will agree with you there! That's about the only way I'd want to see them. My DH is dying to see a bear on one of our hikes, but I truly hope we never do. We've hiked in black bear country in the NC mountains and sang and made noise too....that gets old, though, since a lot of the reason we hike is for the solitude.Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyAnika
Emily
Just to make all y'all (and that IS the correct plural of y'all :rolleyes: ) comfortable in the woods...
In the 5 years I lived on the hatchery, we had to have three bears trapped and/or shot
- one sub-adult because it was acting confused, walking in circles, was out during the day. Shot and hauled off
- one because it trashed a screen door trying to get into the one house that didn't own dogs or cats. It also trashed some expensive trout solar feeders. Shot at the Girl's Camp just up the road after reaking some havoc there.
- and the third because it wouldn't scare off, and starting trying real hard to get into the feed barn. Trapped and hauled off.
We accepted the fact that we lived in bear country and did adjust our behavior accordingly - keep garbage in until garbage day, don't leave pet food outside. The Apache Tribe (reservation surrounding the hatchery) highly respected bears, so doing anything to them was a BIG Thing. In fact, the trapper was a white guy, just to keep the bad juju from getting on them. The Game Ranger had to do a cleansing ceremony after he killed the obviously sick bear (#1 above).
On the otherhand, I did have fun with tourists that were hiking the trail that went by our houses... I'd see them and shout "look out for the bears..." then check my watch. In about 10 minutes they'd be back - about the time for them to reach the gate in the fence leaving hatchery property and onto the reservation, turn around and come back. While I sat there enjoying my morning coffee. Snicker
Nope, haven't seen them back. They are quiet. If I hadn't seen the shadow passing the window I would have never known they were around. I'll be looking for scatt in the yard (the dogs eat it though - yuck). I have one bird feeder in the front yard close to the house so most likely they wouldn't touch it. The former person who lived here had the feeders in the back away from the house and they used to come in and clean them out. That was almost 3 years ago though.
I'm keeping my eyes peeled either way....