Last night when the boys got back from checking traps - they told us to grab the cameras before it got dark - there we grizzly tracks up the road! Just under 5km up the road there is a little trail off the main road that leads to an old hunting camp, the bear had walked from that way, followed Tim and Paul's truck tracks in the snow for several kilometres (away from us, thankfully!), then veered south towards Dog Creek, on his way to a winter den, we presume (and hope!)
For all the years we have been coming out here, all we have seen for animals are squirrels, chipmunks, a moose, a caribou and the occasional black bear. Since a bit of snow has fallen, we see evidence that we are surrounded by a lot more animals than just that. The kind that have teeth... There are fresh lynx tracks nearby and wolf tracks up the road, along with the grizzly tracks we got to see yesterday. They were quite big too, the same size as a man's rubber boot! His claws poked into the snow between 4 and 5 inches ahead of his track. This was no small bear.
Although it is nice to see evidence of all the wildlife around us - I almost felt a little safer pretending they weren't there at all. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss! The dogs barked for a long time last night, leaving me laying awake and wondering what they were barking at. We definitely live where the wild things are.
eeeek!!!
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