Wow!!! I had a "beary" wild New Year!!!

[Firehorse]

Just click on the link for the big picture....

http://brain.hastypastry.net/~hosobuchi/Da****wildlife/The%20Goldilocks%20Incident.html (http://brain.hastypastry.net/%7Ehosobuchi/Da****wildlife/The%20Goldilocks%20Incident.html)

I'll do questions an comments after you've seen it...:p

Happy New Year!!!

[Toad]

no matter how often i see them it still gets a "start" out of me, especially when it is a ****** with ****. thankfully all hibernating here.

i was not sure if you had had a cold or a berry reference,:confused: for some reason the thought that should have been bearing down on me did not...;)

thank you for sharing pics, nice place you live.

todd

[Firehorse]

Actually, This is not my "living space", this is a very special place that is owned by family and we used it as "vacation & retreat" space....

As one can see, wildlife abounds.

I actually live in the huge metropolitan area around San Fransico.

No Bears there that I have heard of in my life there of over 39 years... Some mountain lions though. I just got a possible pic of some tracks. Huge, no visible claw marks until one paw was climbing uphill. Then suddenly they disappeared.

We just made a Christmas present to ourselves of a new high resolution digital camera with an excelent optical zoom lens so I may better continue my hobby of wildlife & landscape photography in the digital age.

In the few weeks I've been familiarizing myself with it, I've actually captured some magnificint shots...

I'll be posting them soon, and many more as I track down those wild ones....

Yes, I'm always careful. Those bears left no choice on my part. I was totally at the mercy of Momma bear's decision. What can you do to avoid that? Stop walking on our driveway at our cabin!!!

Heck no!!!

I may not jump of ice cornices when snow skiing, or ride motorcycles anymore....

But I'm still going to have fun.

[Toad]

Actually, This is not my "living space", this is a very special place that is owned by family and we used it as "vacation & retreat" space....

As one can see, wildlife abounds.

I actually live in the huge metropolitan area around San Fransico.

No Bears there that I have heard of in my life there of over 39 years... Some mountain lions though. I just got a possible pic of some tracks. Huge, no visible claw marks until one paw was climbing uphill. Then suddenly they disappeared.

We just made a Christmas present to ourselves of a new high resolution digital camera with an excelent optical zoom lens so I may better continue my hobby of wildlife & landscape photography in the digital age.

In the few weeks I've been familiarizing myself with it, I've actually captured some magnificint shots...

I'll be posting them soon, and many more as I track down those wild ones....

Yes, I'm always careful. Those bears left no choice on my part. I was totally at the mercy of Momma bear's decision. What can you do to avoid that? Stop walking on our driveway at our cabin!!!

Heck no!!!

I may not jump of ice cornices when snow skiing, or ride motorcycles anymore....

But I'm still going to have fun.

I have tried going back to city living a few times, not sure how long I would hold up. Living in the mountains a few miles off pavement, far enough away from anyone other than the wild life, now that is living.

At least you can get away to your family get away. Hope you get to do it often.

Spring, summer and fall we have a few families of bear, obviously they are nestled away right now. For the most part I do not scare them or even bother them even when we are in close proximity; strange. Bear, Deer, Elk, Fox, Coyote, mountain lion, lynx, bobcat, one wolf, and so many types of birds, have started a newer list. The ones that get a start out of me, bull elk; they get mean when you get close. Even mother bear with cubs takes a second, though I have been charged by an eleven point bull, and that is no bull, that is a freight train with many points. I side steeped behind large pine, he hit it hard enough for branches to break and fall from more than ten feet up and I could touch his antlers on either side of me.

When the bears are out and any of us are out walking, someone is always tapping a stick on the ground, keeps the bears, cats, etc., aware of where we are and they stay away. The coyotes have my respect, about a dozen circled in on me once.., tightening the noose, until I figured out who was leading and pointed accordingly; at which point they walked off in straight line, never looking back. All four dogs were piled between and on my legs.

The newer digital cameras have changed forever how we can and will shoot. Remember limited to thirty six per roll? Now I might shoot thirty six shots trying to get one. In a month I shoot as many as 400-500. You will love it. I am still trying to get the back for the digital camera I want, also a photography hobbyist.

Hard to give up those fun ways we played, yes? loved skiing, snow boarding, motorcycle on and off road, road course racing, water skiing, . . however I had been doing fairly well riding my ATV and getting a bit of that joy back. Have a few pictures of a sixty foot jump I pulled off a year and a half ago. Ticks off the thousands of kids with fancy ATV’s who cannot get half that distance, gotta watch those old guys…lol.

