Do Bears Poop in the Woods???

Do Bears Poop in the Woods???

Now that’s a question that’s been asked very often and we have the answer…yes, they do!  We found their outhouse while out on a walk through the forest!  If there is any doubt though, we could ask this guy whose picture was taken just across the dam from our campsite….he’s a beauty!  First grizzly we’ve seen up near Spray Lake, though I’m sure there are many, many more out there.

 

(I’m not sure why I don’t look happier about catching these fish!!!)

So we tried fishing again and this time with some great success.  We fished the same location as last time and were there for about an hour and a half before I caught the first fish.  It was about 15” long and was a nice lake trout…almost immediately after that, Tom got one.  His was a HUGE lake trout measuring 22”…what a beautiful fish! And they taste so good fresh out of that cold mountain water.  We barbequed the big one and Tom tried smoking the little one…mmmmmmm…..

 

Tom was busy this week moving picnic tables …we’ve got new ones throughout the campsite and it sure does look nice.  We clean up the sites after people have left and so far our campers have been really considerate and left nice clean campsites.  They tend to leave firewood behind if they don’t burn it all but that’s fine with us cuz we then stockpile it and  burn it on our own campfire!  We had a really busy weekend then it’s been pretty quiet through the week so far.  I imagine things will pick up tonight and we’ll have a busy father’s day weekend!

The lake level is still coming  up and for now there’s plenty of beach to enjoy.

Our weather has been pretty good here, though it’s not the least bit hot…we tend to run in the 15-16 degrees through the day…sometimes a bit more.  We did have a couple rainy days though and Oso did NOT like to wear his raincoat!  The only reason I put it on him is so that we don’t end up with a wet-dog smell in the fifth wheel.  Yesterday was a nice sunny day and he actually decided to go swimming in the lake…what a goof…we had to dry him off really well before he was allowed in!

Coming back from Boulton Creek the other day we saw this scrawny looking moose by the side of the road…poor thing was pretty skinny but I think maybe she was also a young cow…I imagine a week or so of feeding on the nice green grass though will fatten her up nicely. 

 

We are looking forward to this weekend and the Tour Divide which is a bicycle race that starts in Banff, AB and goes to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.  The race is supposed to take about 21 days and runs 2745 miles (which is insane!) and will run right through our campsite the first day.  The bikers come up a trail from Banff to the campsite then head south for a long, long way!  More power to them!  Pictures next week!

We finally took our recycling in to Canmore this morning and got a grand total of $174.25 for it…pretty good for a few weeks of picking up cans and bottles.  I still can’t believe how much people throw away when they could easily recycle it…kind of a shame, especially in such a beautiful pristine setting as the Spray Lake Valley.  Oh well, their loss is our gain.

We found some strange looking mushrooms out in the forest…I’m not sure what they are but they seem to grow quite nicely in certain places.  Anyone out there have any ideas???  They look kind of like bear poop…perhaps there’s more evidence that bears do poop in the woods!!!