Cool Surprise!

Took the kids to the land for a weekend of fun, and found more than we bargained for LOL

Yesterday after duck hunting we went to move a trail camera to a tucked away hardwood peninsula in a black spruce swamp we named Hidden Point.

We’ve left the area in the far back alone all summer, including the end of the trail on mainland that leads to the swamp.

Upon parking the wheeler, I immediately saw the ground all scratched up like a giant deer scrape. I thought to myself, “that’s weird….no licking branches??”

Upon further inspection, I noticed a hole in the ground under a blow down and stump, just a few feet away from where I was standing….I cautiously looked in and saw a BIG BEAR!!!

He was slowly lifting his head up and down, we had waken him from his fall slumber on a 75 degree day. I whisper-yelled to the boys to stay on the wheeler because “there’s a bear in there!”

I got back on the machine and we backed up the trail 100′. Of course neither of them believed me…..just Dad telling stories….so they talked me into pulling back up and stay a little farther away to prove it lol

We did so and I snapped on quick picture of the den. We could barely make out his brown muzzle and big head with our bare eyes, but it didn’t come through in the pic.

When it gets colder out we’re going back to get some better ones, but with such a warm day I was scared he might come out and might not come back.

It was a super cool experience, something in all my years of being in the woods that I’ve never found myself before.

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wow very cool! i bet that was a suprise

That’s awesome!!👍👍 I’ve came across 3 of them in my encounters in the woods.

Many moons ago, back when you could still shoot a bear with the same deer license, my dad shot a bear coming out of a den. Dad was pretty jumpy and according to his story it scared the bejesus out of him when the bear grunted. Think he changed underwear that night.

So let me guess, that den was in a hill on the south facing slope??

That is very cool. Thanks for sharing.

You’ll all remember that for the rest of your lives!! Cool experience.

Cmon B-man wrestle him for the boy’s.Cool find though.

Boys want to add him/her to their trapping resume?

That is just awesome.

Very cool and a great experience for you n the boys. Time for a fact, black bears do NOT truly hibernate. They can go from big snoring pile of fur to full on charge, not always, but does happen. When you go back, just be aware and cautious with the boys. Enjoy it, it is a very neat experience.

That’s cool – every time I see your boys I chuckle – they have a full rich life

I had exactly that happen a couple years ago while grouse hunting, except my dog was smelling around the entrance to the den. I shined a flashlight in there and saw that big bear’s face 10 yards away and called the dog back and slowly backed away!

And Glenn- yep, that den entrance was facing south on a hillside. Didn’t know that was a thing, cool!

Cool story!

I’ve come across one in my lifetime also. This was back in the early 2000s in Buffalo County WI where bear sightings were almost unbelievable. We actually ended up reporting it to the local CO who came out and confirmed we had a bear in a den and advised us to stay well clear of the area. Ironically that Spring we would hike that area often and even had a camera nearby which never caught any sign of the bear again.

LabDaddy1 wrote:

I had exactly that happen a couple years ago while grouse hunting, except my dog was smelling around the entrance to the den. I shined a flashlight in there and saw that big bear’s face 10 yards away and called the dog back and slowly backed away!

And Glenn- yep, that den entrance was facing south on a hillside. Didn’t know that was a thing, cool!

its supposed to be a bears natural instinct. the predominant north wind will drift snow over the den and hole to keep heat in and then in spring the angle and heat of the sun melts the snow away first!!!!!!!!1

My youngest and I were deer hunting for the early youth/anterless this past weekend and got face to face with momma bear and her two cubs. My son was standing behind me and he was terrified, but I told him to just stay still and as long as she doesnt think we are threatening her or her cubs they will just move along. About 30 seconds or so and she started backing up then turned around. We waited a minute from when we last saw them before going that direction and never saw them again. Surprised how quick they disappeared. She was absolutely huge too. Cool experience.

I walked by the bear den again today, once in the dark to go bowhunting and again to put the top on my tripod in the swamp.

He’s still in there

I glanced my headlamp in there this morning and kept on trucking by, then during the day I took a pic. I had to adjust the brightness and contrast for him to show up.

What I found interesting, is outside the den is a few piles of vomit. Some looked like partially digested food (mostly seeds), and another was a mix of digested food and quite a bit of black bear hair.

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Awesome!!👍👍👍

The vomit may well have been from the first time he saw you

LabDaddy1 wrote:

The vomit may well have been from the first time he saw you

LabDaddy1 wrote:

The vomit may well have been from the first time he saw you

Hey! I resemble that remark

Cool learning experience. Can you set up a bear cam?

Gregg Gunter wrote:

Cool learning experience. Can you set up a bear cam?

That would be way cool. Are you offering to be the one to crawl in there to set it up ???

Just before going into serious hibernation bear eat a lot of roughage that is hard to digest. This blocks up the colon so they don’t, can’t, defecate during the winter. Doing so loses valuable body heat. Anything eaten after the blockage occurs gets vomited out before settling in. In the spring they gorge themselves on green grasses and, much like cattle put out in a green pasture in the spring, they get the major squirts, which helps in eliminating the blockage. They live on the body fat they’ve made during the late summer/early fall.

Bears can actually gain weight during the winter if they are metabolizing the fat at a good rate.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

Bears can actually gain weight during the winter if they are metabolizing the fat at a good rate.

I’ll have to throw the challenge flag on this. If this is true there are many physicists that would like to find out how. They can’t gain weight, create matter, if they are not consuming anything.

Maybe you were referring to “lean-body mass”.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=can+bears+gain+weight+during+hibernation&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Giving an update, the boys and I snowshoed way back into the bear den this afternoon. There’s TONS of snow in the woods.

The snow was set up really nice to walk in with shoes. A few inches of powder on top, with a crust over 2+ feet below.

The den was really hard to see from the trail, with a small opening down in the snow. We couldn’t see the bear at all…and there was zero tracks outside of the den.

I had to lay down on my belly and reach blindly into the den to snap a few pictures, praying I wouldn’t drop it lol

Got a couple good ones, the last one his head was up looking at a hand holding a phone (I didn’t know it until looking at the pics shortly after)

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That’s actually pretty awesome

That was gutsy

B-man, if you were my blood brother I could hear our mom say, boy, aint you got no sense!!?? dont poke the bear!! LOL
Awesome your boys are being brought up the way they are, you need to change your name to Grizzly Adams.

That is so cool. Your boys HAVE to have the best stories on the playground.

very cool indeed! your boys definitely will have a childhood 90% of boys dream of. i didn’t get into the outdoors until my late 20’s because my parents had other interests. well done and love to see it. we need more kids in the woods and away from the internet.