A Real Bear Story

[John Cahoon]

The Black River in Arizona is about 60 miles south of Showlow, 25 miles south of Big Lake via dirt roads. It’s a five hr round trip from my house in Tempe but I try to get there late spring and early fall. I was late this year. The bridge at Wildcat Crossing is indeed wild country though. I’ve been going there for 25+ years and am almost always by myself or just my small group. Apache Trout were reintroduced about 18 years ago, with Mexican gray wolf reintroduction maybe more than 20 years ago, seem to be thriving, I saw 3 adults (around 80 lbs) way downstream around 2006, very wary of humans and no threat at all. Elk, turkey and bighorn sheep are common. Puma are there of course but I've never seen sign or hair, just tracks a couple of times.

We are in severe drought conditions with minimal snowpack last year so I knew the wildlife would be on the river, there’s nowhere else to go! I got there Friday 3:30 and headed upstream as normal, 5 crossings about 1.5 miles in. Caught some trout and general fooling about, but actively looking for bear and snakes. Started back around 5:30PM.

On the way out about 200 yards from the Bronco I saw a black flash out of the right corner of my eye within 25 feet of me. The 60 lb cub’s first leap onto the ponderosa was 6 feet up and in another moment he was 30 feet up that tree. Where’s Mama, Where’s Mama, I knew she was around somewhere, turning, scanning, heart racing, pistol pulled (finally). The cub did not bawl, which would definitely have provoked a charge. Eye contact could have been another provocation but it never happened.

I never saw the sow, but as I was walking up a 5’ bench from the trail to the campsite a HUGE pile of bear crap on the trail, fresh as fresh, 5” around and 3-4” tall, still glistening. I’ve seen lots of bear sign all over the region, but this was far bigger than anything I’ve seen by 3-4X. Yup she was around somewhere, and left that message to be seen by all comers.

I camped up on the ridge that night. A really nice site with heavy trees, but little underbrush. Next day the trip downstream, an area I know so well after several dozen visits. I’ve been as far as the San Carlos Reservation line, about a 16 mile round trip. My heart and soul resides down there.

Around 11:00 am, a mile and a half in, halfway between the first and second crossing, just getting started really, another encounter. Three feet tall on all fours, a 250 to 300lb male ( my gender guess because he was alone and size was about average for the Arizona black bear). Arizona bears are much smaller than you’d see in the Northern Rockies for example. Those guys can go to 600 lbs. This one was about 60 feet in front of me loping down to the river. He likely saw me first and I think that’s why he was trotting, not walking.

Well, he didn’t look at me, but at that point my trip was over. I did not want a fairly large bear at unknown location between me and the truck. And since I’d missed seeing both first, even though I was actively looking for bear, no reason to believe I’d spot this one first if we crossed paths again. Two bears in 2 river miles, how many more might I have seen? Another sow and cub(s) more than three miles and 4 or 5 crossings from the truck? No thanks. I ended up fiddling with my custom knife and generally a slow walk out.

So I took the scenic route out, got home late Saturday and back to knifemaking on Sunday.

Pictures: 1- this free roaming horse (branded KYZ so not wild) at first he spooked but I whistled at him. He stopped, turned and we took tentative steps toward one another. Eventually he came right up and let me pet his nose. I’m no horseman though so I was pretty wary…… 2- A beaver dam: I had to bushwhack through about 30 feet of solid brush to get here, I heard the waterfall and knew it was something different….. 3 – “Beaver Engineered Bridge?”…. The area is full of beaver but this is the first dam I’d seen in this area. I’ve seen beaver in the water around the deepest pools but the lodges are usually in undercut rock or cut out of grassy banks. 4-5 the knife I was carrying with kokopelli on the sheath.

 

[22-rimfire]

The small bear (your "cub") was last year's cub and likely been pushed away from the mother bear so they can breed again this year. That generally happens around June. I have seen many black bears and only once have encountered one that gave me a false charge and scared me. I have at times been very close to them taking pictures in the woods; both single bears and mother bears with very small cubs.

You have to pay attention to the young males. Usually not a problem. You really didn't need to call it a day because of black bears.