Looks as if I am rambling..

All the best

todd

[Firehorse]

I have tried going back to city living a few times, not sure how long I would hold up. Living in the mountains a few miles off pavement, far enough away from anyone other than the wild life, now that is living.

At least you can get away to your family get away. Hope you get to do it often.
I do envy you sometimes, living out there, just next to the wilderness, but close enough to civilization to have your internet connection.
Spring, summer and fall we have a few families of bear, obviously they are nestled away right now. For the most part I do not scare them or even bother them even when we are in close proximity; strange. Bear, Deer, Elk, Fox, Coyote, mountain lion, lynx, bobcat, one wolf, and so many types of birds, have started a newer list. The ones that get a start out of me, bull elk; they get mean when you get close. Even mother bear with cubs takes a second, though I have been charged by an eleven point bull, and that is no bull, that is a freight train with many points. I side steeped behind large pine, he hit it hard enough for branches to break and fall from more than ten feet up and I could touch his antlers on either side of me.
My wife and I once were camping along the "Lost Coast", in Humboldt County, California, spending a day hiking. In the morning, we came upon some big female Roosevelt Elk just laying on the path, blocking our way. As well as another large female standing by. There was absolutely nothing we could do. I remember that there was space between them, and the question did come up whether or not if it could be safe to quietly maneuver between them, so we could continue our hike. Hmmm....:confused:

Man, I wish I had our camera with us then...:mad:

I wish I had this camera then!!!

When the bears are out and any of us are out walking, someone is always tapping a stick on the ground, keeps the bears, cats, etc., aware of where we are and they stay away. The coyotes have my respect, about a dozen circled in on me once.., tightening the noose, until I figured out who was leading and pointed accordingly; at which point they walked off in straight line, never looking back. All four dogs were piled between and on my legs.
Sometimes we do arrive at dusk or even after dark. Unless it is summer, we must hike in, so we make as much noise as possible, and am going to from now on, carry a steel "Bear Bell", that can be silenced by a magnet when one does not wish to have the noise. It will make noise every time I move when hiking in at night, but can be silenced or detatched when I want to go finding wildlife to take pictures of. Usually it is Mountain Lions that we are the most wary of. We know they are around the area we are. We know always keep our eyes open, and are aware of what tracks are around. In this case, the bear was not totally "unexpexted".

When we arrived at our cabin, we had found a bear had visited, by leaving its tracks in ash from the copper can it spilled on our deck. The size, shape, & claw marks made easy identification. Then, my wife said with surprise, "Look, baby bears!!!" Sure enough, there were some small tracks mixed in with the huge ones.

The newer digital cameras have changed forever how we can and will shoot. Remember limited to thirty six per roll? Now I might shoot thirty six shots trying to get one. In a month I shoot as many as 400-500. You will love it. I am still trying to get the back for the digital camera I want, also a photography hobbyist.
I just love my new digital camera. I do sill have pics taken with the old 1.7 MP one, with no optical zoom....

But most pics posted from now on will be from this new camera that does 7.1 MP, and zooms like a 36mm-432mm optical (equivelent). With a 2GB memory card, it does over 400 pics, & can do hi-def QuickTime movies in stereo. Just think of the capabilities for web page making...

Hard to give up those fun ways we played, yes? loved skiing, snow boarding, motorcycle on and off road, road course racing, water skiing, . . however I had been doing fairly well riding my ATV and getting a bit of that joy back. Have a few pictures of a sixty foot jump I pulled off a year and a half ago. Ticks off the thousands of kids with fancy ATV’s who cannot get half that distance, gotta watch those old guys…lol.

Looks as if I am rambling..

All the best

todd


I can't call that "rambling"...

I can certainly understand how hard it is to give up those kinds of things...

It's been too long since I have been jumping off cornices or skiing glaciers...

Worrying about scraping footpegs (and other worries) on my Red Kawasaki GPz750, ahead of my roomate's Silver Kawasaki GPz750, when negotiating those turns at Sears Point Racetrack, at a "little higher speed that was announced" when making "Parade Laps" during a Shelby Show a co-worker of ours participated in...:D

That was before digital cameras. I did not even get a picture of that...:(

I miss those things too. Well, you should see me in the ATV I get to use. It got attacked by the bear we saw, or another bear... So it needs some repair...
So I still get some of that "wild" fun in. Not so much of the "speedy" fun anymore...
Perhaps someday I can convince my wife to let me get an off-road motorcycle, as long as I promise to use it in certain areas, and wear all safety gear...:confused:

I'll keep posting my adventures in pictures here...

(((Hugs)))

*paw