Now I know why you guys take me with you...

Yes, if we aren’t laughing at your jokes, we are discussing your acrobatic displays. Either way all the woodland creatures including the bears know there are humans in the woods.

Does anyone know when the bears go to "sleep" for the winter?

A few days after bear season.

Now sure when the bears normally go to sleep, but I have read it will be later than normal because the drought is making it hard for them to fatten up.

Also they will be wandering out of the mountains looking for food. Speaking of which, a 200+ pound bear was trapped less than 3 miles from the house this past week. They released him close to where we the Lacy Camp out is.

Newspaper article

Four-legged raider nabbed in Toccoa

The Toccoa Bear was captured in a neighborhood, that rang a bell so I earthgoggeled it up and sure enough it is in the only area in Stephens County where I have done some professional GPS, work. I also looked at the route that bear would have taken to get to where he was captured. He must have come down the shores of Lake Hartwell and Tugalo River.

BTW everyone, HI! I have been out of GCing lately. Different interests for a while. I will be back!
Nasty

quote:

Originally posted by nasty george:

I will be back!
Nasty

GOOD!!! We've missed seeing you.

At least it wasn't a deer.

Cherokee County man attacked, killed by deer

When I saw LZ33's original story at the start of this thread, I didn't know what to make of it. I have been all over the Rich Mt area in the past couple of years and never notice much evidence of bears in the area. Yesterday, Johnnie and I got together to go look for LZ's new "Cold Cache Payback with Rich" cache (GC15QC0). When we started the hike up to the first stage, we both started noticing signs of bears with several spots with bear scents as strong as I've smelled in my limited experence and other very fresh signs on the mountain. We never spotted a bear but there was no doubt that they were nearby. I kept talking VERY loud the whole time we were in the area.

When we reached the location of the final, we had one more surprise: The ammo can was tethered to a tree and it was a good thing - a bear got the actual FTF. The cache was out in the open with the steel tether extended from the tree.

With all that said, I think that this cache hunt is one of the best around and I had a blast. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes to get out for a walk in the woods. And there are some historic relics on that mountain that makes the hike up well worth the effort. Just make lots of noise during the hike and take a friend with you.

The Rich MTN area is different this year with the issue about the bears and I'm not sure if it's the weather or the lack of hunters or both. Please be bear smart when caching this time of the year.

bear

New to the cache society, your Bear story left me more than a little curious.

Why do you suppose "the goverment" went to the trouble of burying parts of the plane? Suppose they buried something other than parts? And would "the goverment" ever believe you were only there to hide a cache? Hmmmm. Indianna Jones, meet LZ33! Now, I don't suppose you would be in for a re-enactment?

I think that the bears were just doing strecth exercises in preparation for this video and LZ just mistook the whole event...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23942697/?GT1=43001

Thanks for sharing the bear footage. My whole family was entertained by it and we all got a good chuckle.