Posted: 5/14/2025 10:58:02 AM EDT
| It rained yesterday so,wanting to get out of the house, I went out to the shack to smoke my pipe and have a beer. I started looking at some topo maps and that got me thinking about the mountain out back. Now once in a while I drive up and take my daypack and a couple canteens and pack my old ass up to the peak. A few summers agoat about the ten thousand five hundred foot level I found a pile of bear shit. This is a fairly mild climate though in the summer it does get hot. There is a drizzle of water down at the 8 to 9 thousand foot level and I wondered what the hell would cause a bear to go up that high? This isn't really ideal bear habitat and they must have to work at it to make a living and yet this fella expended all that energy for what? |
WILL ROGERS NEVER MET JOE BIDEN
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I've seen a black bear at about 10,500' near Georgetown, CO. Early spring. But, hard to imagine them going much above treeline. Not much point in that, I'd think. |
Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand, Paul Bhranfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933, Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics...
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park has sightings at all heights, and estimates about 1900 black bears live inside the park (with several hundred more outside in the surrounding counties). I’ve personally seen signs of bear presence (scat or scraped trees) at Mount Leconte (6500 ft), Andrew’s Bald (5900 feet) and the Chimney Tops (4800 feet). I have great photos of a mama bear and her babies from the Cades Cove Loop. This guy met his maker just outside the national park boundary… Attached File |
Wild Man of East TN
| The thing I can't reconcile is that a bear would know that the daytime temperature would decrease as the elevation increases.I can see no reason for going up there. The limber pine peters out and there is nothing but ankle high brush and rocks. |
WILL ROGERS NEVER MET JOE BIDEN
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Originally Posted By Tar_Heel: I've seen a black bear and lots of bear sign in a forested area around 10,000 feet in northern New Mexico. Same. Highest I saw was over 11k. OP: Mind sharing where you are in NV, either here or via PM? Just curious. I've been itching to get back there soon. Love the rural parts of the state. |
"What is socialism? The most difficult and tortuous way to progress from capitalism to capitalism." -Stated at an intel conference, East Berlin, Oct. 1988
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
MRDS all the pistols
Joined:
Jan 2023
Posts:
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EE: 100% (22)
CO, USA
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Originally Posted By xtrastout: Pm sent. 
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"What is socialism? The most difficult and tortuous way to progress from capitalism to capitalism." -Stated at an intel conference, East Berlin, Oct. 1988
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
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I've seen signs that they've crossed over Texas Pass as late as end of August. The pass is just a few feet shy of 11,500, and maybe just above 11,500 with snow. It's the v-notch at the 2/3 mark in this photo (left to right). I haven't seen any bears or signs of bears in the "dead end" cirques higher up at the left of the photo, though. Texas Pass is a popular shortcut across the range, probably sits on the Divide, obviating the need to drop way down into the valley probably saving a half-day of hiking. Makes sense that bears would use it. Pretty common to run into moose in that big, dark brown patch of bushes when descending the towers at the end of the day and making my way back to camp near this boulder. I haven't seen one up there in October, though. But, on the trip when this photo was taken, I guess an elk came up to our tent site (then located in the boulders seen in the big shadow. Might have been a mule deer, though. I wasn't the one who saw it, and I couldn't see it owing to darkness, eyeglasses who-knows-where, etc. 
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| I routinely see bears at 10K-12K feet here in Colorado. Saw one flipping rocks looking for miller moths at 12,500+ when sheep hunting years ago. Once I started looking around I noticed 100s of overturned rocks in the same general area. Seems like the moths must be tasty. |
