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They are loving the Sotol this time of year.....the tender white meat of the young shoots are not quite soft enough for my taste, but the hairyman doesn't seem to care. Here's an hours old chomp, wasn't there yesterday....it's still white too, as the white part turns brown very quickly. Found this on a frequently used BF trail......notice the 3 large flat teeth marks on the leaf, on the 1st & 2nd bite, the white part was not soft enough yet to preform a proper scrape with the teeth, but on the 3rd bite success....it was soft enough. Have any of you guys noticed this in the Southern States, it is more than interesting to me, gotta be DNA all over these things too.

Deduction is not everything. A big dose of luck and a lot of intuition can help.

I suspect most footprint finds are entirely accidental. During the dry months they were very hard to find even though the area was active. I have stated it before but my footprint findings and active area location was not entirely accidental. At the danger of boring the reader, let me detail the process of finding my research area so that others can use it with similar circumstances. I started my field research by reviewing BFRO and published book sighting reports. I found a small cluster in an area fairly close to where I live. I was able to visit the exact locations of each sighting report. Looking around and trying to figure out at the location what the BF was doing in the area. One sighting by a newspaper carrier near the Lewis River was easy to find the exact spot from the BFRO report. Logic said that the BF was coming to water. Possibly to fish at night because the river has a Steelhead run or just to drink. Across the road I noticed sign of a game trail coming straight down the hill to the road. Examination showed use but no hoof prints for deer or elk. It was quite steep and while a human could come down, there were easier spots fairly close a human could do. Since the game trail pointed that direction, and across the river was a named mountain with a history of vocalizations in the mid 1990s, I wondered if the BF was traveling that direction and crossing the river. I was able to get to the other side of the river opposite to where the game trail came down to the road. Sure enough, a faint game trail came up from the river up a steep embankment. The human trail in that location was steep and a series of switchbacks. I could not follow the game trail directly but could by using the human trail with switch backs. At the side margin of the human trail, I found a partial footprint in the gravely soil, that was 5.5 inchs wide at the toes, and plainly showed toes. Based on the width that makes the foot likely over 20 inches long. The footprint and a smeared print on the other side indicated the BF had stepped across the muddy human trail and continued straight up the mountain on a faint game path. I followed that up the mountain as far as i could. Ok recent footprint and old vocalizations sure pointed to that mountain. I climbed it several times, summer and winter but never found any more footprint evidence. Then to my dismay they began clear cutting the Northern flank of the mountain. That continued across the top and down the East side to the Southern flank. Anything there would be pushed South. The trail up and over the mountain was not fun because of the climb, so I located the end of the trail to the South with easier vehicle access and began to explore that area. Pretty much being chased by the logging I began to hike around an area by a year round creek. One July day, it was hot, the trail was getting overgrown and I was wearing shorts, so I turned around went South instead of North, then turned again to explore a side trail, heard distant whoops back and forth, that were coming my direction, one headed directly for me. Heavy footsteps, breaking underbrush, heading towards me, I had no place to hide near the trail and waited to get run over. It saw or smelled me and went into a crouch with a big thud. Seconds later 4 rapid wood knocks, then silence. Moving towards the sounds camera ready, I got my picture of the juvenile peeking over the ferns at me. Well at that point the encounter and the BF traveling into that area seemed significant. I targeted that area as my research area, found footprints periodically. and had several encounters with what seemed to be a family of them. That continued until clear cutting rolled though the area and displaced them. That was the entire evolution of how I found my research area and others likely could use the same process to find an active area.

Wyatt and I went in behind lake Ellen yesterday. Just got back. Found a suggestive track but no toes, and then we found a hunting blind, hay and salt back in there. Probably bow hunters in December. The blind was smashed..... too bad. Lots of Moose sign too. Also found a ancient face cut that they never came back to. Yesterday was pretty nice. Today we had a lot of rain and hail. The roof top tent did a good job keeping us dry and warm.

We only saw deer and squirrels, it's early and cold still. It's in the mountains, so Everytime it rains it get foggy. It was a foggy day, but in the summer when WVFooter and I got followed. Today was nice... Below is Seneca Rocks. We tried to hike to the top, but I couldn't do it, got 75% of the way there . I have a new goal now.