Shed Antler: Scouting Report - Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest

As promised, here goes nothing . . . .

Headed up to the Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest the other day to scout for bear.

This was my third trip to the area. My first trip, which I partly document here, was less than productive, though we did find some bear sign . For this trip, I relocated about three miles northeast to Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest trailhead at the end of Beaverkill Road (google maps shows it turning into Turnwood Road). I had found a couple small lakes on the map about two miles from the trailhead just off the Finger Lakes Trail. These turned out to be Vly Pond and Tunis Pond. I'm just a rookie when it comes to bear hunting, but my understanding is that bears love water and the often rich food sources its fringes hold. In this case, the open area in the forest canopy has to be good for forage. At the very least, I figured it was worth a shot. That's really all a person can do: identify areas from a map that look intriguing and then groundtruth those suspicions by putting boot to trail.

As I mentioned before, two miles probably eliminates just about 95% of hunters. So if Tunis held bear, I figured it was the perfect scenario: some type of habitat attraction or wildlife corridor that is just outside most hunters' range but well within my own. That it is easily accessed via hiking trails is a bonus. I didn't time my hike but I would guess it took me less than an hour to hike from Tunis to the trailhead (i was scouting on the way in). It's not the most physically exerting trail, but it does have its elevation gains that do get the heart rate moving at a decent clip (this is doesn't require much; I'm not in great shape these days). The forest is typical for the area: maples, birches, and hemlocks with a few beech trees in the mix as well.

Just before Vly Pond the trail crosses a dirt road. This was a surprise to me and my first reaction was utter despair. There were recent tire tracks on the road, and I figured someone had grandfathered rights to the road. Worst case scenario being that that someone is a hunting club. I still don't know, but my fingers are crossed. About a 1/2 mile after Vly Pond the trail intersects another road that the trail terminates into. The signs at the intersection give distances to the nearest locations, but do not provide directional arrows. I was unsure if I needed to turn left or right to stay on the trail. I had read that ownership rights along the Beaverkill River can be a bit confounding, and I didn't want to trespass on private property and have to deal with that headache. Luckily, I had preprogrammed coordinates into my GPS for Tunis Pond before heading out. A quick check of the GPS revealed that left led to Tunis. Still, the trail is essentially an old road, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was on private property and should have instead made a right.

Tunis is another .25 mile or so after the turn (left). It's a beauty of a lake, and I found a fair amount of bear sign in the area, including a very fresh track. Most of the sign was on the backside of the lake along a well established trail, though I believe the trail is more the domain of deer than bear. The boggy area surrounding the lake holds some kind of small blackberries (blush, I don't know the name and I didn't take a picture). The hillside surrounding the lake is choked full of hazelnuts, with a few beech trees in the mix. In other words, it's got food aplenty. I got that tingly feeling I often get when I have found a prime location. At one point in my life, I would suppress that feeling and write it off as wishy-washy humdrum. Then I would unexpectedly spook an animal from the area and kick myself for not paying more attention to my gut feeling. I no longer ignore that gut feeling, and so, I will be hunting around Tunis Pond this Saturday for the opening day of bear season. I don't expect to get anything or, for that matter, even see anything. However, as the adage goes: you don't get anything sitting on the couch.

Being a rookie and all, I don't put much confidence into my bear sign interpretation skills. Below are some pics of sign I found. They are organized by how confident I feel in them being bear sign.

Sign I feel sure about:

Yep. Bear track.

Ditto

At least a couple months old. Interestingly, I think those are acorn shells. Yet I didn't see any oak trees in the area. If those are acorns, then I'm guessing the scat is from the fall. It was solid.

Ditto

Less sure about:

Doesn't get any fresher, but is it bear scat? The picture is deceiving. The scat is actually much larger, it just sank into the bog upon impact.

Fresh, small, and globbish. Deer or Bear?

Fresh and biggish, but not huge. Still, I think it's bear scat. I've never seen deer scat like that. Why am I doubting myself?

Path of travel. Do you see swerving type gant of the animal. It's not as noticeable in the picture, but it doesn't have straight and linear pattern of a deer.

Gots Me?