On The Trails Of Bears

When I worked on Kodiak Island I was able to do a little hiking in the evenings and on days off. One of the most interesting and scenic walks was a hike up the mountain behind camp and then out the 800-foot high ridgeline that separated our river's drainage from the next watershed to the north.

When traversing along the ridge, at each saddle or low point, an interesting phenomenon was encountered. Bears crossed from one drainage to another at these low spots in the ridge. They have habitually followed the same trails for millennia, to the point that they even step in the exact same spots as their predecessors. This creates six-inch deep oval shaped depressions in the earth where these bear trails cross the ridges.

It is an incredible sight to see-alternating oval shaped depressions along the bear trail marking where thousands of bears have stepped over the centuries. To think about all the bears that have crossed to provide enough traffic to create such a trail is mind boggling, and the fact that they all step in the foot steps of the preceding bear is fascinating.

Bears are interesting creatures. After spending many hours watching them, I have come to the conclusion that in many ways they are like humans. They have their bad days, they can be playful, and sometimes it seems that the sole purpose of their actions is purely mischief.

I have not been to Kodiak Island in three years. At the time I had thought that this bear trail phenomenon must be unique only to that area and similar areas with very high bear densities. However, since then I have seen three such areas in Pennsylvania, areas where bears have walked long enough in the exact same foot steps to create alternating depressions in the ground marking where they step as they walk along the bear trail.

The first area involved a bear trail in First Fork in Cameron County, several miles north of Sinnemahoning. The trail followed the first bench along the rim of the valley. Things necked down where it crossed the head of a small hollow, and right at that very spot there was an ancient red pine that was a bear marking tree.

The old pine and all of the claw and bite marks on it was a sight by itself, but for fifteen feet on either side of the pine, bears had worn alternating oval shaped depressions into the earth by traveling the exact same path over the years.

The second spot where I observed this occurrence was in the Tamarack Swamp in Clinton County. It was the exact same situation, a very well used bear marking tree with oval shaped depressions worn into the forest floor on both approaches to the tree.

After seeing both these trails I came to the conclusion that it must take a long, long time to wear such a trail into the ground.

My theory was shattered this summer. This summer in an abandoned strip mine in Portable Run I saw the beginnings of another bear trail of this type on a spoil pile that was only fifty years old. Bears were running the edge of the large pile and marking a twelve-inch diameter Norway spruce. Again, bears were beginning to wear oval shaped depressions into the earth on the approaches to the spruce by walking in the exact same footsteps as they came and left the marking tree.

The spruce tree itself couldn't have been more than thirty years old, and the abandoned mine spoil it grew upon was only about fifty years old, so the bears made these oval shaped depressions in fewer years than I had given them credit.

With increased bear densities it will likely be easier to find similar bear trails in the coming years. Apparently bears are animals of habit and when topography or a marking tree funnels their traffic through a small area, they will walk in the same footsteps each time wearing their tracks into the forest floor.

Keep your eyes open for this interesting phenomenon. If you are lucky enough to find such a trail, take a moment to ponder all of the bears that must have passed through to create such an interesting sight.



The early season elk hunt was held this past week and is scheduled to come to a close today. Ten tags were issued in total, eight cow tags and two either sex tags. Only the area surrounding St. Marys, Elk Management Unit 1, was open to hunting. The hunt was held by the Game Commission to try to ease crop damage that farmers near St. Marys were experiencing.

Preliminarily it looks like this hunt was a bust. As of Wednesday, the third day of the hunt, none of the hunters had taken an elk. There simply have not been many elk in this management unit, and the ones that were there seemed to have recently left.

The results of this hunt will not even be able to be evaluated before planning next year's September hunt. The decision has already been made to go ahead with next year's hunt with the drawing being held today, Saturday, at the Elk Expo.

Ideally, this should be an incredible opportunity. A chance to hunt elk in September would provide an opportunity to hunt during their mating season or rut. This would provide a unique experience for hunters to call in bull elk using bugles or cow calls.

Hopefully by the end of the week some elk travel back into this unit.