Bears in Winter....?
Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:54 am
Forgive me if it's a silly question, but should our local bears be hibernating right now or might they be up and about?
The reason I ask is that we hiked up the Heaton Flat trail towards Iron Mt on Tuesday and along the way ran across a good amount of scat that looked an awful lot like the bear poo we saw up in Sequoia, though I'm far from an expert in that particular field. Then, on our way back (we made it up to the first flat area after the tough scramble out of Heaton/Allison/Coldwater Saddle), at around the 2nd or 3rd bump south of Bonita Peak, we encountered something in the bushes grunting in a very bear-like fashion (again, based on Sequoia experiences), clearly trying to let us know it was there.
I didn't run across any tracks, but I can't help but think it was our first bear encounter in the SGs, but is that even possible this time of year?
The reason I ask is that we hiked up the Heaton Flat trail towards Iron Mt on Tuesday and along the way ran across a good amount of scat that looked an awful lot like the bear poo we saw up in Sequoia, though I'm far from an expert in that particular field. Then, on our way back (we made it up to the first flat area after the tough scramble out of Heaton/Allison/Coldwater Saddle), at around the 2nd or 3rd bump south of Bonita Peak, we encountered something in the bushes grunting in a very bear-like fashion (again, based on Sequoia experiences), clearly trying to let us know it was there.
I didn't run across any tracks, but I can't help but think it was our first bear encounter in the SGs, but is that even possible this time of year?