Campgrounds Closed in Central VT
Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:50 pm
Well not in VT Mr. Bear, but I saw my first, 'wild' bear this past weekend!
I've seen bears before, but they were always in town, at the dump, in someone's garbage. I had never seen one in it's element, only intruding into ours.
I still can't believe I spotted him/her, but I was wandering on a rough backroad near Horseshoe Lake/Bog River just scouting for roadside campsites way out off the beaten track and I happened across a semi-open, tall grassy field.
There were a few trees and stumps poking up far back near the treeline, but one caught my eye. It looked too dark to be a tree and the shape didn't seem right. I've been fooled by stumps and trees before thinking they were wildlife.
So anyway, I stopped the car, didn't shut down the engine because I wasn't sure, but I kept staring at where I saw the strange black spot. Sure enough it stood up, looked over in our direction and then sat back down in the berry patch it was in.
At this point I was kind of scoping through some trees and could just barely get the angle right to watch him. I was whispering to my wife that I was sure it was bear, and trying to direct her sight (a somewhat tricky view) toward him. He was sitting motionless with just his head poking up for a min or so, until he got up again and scanned the terrain. She saw him then. Yup, that's a bear!
We then decided to try to get a picture of him. We were about 100yds away, a good safe distance so I signaled to quietly get out the car and try to capture a camera shot of him. As soon as we got out of the car, we lost him. I think he just slunk right into the berries and tall grass and slipped away quietly into the woods. I didn't see him run, so I don't think we spooked him but I'm sure he knew we were there. He looked right at me twice.
I combed the edge of the field where I saw him for about 5 min trying to get a glimpse of him again or where he might have moved to, but I'm pretty sure he didn't want to find out what we were up to. Don't blame him, bear hunting is big in upstate NY. I didn't want to head out near his berries just in case he'd get upset, scared, or in the worst case aggressive. Also I wasn't quite sure if another bear might be close...
He/she wasn't very big. Not a cub, maybe first year from it's mother? I'd say no more than 150 lbs. Maybe a small female, maybe a young male?
It was a great experience. From a car, but no less memorable due to the rarity of seeing a bear in the wild around here. I think if you had some slight knowledge of bears and staked out a few berry patches you could probably get a few good wild views of them this time of year, but happening on one randomly is pretty rare.