Hi all,

Since there are so many hunters on this list with experience in the North Western part of the American continent, I thought I'd rather ask first, before finding everything out for myself the hard way:

The last two days we had a good dump of snow and a firm wind howling from the North. Drifts are up to two feet high in some places.

What does this do to the activities of black bear. Do they crawl back in for another week, until the white stuff melts? Or would you say that once the "dust" settles the hunting would be good because of the tracking conditions? Would it pay to go out to look for bear track, or would *I* be the only fool up and about?

In Europe snow would draw me to the field like a magmet, because it would finally give us a chance to pattern those stags. I got a nice 8-point red stag that way, finding his tracks and sitting up in white coveralls near the trail. But that were deer. Bear keep running around too in this weather?

Frans

The bear that are out should remain out. I've been bear hunting down south here and haven't seen much for sign yet but if we got some snow, and we will, I'd be out looking for tracks. Last June, it burried the fenceposts in front of my house with snow and I would suspect that the bear acted like any other animal around here and spent most of their time looking for food. When the snow starts to melt, start paying attention to the south facing slopes as the grass starts to peak through on them and the bears start looking to them for breakfast and supper.

As I said before, I haven't yet seen bear sign on our ranch yet, but that should change around the 10th of May. Bear are out however and I would keep looking especially with the early spring weather we got.

Chuck

The bears here about should mostly be out by now Frans. This spring snow is good because of the tracking opportunities it provides. As bears tend to amble a fair bit, they are trackable by a human. Unless something frightens them they won't hurry. - Dan

Frans,

Once the bear is out of the den and moving around, he stays that way. He might lay up in some cover during a storm but he'll be back at it.
Take advantage of that snow. Bears have been moving around here for more than a month now.

Joe

Frans, I believe you've gotten the right info from the guy's above.

Where in Europe are you originally from?

BA

In the high country some times in the spring bears will stay in the vincity of their dens early on. If they had a chance to move far you will have a great opertunity for tracking and judging size. Not to mention if it has cubs or not.

Today it's been snowing all morning but it's not going to stick so it won't be a factor.

Thanks for the advice, guys! Since my Friday "hunt" lasted but a short while, I feel I can justify it to myself to go out again tomorrow.

The snow is melting so rapidly here in Cochrane, AB, it's unbelievable. If this melt keeps up, it won't be easy to judge the age of any tracks. I hope Forestry Trunk Road is accessible by regular car.

Brad, I'm originally from The Netherlands, living about 45 km SE of Amsterdam, before we made a run for it.

Frans