How I spent February

And part of March. Bears, bears, bears. Five days a week for five weeks straight. Mostly rain and snow and a bit of sunshine. Easily over 100 miles hiked and thousands of vertical feet climbed.Too bad it isn't August, I'm in sheep shape now. We found 25 dens and captured about half of those.

That's a nice boar in that very large hemlock tree.

It will be just a weird dream and a bit of a hangover when she wakes.

How many folks get to crawl into a bear den, with the bear still there?

The constant rain and fog wears on you, and then the sun breaks through...

This old buck eluded every hunter but couldn't escape old man winter.

Who needs a tent when I know where all these hidey places are now?

These bears pick some sweet dens in some magnificent places.

Mama bear with three cubs.

Looking north toward Ratz Harbor.

Click and you'll see the ear tags, about 25' down this hollow log.

It's been a mild winter, but above 1K' it's full on winter.

Another classic sun breaking through moment.

Occasionally they wake and lumber out. This guy will wake and crawl back to bed.

Another mama and babies.

Looking across Clarence Straight.

This little guy was content and had a full belly of milk.

Almost ready for processing.

2K feet on top of the mountain. Where are you?

Well hello, there you are.

A rare sunny day. A pleasure to be out.

Sunlight on Cedar.

Rugged peaks of Manty Mountain.