 

[315]

It’s always cool to see bears in the wild, evening when I can’t hunt them. A few years ago my daughter and I were hiking in Mount Rainier National Park. The berries were good and ripe. We came upon a lone bear gorging itself. We were able to watch it from a distance for awhile and continued on to a lake. On the way back I wanted to find the bear again. We went off on a side trail that took us to the edge of a small valley, thinking the bear had fed over the edge. No bear, but did happen to find a pile of it’s dried up, recycled berries. It was a large pile so I picked up half of it and my daughter took a photo of me as it looked like I was taking a bite. (I won’t post that)
We turned around and the bear was coming down the trail that we walked in on about 30 yards away. Eventually it scampered off to the side and resumed eating berries. I told my daughter the bear was sizing her up and realized she was too skinny and the berries tasted better.

A couple of years before that I took that same daughter out after school for an afternoon deer hunt. We had parked and walked to the end of an old logging road to overlook a clear cut. I could hear something making noise below us but the way the hill dropped off it didn’t allow a view so we backed off about 60 yards to see what was coming up the hill. After about 5 minutes a small bear steps into view where we were standing. My daughter said, “ Dad, there’s a bear, there’s a bear, there’s a bear” starting at a whisper and getting progressively louder each time. I said “ I know, I know, I know”. I then asked her what she was afraid of, she had the rifle.

Last story involves my brother about 25 years ago. He and his friends would take a week every year and go up to the Boundary waters in Minnesota. They had camp set up and were out canoeing. When they came back to camp there was a bear in camp. They just left and never went back, leaving the entire camp there. I told him they should’ve just moved their camp if they were truly worried a bout it but they didn’t. My Dad was as mad as a hornet because he left my Dad’s Coleman lantern and stove there, not to mention his own tent, sleeping bag and whatever else.

 

[John Cahoon]

Hi 22-rimfire thanks for the reply. I had not considered a juvenile and I was guessing on the weight, but this "cub" was no more than 16" tall so was pretty small. And I don't see how it could have left such a big pile of poo on the trail, that was huge. If any can estimate weight by the height I'd appreciate opinions, I might have had "fur bias". To your second point about leaving early, I'd rather not put myself in a position where lethal defenses were required. I'd feel real bad about that knowing that it was my fault for being there or by some action I did to bring it on. AZ Game and Fish would be hounding me for months too since I'm the type that would report any incident.

Hi 315 , fun stories, that looks pretty big. What would you say the one in your picture weighs?. I've only seen two bears in this area in 25 years, scat and tracks all over but with this years drought they were likely all down by the river. I'll invite any others with bear stories to post them here.

 

[22-rimfire]

This was about 15-20 years ago or more (35 mm film days)... I was in the Smoky Mt NP looking for wild flowers to photograph. The park was a pretty new thing for me at this point and didn't really know where to go. So, I was exploring. I was in one area that was pretty over grown and had my tripod set up crouched down taking pictures of some flower close to the ground level. I look up and there is a black bear (fairly big one) about 15 feet away from me moving toward me (walking). She saw me at the same instant that I saw her and started to move away from me. Of course, I wanted to take a picture or three and proceeded to take my camera off the tripod and was moving slowly and carefully in the direction she went. Then I see three little cubs.... they were all up a tree climbing up and down. At that point I started to back away as I didn't know where the mother bear was at that point and didn't want to raise any of her protective alarms. It worked out. No problems but I never really got a good picture. Oh well... It is often just luck to see a bear that you can photograph and make it interesting. Most are at a distance.

The little cubs (I'm talking little guys maybe 10"-12" long) pretty much follow the mother bear while she feeds and they climb trees a lot. They look like black puppies. It's fun to watch the bear behavior (mother and cubs) when there are no people around in the woods. The mother bear will only allow them to stray so far and then rounds them up. I might add that the reason for this is that a male black bear will kill and eat cubs if given the opportunity. So the mother bear is pretty protective.

I just went back to that same area looking for wild flowers just this past May after a major 10-15 year hiatus. I had a wonderful day taking pictures of both pink and yellow Lady Slipper orchids along with other wildflowers that were blooming at the time there. Was hoping to see a bear, but didn't.

I see a lot of black bears inside the park (a lot) these days and the numbers seem to be increasing significantly as compared to 10-15 years ago. Seeing the mother and cubs was a huge event for me that day and I had only seen those black bears inside the park to that point. My first visit to the park was when the World's Fair was being held in Knoxville TN. I was living in Texas at the time. I later moved to Knoxville and had the opportunity to attend the early Blade Shows being held there.

