Adirondack 
Bears 
I T will be interesting to many lovers 
of the North Woods to know that 
bears are still fairly plentiful in 
certain sections of our Adirondacks. 
Bears, perhaps, are the shyest of all 
the forest’s inhabitants and are rarely 
seen, even by hunters. They are much 
wilder than deer, and their senses of 
hearing and smelling are so wonderful¬ 
ly acute that I am convinced they often 
are aware of a hunter’s presence when 
he least suspects a bear in the neigh¬ 
borhood. 
For many years I have hunted and 
trapped through certain sections of the 
Adirondacks. Winter, summer, spring 
and fall I have been in the big woods, 
but on all my travels I have never 
seen a bear. True, I had frequently 
come across fresh signs, not more than 
an hour or so old, but luck had always 
favored the bear, and I had never seen 
one. Last fall, while deer hunting, I 
came across a place where bear signs 
were very plentiful. For a mile I fol¬ 
lowed a hogback through a swamp, 
and about every hundred yards or so I 
would find a tree blazed with teeth and 
claw marks of bear, with long black 
hairs clinging to the pitch oozing from 
the tree. This evidently was an old 
bear runway, for 
there were many 
indications of its 
having been trav¬ 
eled for years by 
these animals. I 
followed the hog¬ 
back until it 
petered out on a 
mountain side 
high above a little 
wilderness pond 
on the edge of the 
burning. On one 
side of this pond 
were many ledges 
and huge boul¬ 
ders, upturned 
years before by 
some tremendous upheaval of the earth 
surface. Among these ledges and 
boulders I found more bear signs, and 
resolved to put out some bear traps 
early the following spring. Later, 
during the long winter, when going over 
my trap line, I would find myself look¬ 
ing for likely places for bear “sets” 
when the snow 
was gone. Dur¬ 
ing the winter, 
with much lug¬ 
ging and hard 
snowshoeing, I 
had managed to 
bring in to my 
first camp three 
No. 5 Newhouse 
bear traps. These 
traps weigh 
about twenty-five 
pounds each, and 
had to be packed 
five miles from 
the railroad to 
c a m p, and an¬ 
other three miles 
to the locality I had picked for my sets. 
The winter wore on, and as the sun 
grew warmer in early April, I took up 
my small traps, and my trips into the 
little cabin on Shingle Shanty 
Stream became less frequent. Later 
in April, when the snow had settled 
to about two feet, in the woods, I 
took two bear traps and snowshoed 
over to the little pond on the edge 
of the burning. The going was 
very poor, and with the two traps, 
gun and axe, I had all I could carry. 
There was a warmth to the sun and 
a balminess in the air that pre¬ 
dicted coming spring. Ice on the 
ponds and streams was turning 
black, and the snow looked dirty— 
and was very soggy. The only time 
to travel at this time of the year is 
early and late, while the frost is 
still in the snow, so that the crust 
will hold you. By noon the sun is 
so warm the snow melts and snow- 
(Continued on page 725) 
■■lllllllll 
The bear is one of the shyest of 
woodland creatures. His sense 
of smell and ever-present alert¬ 
ness make him a most elusive 
object of pursuit by the still 
hunter. Since this story was 
written bear trapping has been 
prohibited in New York State. 
Bruin now is given a place on the 
game list and is protected at all 
times of the year except from 
October 15th to November 15th. 
ill!!l!ll!llll!ll!ll!llllllll!^ 
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