If you’ve been out skiing lately, make that…if you’ve been out skiing away from everyone else lately, I’m sure you’ve seen a ton of wildlife. Here in Jackson Hole, it seems like everything is on the move right now and on my last tour I saw about 15 moose, 10 deer, an ermin, 3 bald eagles and bear tracks on the skin track from the day before. The bear tracks looked pretty fresh, maybe even just a few hours old, but it was hard to tell if they were from a grizzly or black bear.
Don’t forget your bear spray!
The claws were pretty visible, which is normally a sign of a griz, but in the snow, the claws would show up rather well with both species. The good thing about seeing signs of bears this time of year instead of the spring is that, in the spring…bears are fresh up from a long nap and wicked hungry. Now…in the fall, they are probably gorged on game carcasses and ready to go into hibernation. Either way, its hard to be very mobile with skis and skins on your feet if you encounter a bear on the trail, so its really up to the bear if he/she wants to eat you or not. Luckily…p-tex, carbon fiber and gore-tex probably don’t taste that great, so at least we have that going for us.
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very cool to see that!!
those are black bear tracks….although claw marks are commonly shown on both types of bears, the distance from the toes to the claws as well as roundness of the front of the track (of which measuring relative outside toe distance from top of pad) are the defining clues. Based on those pics….I’d say blackie.
glad to see you’re getting out there……it’s raining in AK!!
thanks derek. snowing here jackson…with a high of -7F predicted for tomorrow. brrr.
I saw hours-old wolverine tracks on a tour this weekend in the Missions. Skinned next to them until they ended in a large talus field. Kinda spooky. What are you supposed to do if one of thoes bastards comes at you?
Pretty cool Steve.
Steve … We’ve been getting a super dump up here in Mammoth which for Mammoth is rare. A great way to start the winter season ……Bring it on ! Touring has been fantastic , but breaking trail has been a workout. Enjoy ! I am sure Cooke City is off the hook right now !
So now bears cant use the skin tracks either?
good to hear jim…it’s nuking here too!!!
crazy! we saw fresh wolf tracks on a skin track not too far from where you were.
@ smokey…you’re safe. wolverines won’t “come at you”….if you change your name to magneto however…..
@kp… .as long as the bears and wolves use the “slobro” skin track they’ll be OK.
im ok with bears in the skin tack as long as they dont tailgate!