In the last couple of years, I have been a frequent visitor and have seen as many as 30 black bears in a single day there (lots of cubs). Hard to believe. But they are plentiful some days when conditions are right. The norm in the summer months now is to see one or two if you spend the time looking (all day). I enjoy it. But I don't try to get close to the bears regardless of my desire to take pictures. The rule there is to stay back 50 yds. If they are acting nervous, you back away.

My primary photographic interest there is not black bears. But if I see a bear that is not 100 yds+ away and not in some overgrown field, I will attempt to take a picture. The distant ones I just watch with binoculars. My interests are primarily taking whitetail deer pictures. So far this year, I have seen 50-75 bears in the park over multiple visits. I'm due another visit this month (July) and will see what I see. I like to visit at least once a month to see the seasons change. But I mostly hope to see whitetail deer with their antlers in velvet and fairly well developed.

 

[22-rimfire]

Here are a couple bear shots. The black berry one was a picture that I was trying to improve, but was unsuccessful in general. I have others of that bear. The top picture is one of last year's cubs that was pushed away by the mother bear and probably weighed 75 lbs. He was feeding on black berries and was a great photo opportunity that I didn't quite rise to the occasion and get "the" picture. The black bear in the tree is one of my better bear pictures. Both of these were taken this year.

 

[22-rimfire]

This is the kind of stuff I have been trying to do with whitetail deer. The blue smoke background was from a forest fire.

 

[22-rimfire]

Back in the mid-80's, I was doing field work in the mountains of West Virginia and the area we were working had lots of black bears. You normally didn't see them during the day, but you'd see them on the way in or out of the work area (via dirt roads or roads we built). I was alone at one site which was not an uncommon thing for me as I am extremely comfortable in the Eastern woods. Anyway, I saw a fairly good sized black bear moving toward where we were working and I grabbed my camera hoping to take a picture or two. The bear kept moving toward me until it was about 25 yds away from me. Then it saw me and stood up.... it promptly charged to within about 5 or so yards from me and scared the you know what out of me. This took a couple seconds and I learned something that day about bears. I have pictures of just the head of that bear. Those pictures are buried in my 35mm slide file (thousands of pictures) never to be looked at again.

 

[22-rimfire]

Here's a fairly good whitetail shot of a 10 pt buck. He was real comfortable lying in the woods.

 

[22-rimfire]

Here's a shot of a pretty good sized black bear. It was pretty close and taken during May 2018.

 

[John Cahoon]

Great Pictures 22-rimfire, you must be camera ready at all times I guess, and talented too. Cool stories too. If I saw 30 bears in one day I'd be the one "up the tree". My next tale happens in the 1960's growing up in southern Oregon, my parents were friends with a park ranger at Crater Lake National Park and we visited often. In those days the park service ran the lodge and just dumped garbage in open piles, attracting tons of large fat bears. Those were days before environmentalism was a thing and nobody gave it a second thought, we'd be shocked at such a thing nowadays.

So after dinner when the old folks were talking us kids would go to the dump to watch these bruins, probably a dozen or more at a time, 400-500 lbs rooting thru huge piles of "food". They never paid us any mind of course but it was quite an experience being fairly close to such big ones.

Don't miss a chance to go to Crater Lake if you can, it's closed in winter and can get more than 40' of snow over winter. I recall drifts in springtime that Dad said were over 20' tall along the road.

 

[22-rimfire]

I'd love to visit Crater Lake NP. Probably would hit the Tetons and Yellowstone on the same trip. When I was a kid we would occasionally see a black bear in Penn's woods (PA). It was usually a flash running across a dirt road or the flash and we'd stop and watch it in the woods. It wasn't until recent years that I have seen many and that is because they are in a national park, wild for sure, but relatively used to people.

Read an article yesterday in the newspaper that the northern counties of Alabama are seeing black bears now fairly regularly. The Blue Ridge area is essentially the breeding ground and they migrate from there. I'm good with bears as long as they aren't in my yard and hitting my bird feeders at night. The raccoons are bad enough.

I love bear stories, I just don't have many to tell. On the day I saw 30, I was on my way out of the park heading home when I saw a number of cars parked and people standing along the road. So, I stopped to see what was going on; I figured black bear, but you never know. Anyway, it was almost dark and the mother bear had three tiny cubs with her. They were probably 75 yds away in the woods. I enjoyed that. The cubs are just fun to watch and always a treat.

