PapaWhiskey wrote:No bears where you and Robert are from? Around here in western mass if we put out bird feed the bears and squirrels take it. The squirrels can be outsmarted but the bears just smash the feeders. One of our neighbors had a bird's nest on one of the beams of their back deck two stories up. A bear skipped the stairs and climbed the outside beams to get the bird eggs.
I've only seen 3 bears in all of my travels--and I used to hike a lot.
Saw one in the George Washington National Forest, at the base of Shenandoah Mountain, near the Virginia / West Virginia border.
Second one I saw on Backbone Mountain, in far western Maryland.
Also saw one at Big South Fork National River, near Oneida, Tennessee.
I've lived here for two years and haven't seen one yet, even in the woods. I live in a remote area, relatively close to the Monongahela National Forest. They're here though. A lot of guys hunt for them, successfully.