Today is the first day of the Pennsylvania black bear season. I decided to head north to State Game Lands 137 between South Bethlehem and Distant, Pennsylvania. The bear have a lot of great habitat at this area. Multiflora rose and autumn olive make for dense areas. ( I have the thorns embedded in my flesh, as I type, to prove this!) A lone hunter has to rely on a lot of luck to bag a bruin here.
No thorns here!
I shot a bear in the past and hollered “bear down” and was blessed to have helpers show up over time. Four of us would carry the bear and two others carried the rifles. The terrain wasn’t all that steep, but mountain laurel was abundant making traveling difficult. Thankfully, with permission, another hunter drove through a field with more help to get the bear out and loaded. I made sure the landowner had a bear roast!
At the game lands I saw deer, grouse, squirrels, both gray and fox squirrels. I was entertained watching one fox squirrel winterize the nest. And , guess what… I heard a turkey! The bird looked over a bench and saw my beacon-orange clothing and headed off quickly!
Claw marks.
The only bear sign I saw were the claw marks on a bee tree.
By the way, the bear mentioned above weighed 235 pounds. The meat was very good. The bear fat fed my birds over a couple of winters and some went to Indian reenactors to grease down their hair. This makes a very shiny hair. Our Native Americans actually used bear fat for this purpose.
I heard the temperatures are supposed to get into te 60’s on Monday. Sounds like a half day bear hunt for me.
Larry A. Smail's Blog 
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