I have some pictures of a mother bear nursing her 4 cubs in the woods. That was a rare treat. That happened last year.

When I am in a national park or anywhere I expect to see wildlife, I usually have my camera mounted on a tripod all the time and ready to go. Almost all of my wildlife pictures were taken with a camera on a tripod.

 

[22-rimfire]

My Dad told me a black bear story once that had him extremely nervous. He and his wife (not my mother) were hiking on a trail on a bench near the top of a mountain in PA. It's a place he has been going since he was a kid and really comfortable with. Anyway, it was starting to get dark and he could smell bears. So, you know they were close. Bears have become more common in the mountains there. It got dark and he could hear them following or paralleling them off the trail. He never saw one of them, but he was nervous as hell as he knew he was prey. He had no gun, and no flash light, probably a walking stick.... they were hustling as quickly as they could to where their car was parked. Ultimately, it is just a memory now and nothing happened. My Dad is dead now. I still think about him as he instilled the love of the outdoors in his boys.

Added: My Dad became somewhat "famous" because of his outdoor writer sons who would have magazine covers published of him trout fishing. People would meet him along the streams in PA and ask if he was so and so. Funny.

 

[315]

Hi 22-rimfire

Hi 315 , fun stories, that looks pretty big. What would you say the one in your picture weighs?. .

I would guess it was maybe 200 pounds. I’ve seen a lot of bears and their size and weight can be deceiving. When you see a really big one you instantly know it’s a really big one.

 

[22-rimfire]

For regular folks, it is very hard to estimate the live weight of a black bear. The fur makes them look bigger than they actually are. I claim no special talent or experience in that area. They have killed 600 pounders in PA. That is a huge black bear. I think if one gets that large, it is probably because of a non-natural food source.

 

[315]

For regular folks, it is very hard to estimate the live weight of a black bear. The fur makes them look bigger than they actually are. I claim no special talent or experience in that area. They have killed 600 pounders in PA. That is a huge black bear. I think if one gets that large, it is probably because of a non-natural food source.

Pennsylvania has produced some monsters. Out in the PacificNW we’ve seen some big ones but in talking to a local taxidermist who has done 100’s, if not thousands of bears the local average is probably 200 or less. I took an honest 400 plus up in British Columbia several years ago and have only ever seen one bear here in Washington that would rival its size.

 

[22-rimfire]

400 lbs is a big black bear. I have seen TV shows of folks hunting in the BC for bear.

 

[22-rimfire]

Here is a wider view of the bear in the tree (posted earlier). Mother and last year's cub.... This was quite a photo opportunity. The norm with bears in trees is that they are really high up with foliage mostly obscuring them.

The bears in the field is pretty typical of what you see and the closer ones are just good fortune and not predictable. The only reason the field image has been saved to this point is the fact that the one bear stood up. If you look closely, there are actually three bears in that picture. I have deleted many (hundreds) of "there's a bear images" as they basically are just a black blob in the distance.

 

[22-rimfire]

One thing, you seldom see whitetail deer when black bears are nearby. The bears apparently are deer predators. In the fall especially and more so during the rut, the deer provide amazing wildlife opportunities to photographers. But. This is a big BUT.... Last fall I wasn't seeing the larger bucks as I had previously and didn't know why. I figured the food supply must be low and they moved somewhere with more food. I was told in January of this year that the reason the buck sightings were down last year was not food, but a disease that killed many of the large bucks. They found them dead. The bears were feeding on them.

The 10-pt buck lying down was a remarkable opportunity if you like this sort of thing. I found him in the woods away from where normal people would ever see him. He even went to sleep while I was watching him. I spent probably 30 minutes watching him and then backed out of there so I wouldn't disturb him. The blue background buck is my favorite whitetail picture that I have.

 

[kvaughn]

Pennsylvania has produced some monsters. Out in the PacificNW we’ve seen some big ones but in talking to a local taxidermist who has done 100’s, if not thousands of bears the local average is probably 200 or less. I took an honest 400 plus up in British Columbia several years ago and have only ever seen one bear here in Washington that would rival its size.

A 557 lb black was killed in N.W. Ct last year when he came back for seconds after killing a burro the week before. Monster bear.--KV