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Good thoughts. I already used my plus for the night. I want to record and document it though. After coming from the Ohio Bigfoot conference recently, I just want to be one of the ones that contributes to the science, standing on big shoulders. How about Bob Gimlin on my porch! Great great people I have around me and I am so grateful. They saved my tail, and I want to thank those giant people that have come before. My mission is to help the science and to support the community that has given me so much. Then a week ago, they all show up on our porch. What a great way to kick off the weekend! I owe it to you all to help contribute how I can.

Hiflier, I enjoy eating the huckleberries in the fall where we hunt. Which is above 3000' elevation. What I have seen about them is the season varies year to year depending on snowmelt and rainfall. What I have seen here in the western PNW is the blue huckleberry grows in the higher elevations. The red ones in the lower and the evergreens closer to the coast. They all seem to grow taller in shady areas than in direct sunlight. They are also one of the few bushes that grow under mature trees; along with salmon berries which are thorny. I don't remember from the podcast what the general age of the forest cover was. But if it was larger trees then the huckleberry may have been the best available plant for nest building. I know the RMSO have found a possible bed of fir boughs. I have seen in lower elevations where sword fern were broken off or uprooted and stacked. However none of this was in the large numbers of nests like the Olympic Project have found. My point is that it may be as simple as what is available in any given area. If the fir boughs are 20 feet or more off the ground then it would definitely be easier to use something more available at ground level. Say a matter of convenience. As to nest building behavior. Bears don't exhibit it. Large birds such as eagles, osprey or ravens and crows pick up what is loose to build nests with. They don't rip bushes up to obtain building materials.

Boy Scouts didn't make them though, Gorilla's did and I've got a feeling that big, tall, smelly, hairy monkey men and women do too.

This ain't no den, it's a nest. It's also made by a mountain gorilla.

Thanks Hammer for recounting your experiences in detail, very interesting!