A Bear Wuz Here!

Today was a great day to head to the upper Squamish River and try for trout, steel head and bull trout before the next snowstorm of what is turning out to be a long winter!  We crossed our favorite stream and I was amazed to see one last coho, bravely holding in a spawning channel.  We had some time on the river with at least five other fisherman and between us one steelhead and 4 bull trout were landed.  I managed to hook something bright and silver and got it to the surface but alas it spit the hook.  After a few hours of testing various runs we decided to call it a day.  A few eagles were kind enough to see us off.  The walk to and from the river crossed numerous moose, deer and a pair of wolf tracks.  The wolves had come across the river to our side and were crisscrossing the moose and deer tracks.  

We took a slight detour from our usual route and were amazed at what we saw.  With all the moose tracks we initially thought the rubs on the trees were from a moose but a closer inspection showed all the trees had claw marks, not antler marks.  The number of trees marked was truly astounding.  Gabe was convinced it was the work of a very territorial black bear.  The height of some of the marks meant that it was definitely a big one!