Hello again, hello...
No pictures in this one...sorry...D's being lazy, hasn't gotten pictures to me...not that anything too exciting has been going on!
October 15 - Saturday
We didn't do much in the morning, kinda hung in the camper and stuff...but that afternoon we went up to the derailment from August to put up some remote cameras down in a ditch that has seen some grizzly bear activity. There is a huge electric fence system set up around the main parts of where the corn was spilled, but a ditch runs under one of the fences and when rain and snow came through, it leached out some corn...so that brought bears in. D and Tim wanted to see what they were dealing with, so we put up three remote cameras on the site.
We came home and Tim and Carol wanted to go out to dinner with us...so we went to the Back Room...an amazing BBQ/Ribs joint that we go to only on occasion because you put on 10 pounds just by smelling the food when you walk in the door.
Came home from that and we watched Bridget Jones...the second one...I forget the rest of the title. D and I long ago agreed that for every action movie he makes me watch, he has to watch a chick-flick...but he claims that now I owe him 5 action-Jackson movies...and he's supported by Tim...friggen men...
October 16 - Sunday
A nothing day...we took the camper in to town to dump tanks, refresh water, refresh propane tanks, get groceries and call loved-ones while we had cell phone coverage...NOT happy with Cingular up here in Montana...NOOOOOOOO coverage!!!!
Watched O Brother in bed and fell asleep...
October 17 - Monday
Woke up and tried to figure out what to do. I called the research biologist for this grizzly trapping project so we could meet for lunch, which we'll do tomorrow. We then talked with Tim and found out there's a female grizzly with cubs that was seen at a residence two nights ago, but then last night the guy that saw them left his garage door open and something got its garbage. DOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, Tim wanted us to take a trap down there and also lend the guy an UnBearAble Bin, which D wanted to try his camera setup on again.
But first, the three of us went back up to the derailment to check on the cameras we put up there. No bears caught on tape. We reset all of the cameras and headed back down.
We then loaded up a trap on the back of Tim's truck, grabbed the Fancy-dancer and an UnBearAble Bin and headed down to Bigfork to this guy's property right at the bottom of the mountains...great grizzly bear country. The folks were really nice and were beating themselves up over leaving their garage door open...the bears not only got garbage, but a bag of dog food and dog biscuits. UGH!!!!!!!! I listened for the signal of a grizzly called #22 who two years ago was a habituated bear...and, sure enough, she was in the area...so it was her. Shoot...and two cubs that she's taught this to...damn.
What was funny was when the husband showed us where the bears got the dog food, we walked past his nice Dodge pickup truck and there were bear paw marks all over the side of it...I said, "Oh, yeah, definitely a grizzly bear...look at these tracks they left." Well, the guy hadn't even noticed them! He laughed and took pictures.
We set the trap and D set up his camera and the bin and while we were there the wife called the neighbors and found out that the bears had been to one neighbor's house last night as well and obliterated her apple trees (why...WHY do people insist on having fruit trees in bear habitat???? MUST they?????)...and they woke up and saw the two cubs up on their porch looking in their sliding glass door! They made noise and the bears ran off, but the female returned and came up on the porch and was looking in the glass doors, too. BAD sign...when bears are not afraid to approach buildings with people inside of them and are looking inside to see if there's any yummies in there...well...that's pretty much putting the feds on alert that this bear is a candidate for the death sentence...and her cubs will have no hope, either, because they're starting out life this way...being taught that it's acceptable to do that...
SOOOOOOO...we got done there, and we posed for a picture with the trap because the couple has a son in Iraq and they thought the boys over there would get a kick out of the picture. We then headed to Kalispell to get some camera supplies and returned home around 7 PM.
That'a bout it. Bear problems might be picking up...but hunting season starts soon, which means the bears will start feeding on gut piles and then they'll head up to hibernate...so that'll be good!!!!
October 15 - Saturday
We didn't do much in the morning, kinda hung in the camper and stuff...but that afternoon we went up to the derailment from August to put up some remote cameras down in a ditch that has seen some grizzly bear activity. There is a huge electric fence system set up around the main parts of where the corn was spilled, but a ditch runs under one of the fences and when rain and snow came through, it leached out some corn...so that brought bears in. D and Tim wanted to see what they were dealing with, so we put up three remote cameras on the site.
We came home and Tim and Carol wanted to go out to dinner with us...so we went to the Back Room...an amazing BBQ/Ribs joint that we go to only on occasion because you put on 10 pounds just by smelling the food when you walk in the door.
Came home from that and we watched Bridget Jones...the second one...I forget the rest of the title. D and I long ago agreed that for every action movie he makes me watch, he has to watch a chick-flick...but he claims that now I owe him 5 action-Jackson movies...and he's supported by Tim...friggen men...
October 16 - Sunday
A nothing day...we took the camper in to town to dump tanks, refresh water, refresh propane tanks, get groceries and call loved-ones while we had cell phone coverage...NOT happy with Cingular up here in Montana...NOOOOOOOO coverage!!!!
Watched O Brother in bed and fell asleep...
October 17 - Monday
Woke up and tried to figure out what to do. I called the research biologist for this grizzly trapping project so we could meet for lunch, which we'll do tomorrow. We then talked with Tim and found out there's a female grizzly with cubs that was seen at a residence two nights ago, but then last night the guy that saw them left his garage door open and something got its garbage. DOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, Tim wanted us to take a trap down there and also lend the guy an UnBearAble Bin, which D wanted to try his camera setup on again.
But first, the three of us went back up to the derailment to check on the cameras we put up there. No bears caught on tape. We reset all of the cameras and headed back down.
We then loaded up a trap on the back of Tim's truck, grabbed the Fancy-dancer and an UnBearAble Bin and headed down to Bigfork to this guy's property right at the bottom of the mountains...great grizzly bear country. The folks were really nice and were beating themselves up over leaving their garage door open...the bears not only got garbage, but a bag of dog food and dog biscuits. UGH!!!!!!!! I listened for the signal of a grizzly called #22 who two years ago was a habituated bear...and, sure enough, she was in the area...so it was her. Shoot...and two cubs that she's taught this to...damn.
What was funny was when the husband showed us where the bears got the dog food, we walked past his nice Dodge pickup truck and there were bear paw marks all over the side of it...I said, "Oh, yeah, definitely a grizzly bear...look at these tracks they left." Well, the guy hadn't even noticed them! He laughed and took pictures.
We set the trap and D set up his camera and the bin and while we were there the wife called the neighbors and found out that the bears had been to one neighbor's house last night as well and obliterated her apple trees (why...WHY do people insist on having fruit trees in bear habitat???? MUST they?????)...and they woke up and saw the two cubs up on their porch looking in their sliding glass door! They made noise and the bears ran off, but the female returned and came up on the porch and was looking in the glass doors, too. BAD sign...when bears are not afraid to approach buildings with people inside of them and are looking inside to see if there's any yummies in there...well...that's pretty much putting the feds on alert that this bear is a candidate for the death sentence...and her cubs will have no hope, either, because they're starting out life this way...being taught that it's acceptable to do that...
SOOOOOOO...we got done there, and we posed for a picture with the trap because the couple has a son in Iraq and they thought the boys over there would get a kick out of the picture. We then headed to Kalispell to get some camera supplies and returned home around 7 PM.
That'a bout it. Bear problems might be picking up...but hunting season starts soon, which means the bears will start feeding on gut piles and then they'll head up to hibernate...so that'll be good!!!!