Coming north? Lock your vehicle.

Elk crossing made local broadcasts

– Last Updated: Nov-02-16 11:08 AM EST –

They're a hazard on I-75. There's a section where signs are posted along the highway to be on the lookout for elk.

There's also a herd living within fenced acreage in the City of Gaylord. Next to the Elks Lodge, of course.

As to the bear, local news reported that because the bear was getting bolder, continued to break into vehicles, and the presence of people making loud noises was not scaring it away, last week the DNR shot it.

In Glacier we were out
in our absence the neighbors noticed that there were grizzlies in our campsite



And when we got back they exclaimed YOU HAD A BEAR…



Well it was a designated NPS campsite



In a berry patch



Situation normal

every time I pass those signs
…I want to come back some night near the holidays, and change it to “Elf Crossing”. But now that I let the cat out of the bag, I guess that might not be wise.

Oh, that would be awesome!
Do it! I won’t tell. :slight_smile:


grizzlies and ground squirrels
Back in 1975 I was backpacking with 3 friends in Glacier National Park, heading for Gunsight Lake. As we took a snack break beside a clump of berry bushes along the trail we heard a group coming making all sorts of racket with bells and loud whoops. Turned out to be 3 clean cut lawyer types with their paid guide, a bearded mountain man type. They stopped to join us and chat and the guide explained that he was extra cautious in grizzly territory about bear encounters (hence the noise they were making rounding that blind curve in the trail.) He’d been a backcountry guide for 25 years and had had his share of run-ins, including awakening once after forgetting to wash his beard after supper to find a bear sniffing his face and being treed for 9 hours by a grizzly that chased him during a solo hike in Alaska. He had to tie himself to the tree with his belt to avoid falling when he nodded off. He waited over an hour after the bear finally left before coming down. He told us he enforced strict camp hygiene, hanging all food high in a tree at least 500 feet from camp and requiring everyone to wash and change clothes after food prep and meals.



After hearing his tales our party went on ahead to the campground at the lake. When we got there we found only one site occupied. The resident was a longhaired hippie dude who had been there for two days, living on brown trout he had caught in the lake. His renegade camp was strewn with fish heads, bones, empty cans and other food debris. As we were talking to him, Mountain Man and his clients came up the trail. MM took one look at the squalor and turned white as a ghost. Though it was late in the day and his crew looked tired he immediately hustled them off to the far end of the lake 2 miles farther down the trail.



The four of us discussed the situation and decided that we would be safe set a little apart from Hippie Dude since any bears would make a beeline for the buffet spread at his site and pay us no mind. Never did see any bears that trip, but I did wake up the next morning to find a large buck mountain goat peering into the screened vent in my tent door. We did have critter problems at that campsite, however. We were bedevilled by the most aggressive gangs of western ground squirrels I’ve ever encountered. At one point I was sitting on a low rock eating a sandwich and one of them scurried up on my right making straight at my lunch. When I jerked my hand up towards my left ear to get it out of its reach, a second squirrel came from behind, ricocheted off my left shoulder, snatched the sandwich and fled, followed by his co-conspirator.



The day we broke camp we left our packed bags leaning against a log while we walked down to the lake to fill our water bottles. One of the group, a big Polish steelworker named Joe, had neglected to secure the zips on the pockets of his pack and as we walked back to load up we saw little heads pop out of every opening in his pack, followed by an avalanche of squirrels absconding with candy bars, instant cocoa packs and anything else they could grab. It was like a clown car emptying at the circus, only much more hilarious, especially since an enraged Joe was madly pursuing the little bandits into the brush, shrieking obscenities. For the rest of the trip, every time Joe spotted a squirrel, he would aim a rock or pine cone at it, cursing it for the sins of its cousins.

A month later
than the OP ( which was at the height of bear fattening time)

Bruins are now bedding down in their holes for a bit of a four to five month nap.



If you want to camp in the north you too will need fur of some sort.

I wuz
sitting at the picnic table on the Ochlocknee rolling black to the Gulf cooking a pork chop in a groover frying pan atop a single burner coleman.



The sky brilliant with stars had a meteorite shower running.



A large coon, Procyon lotor, rose opposite me above the table top reached into the pan n SWIPED THE CHOP.



Undaunted but stupid I fetched a second chop n fired.



The coon reappeared rose n SWIPED THE CHOP



MF COON.



I fetched a 3rd chop n a tennis racket.



The coon reappeared n I slammed the MF one good one with the racket sending chop stove n coon flying.



I found the stove .



Later after dinner, I strolled into the parking lot covered with humping multicolored cane hoppers fornicating under a meteorite shower as the black Ochlocknee rolled by to the Gulf.



I never saw thought or imagined a cane hopper before.



welcome to the Panhandle










rasp rasp rasp
procyon lotor imbibing off tent. Lock up your eau

while I was away …




goo.gl/axDMNt

gonk
Duct tape n cardboard.



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