Just got back from a hike - interesting....
Well this past weekend it rained from Thursday to Monday... lots and lots of rain... it sucked!
Anyway, so we took a break to hike today - headed up into Taos Canyon on the way to the ski area. The train we went on was considered difficult, it was steep but nothing to crazy.
We took Kona, Ahi and Hilo and on the way into the trail we passed 2 people [and an off-lead dog]. They were chatting and were friendly...
We continued up the trail for about 45 minutes then turned around since I needed to get some work done today. On our way back down we ran into one of the gentlemen that we passed on the way up.
We stopped to chat. Come to find out he was the original creator of Backpacker Magazine! He has wrote a bunch of books and ironical [or maybe coincedently] he wrote the book we used to find the trail we met him on! lol! Crazy how small the world is sometimes.
I noticed he had a gun and some bear spray with him, so I asked about it. He told me something interesting [a "secret" he called it]. The Black Bear is starting to become predatory toward humans and is slowly becoming a very real threat. He said he had worked with some fellow researchers on documenting the incline of Black Bear attacks on humans and found since the '80s that the attacks had progressed aggressively and continue to do so. He said a lot of the local forest rangers have been monitoring the situation and have grown rather concerned - concerned to the point that they are actively hunting Black Bear that are found to be living close to "developed" [campsites, etc.] areas.
That's pretty crazy. Here I have been worried more about the Mountain Lions and hoping to see a Black Bear! Seems we should be hiking with our shotgun from now on!
\
We chatted briefly about dogs - our dogs, bear dogs, and LGDs - he agreed with me that a dog [or human] was no match for a bear but he was very interested in the bear dogs - he had never heard of them. I told him about my friend in Alaska that was breeding bear dog and breed her dog specifically for the dog's "bear sense". He wrote the info down and was going to research them - it seems I interested him.)
Pretty cool! He may be a REL or KBD owners soon.)
Well, as always, here are some pics from the hike...
On the way there...
We saw this on the side of the road, kinda interesting [and dangerous]:
On the trail...
Came across this gate on the way in [and out]. It says "Please close gate"... it was this creepy barbed-wire gate to keep the bear away from the road - always a good sign!
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Anyway, so we took a break to hike today - headed up into Taos Canyon on the way to the ski area. The train we went on was considered difficult, it was steep but nothing to crazy.
We took Kona, Ahi and Hilo and on the way into the trail we passed 2 people [and an off-lead dog]. They were chatting and were friendly...
We continued up the trail for about 45 minutes then turned around since I needed to get some work done today. On our way back down we ran into one of the gentlemen that we passed on the way up.
We stopped to chat. Come to find out he was the original creator of Backpacker Magazine! He has wrote a bunch of books and ironical [or maybe coincedently] he wrote the book we used to find the trail we met him on! lol! Crazy how small the world is sometimes.
I noticed he had a gun and some bear spray with him, so I asked about it. He told me something interesting [a "secret" he called it]. The Black Bear is starting to become predatory toward humans and is slowly becoming a very real threat. He said he had worked with some fellow researchers on documenting the incline of Black Bear attacks on humans and found since the '80s that the attacks had progressed aggressively and continue to do so. He said a lot of the local forest rangers have been monitoring the situation and have grown rather concerned - concerned to the point that they are actively hunting Black Bear that are found to be living close to "developed" [campsites, etc.] areas.
That's pretty crazy. Here I have been worried more about the Mountain Lions and hoping to see a Black Bear! Seems we should be hiking with our shotgun from now on!
\We chatted briefly about dogs - our dogs, bear dogs, and LGDs - he agreed with me that a dog [or human] was no match for a bear but he was very interested in the bear dogs - he had never heard of them. I told him about my friend in Alaska that was breeding bear dog and breed her dog specifically for the dog's "bear sense". He wrote the info down and was going to research them - it seems I interested him.
)Pretty cool! He may be a REL or KBD owners soon.
)Well, as always, here are some pics from the hike...
On the way there...
We saw this on the side of the road, kinda interesting [and dangerous]:
On the trail...
Came across this gate on the way in [and out]. It says "Please close gate"... it was this creepy barbed-wire gate to keep the bear away from the road - always a good sign!
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Comments
BTW, that's interesting about bear - looks like a great hike. Kona always looks excited on the way to the hike.
About the dog being a match for a bear, there are some stories among French shepherds that talk about how a Pyrenean Mountain dog, or "patou" can hold off a bear and two are enough to kill a bear. I'm not posting it here, because it might be considered "offensive" but there is at least on video on youtube of two Kangals getting pretty wild on a black bear.
Pretty interesting to run into the guy who created backpacker magazine. And scary about the black bears. So did you get your shotgun?
Love the shots of the pups in the car, especially Hilo! :-)
Brandon - I ordered my shotgun last week - it will take a while to get here due to how remote we are.
Dave - That is exactly what I told Jen, I love the people you meet while hiking.
Rui - I want to see that video.
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What kind of shotgun did you order Brad?
Rui I want to see the video too :P
I would like to quote Jason after seeing these pictures (please keep in mind he is a perpetual kidder)
"Those JERKS!!... How dare they live in such a beautiful place! ...Why aren't we visiting them? ...I want Hilo."
I love the Hilo mosnter.
Brad-All I can think of with the pic of Ahi sitting at the window is how much slobber and slime you always had all over the outside of your car.
What a small world! Another interesting thing....a colleague 10 years ago said the same exact thing about Black Bears. No, she wasn't a scientist or an expert trailsman. Just a woman who lived in the Poconos around Black Bears for decades. She noticed that as time went on the number of Black Bear attacks in her area was slowly increasing. When she said this, two people (unfortunately, one a child) were attacked in the last 2 weeks. And she quoted an average number (I can't remember the actual number, it was 10 years ago!) of attacks....PER MONTH. Actually, she said that many of those attacks were children because the news reports were focusing on Brown Bears as attackers, while Black Bears were more docile.
Jessica - Well then come and visit!
Rachael - We still have the drool marks - on both sides now.
Barbara - That's crazy - I guess its true then.
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There's Black Bear on the trails we go on, I think if I ever saw one friendly or not I'd be scared out of my wits. [ no gun here, just a knife :x ]~
and a story for Brad from a couple weeks ago
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/08/06/mountain.lion.ap/
moral of the story is either 'Keep your windows closed' or 'Labs are way too friendly'
Aww poor dog, I wonder what the dogs were thinking. It says there was another dog in the room too. Weird.
Dave: I would've totally freaked out!
I think renting out KBDs is an interesting idea. lol.
Barbara - It's crazy isn't it? My response to that story, when the gentleman told me sounded kinda skeptical and he noticed - he assured me it was true and he was skeptical when he heard it as well but the ranger that told him showed him assured him it was the truth. He also said that the bears would monitor areas where people lived and only enter houses that had the lights turned off. Pretty crazy!
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I had a friend who worked as a ranger for a while. He once had to help track down a mountain lion and her cubs because on several occasions the mother was spotted teaching the cubs to stalk hikers.