The two of us were camping at Day Lake in Chequamegon National Forest this past summer. Driving to the dumpster from our campsite, we saw a small Black Bear running down the access road. Luckily, we were in the car at the time, but the entire rest of the weekend, which included hiking a couple of The Lil Otter’s WWF caches, was spent being paranoid of becoming a meal. Looking back, it was an amazing experience seeing a bear. I’m sure such sightings are common for people living in bear country, but for city slickers, it makes for a memorable experience.

Are Black Bears becoming more common in the state?

I have family that lives just south of Eau Claire in a mostly agricultural area but not too far from the encroaching sprawl. Just a couple years ago, their neighborhood was having a real problem with one bear that moved in and was destroying the bird feeders and generally wreaking havoc. Eventually, the DNR had to trap it and relocate it to the north woods.

I do carry a small pepper spray canister when I head out to the woods, but I may consider upgrading to the more heavy-duty stuff mentioned in the article. Interesting how the bears are obviously repelled by the spray, but attracted to the residue.

I’ve seen lots of bears in northern Wisconsin, most while riding my 4 wheeler on the ATV trails.

I’ve seen a few bears while hunting. Several have walked under me while I’ve been up in a tree stand. One time when hunting near Eagle River with a buddy, a bear walked up to my friends tree, stood up on it’s back legs and was tasting the air. It was trying to figure out what my friend was. It then walked away and came my direction. I pulled out my camera and took 2 pictures. The bear took off like a bat out of hell when it saw my camera flash. Unfortunately the photos didn’t turn out. I think the camera lens fogged up when I pulled it out of my warm pocket and exposed it to the cold air.

I think it’s an honor to see a bear in the woods. My encounters with them are far too infrequent. I would love to see more of them. Periodically we have one rip the bird feeder off the pole up at our cabin, but haven’t seen anything but it’s foot prints in the sand.

To tell you the truth, bears don’t frighten me at all. I’m more worried about wolves. As the wolf population increases, the number of dogs killed by wolves increases. Wolves are very territorial. They will kill any other canines entering their area. Many hunters are having their beloved companions killed by wolves. This has frequently happened to bear dogs, as well as bird dogs.

I’ve had several encounters with wolves over the past few years. About 3 years ago, my dog was running down a fire lane about 100 yard in front of me. A wolf ran across the trail between me and the dog. I quickly leashed the dog and left the area.

The DNR tells hunters to put a bell on their dogs to help scare away the wolves. This has quickly turned into a dinner bell, and is helping the wolves locate the dog. Many hunters are starting to carry a “wolf kit”. This consists of a camera, GPS and cell phone. You see, in order to get reimbursed for the death of your family member, you need to leave your dog laying in the woods with it’s guts hanging out, then call the DNR to the scene. Then need to “confirm” the wolves killed your dog. Hunters are using the camera, GPS and phone to record the scene so the DNR can locate it and investigate.

Sorry to stray from the bear topic a bit.

My folks (geocacher named Tuck-A-Way) have a cabin up north near Pembine/Wausaukee. They have a family of bears near them. Have pictures of them just outside the picture window of the trailer. They’ve also lost a couple bird feeders to the things.
We’ve done lots of caches up in that area so we’ve been in their stomping grounds.
Have never come across them while caching, though. Don’t think I’m real eager to, either.

My understanding is that black bears are growing in numbers in Wisconsin, and have even been seen in Door County as well as west of Madison, where one was hit by a car a few years back. Fortunately, there are no Grizzlies around the state. The only time I saw a black bear in the wild was at a town dump near Conover, just north of Eagle River when two young bears were frolicing around. Making noise usually will scare them off, but a bear was once known to have reacted to noise made by a teenage girl, hunting in a tree stand up in northeastern Wisconsin, and climbed up the stand and attacked her. In other words, they can be somewhat unpredictable at times.

We have seen bears pretty close up from our deer stands in the Pembine and Antigo areas. They are fun to watch, and a rare treat indeed! We’ve also seen logs of a bear siting near our cache in Oconto County.

Bears are becoming more numerous statewide, and are being seen in new areas besides the northwoods. A large one was hit by a car on Hwy 10 just west of Waupaca this fall, and another big one was taken by a hunter very close to Hartman Creek State Park outside of Waupaca this year.

My understanding is bears are not normally interested in interacting with humans, and will usually hurry off when noise is made. The presence of cubs in the spring, and food can change this. We are alert when out in the woods, and keep a scrupilously clean campsite when out in the wild. Food packs are hoisted up well out of reach. The pepper spray suggestion is good. It will become a part of the GeoJunk we pack!

Thanks for the good stories and good hints.

cYa Gram & Gramps

I have seen bear in the wild in Mountain, Antigo, and in the Twin Bridges area. Never during a Geocaching outing.

The one in Mountain was a cub in a tree that I happened to be standing next to and looked up! I thought it was strange that a large racoon was in a tree like that during the day before it occured to me that it was a bear cub!