We live in an area with a large population of both brown bears and black bears but this week truly has been Bear Country out here. Things started last Monday; one of our neighbors who was at his vacation cabin on the lake went for an early morning workout in his kayak. While paddling around the lake he heard something crashing through the woods. He didn’t have to wait long before a cow moose and her calf of the year came barreling out of the trees and hit the water. Before they swim half way across the lake here comes a newly emancipated brown bear hot on the trail. John sat in his kayak without a camera or camcorder and watched a once in a lifetime scene. The cow swimming across the lake, her calf in tow, while the brown bear less than a minute behind. As John watched the cow made it across and hit the woods, not even waiting for her calf that was just a few seconds behind her. The bear was gaining fast when the calf made it to the shore and high tailed it to its mom. The last John saw of anything the bear had got across and was headed to where the two moose had gone into trees. John waited around but didn’t hear if the bear got his breakfast or not. It was a young bear so the calf had chance even if it was a slim one.

About one o’clock Tuesday morning our lab, Bear cut loose barking, he barks at everything that moves so I didn’t think much about it. I needed to go out anyway so I did my thing as I headed to the back door something up the hill around our caches went crashing. I looked up just in time to see a medium sized brown bear dragging a box of bait I had been using for black bear at one of my bait stations into the weeds. I walked back to the house and got my rifle by the time I got to where I could get a clean shot the bear saw me and headed south. I manage to put a round in the weeds where he went in I was hoping that would keep him going. It didn’t our lab played tag with him for a couple of hours before things got quit so we could get back to sleep. That morning I went out to see what all he trashed I was lucky he had only dumped one plastic tote of bait. Between what I could see of the bear earlier that morning and some of his tracks I of his I found where he came through the garden I figured he was a fairly small bear, maybe 7 – 71/2 foot range. We’re hoping it was the same bear John watched from his kayak the morning before. I it was the calf probably survived if it isn’t that means we probably has two young dumb bears. I decided to spend the night up in one of our caches in case he came back, he did, but I had also left our dog out and Bear kept the bear back in the brush. Last night was the first night he hasn’t stopped by to aggravate the dog hopefully he has given up and is looking somewhere else for easier pickin’.