Bears Like Beer, Too

I found this beer can while hiking the Gulf Hagas loop. Now that the old leaves are shrinking back, more items are surfacing.

Check out the ragged teeth marks. A good friend, a Mainer, told me baiting bears, right before and leading up to hunting season is legal. There are so many bears here, its a population control thing.

Upon reflection, makes sense. Bears will associate human food with death. Mother bears will warn their youngins, "Do Not eat that, you're goin' die!"

Here in camp, the laptop lunch break. Powering up on battery, its a touchy situation. There's only a couple hours to type the journal. So, once the page is loaded, its all systems go, no wandering around, thinking up things to say. Of course, there is no wifi or cell service, but the laptop keeps me sane as the darkness and cold progress.

Crossing the river becomes an entertaining event. Check out my youtube channel or 

Brawnyview to see the footage of this dude making light.

Tuesday, a woman fell in the early stages, and lay, turtle fashion, her pack in the water, until her husband lifted her up.

I left them figure it out. My job is education. No search and rescue needed here. The man had it.

Scanning for Safety-a Bear Story

I have this method of scanning when I'm hiking or backpacking. It really doesn't matter whether its on a long hike, bushwhacking or even in town.

I first learned it in driver's ed. They teach you to scan continuously: left, right, rear view mirror, up, down, complete range of periphial vision. Movement is what catches your eye even more than color. Both help remarkably.

Hearing helps, one reason I only listen to music with one ear, and only on the tried and true four mile mountain trail used for morning exercise.

One day on the Pacific Crest Trail I was hiking alone when suddenly, 15 yards ahead, a creature began emerging from a big tree stump. A furry brown head, with a black mask of color around the eyes. He looked really sleepy, and my initial reaction was to stop in my tracks. That's one huge raccoon, I thought. But, the animal kept coming, and I realized it was a bear! I stood there, watching, not certain what would happen next.

Seemed the bear was trying to ignore me, and once free of his crib, jumped onto the trail and bounded away.

I paused. What to do next, my trail led in the direction he ran. I gave him 5 minutes head start, and continued hiking, singing softly.

That night some trail friends showed up and we all camped together. Alexa said she'd seen a bear "scared to Jesus".

Coulda been my bear.

I try not to make a lot of noise while hiking so that I see more wild life. If I know a bear, especially a mother and cub, are up ahead, I will sing, or purposely hit rocks with my hiking poles.

Rangers have told me most bad encounters come from surprising a bear.

If you want to make noise without talking and exerting too much energy, simply tie a metal lid from the cook set to the handle of your hiking pole.

If you've ever heard the bear bells they sell at National Park Stores, they sound like birds on the trail. You can't even hear them near water, a prime location for feeding wildlife.

When hiking a winding trail with bear, the automatic noise making of metal on metal will alert bear and prevent unwanted encounters.

Updates On Acorns R Us

The Spiced Acorns dried in the oven are quite hard. I think they'd be less likely to break a tooth if rehydrated. Very tasty, though, so I will continue processing acorns for use in soups, stir-fry and rehydrating.

As suggested by a reader, I gathered some acorns and removed the outer shell. I then placed the meat into a mesh bag, secured the top, and have this whole thing soaking in a local creek. In a few days I'll check out how well this low impact leaching process worked.

I'm committed to the Acorn. Its abundant, healthy and versatile.

Its been raining for two days straight. Gathering some soaked acorns from the ground, I used a hammer to break them open so I could extract the meat. I also tried this on dry acorns. Bottom line, its easier to extract the meat from boiled acorns than either wet or dry raw acorns.

I guess its a matter of preference how one chooses to go about the processing. Using a 10# can over a campfire may end up being the easiest and least expensive method. My goal will be to gather as many dry acorns as possible as soon as the sun comes out to dry things off.

Then, over the course of the winter, process them as needed.

Muscadine are in season. I found these wild edibles growing along a neighbor's driveway. This wild grape like fruit is deep purple, having tiny seeds inside. They make excellent wine, jams and tart appetizers.

That is, if you can get them before the neighborhood bears do. This year seems to have produced a bumper crop of black bears as well.

The mountain garden is doing pretty good for the first year. When ever possible, I chose the heritage variety of seeds so that if a crop produces a mature seed, they can be naturally air dried and saved for next years crop.

Self reliance as a survivalist in the modern day includes the ability to harvest and gather food where ever possible. No better time to practice than in the fall when nature bestows an abundance.