Cassi Creek: I had
Loki outside this morning, about half an hour ago. There was no hike with Mike this morning. Loki displayed interest in a deep ditch that
borders our property and the road.
At the same
time, one of our neighbors was on-line describing an encounter with a black
bear and three cubs in her front yard.
That placed the bears about 0.1 miles from our driveway. I might have seen them if I had focused more
on the uphill view than on the down valley view.
Our property
sits entirely within a bear preserve. Bears
are frequently seen traveling through the valley.
Today is also trash pick-up day for this part
of the county. Most residents don’t pay
for trash service, having several other options for disposal. (Roadside dumping seems to be the most widely
practiced). I think that there are less
than 15 houses on Cassi Road that pay for trash service.
Our trash can
has been permanently dented by one or more bears jumping or pounding on the lid. It also has several deep claw scratches and
at least one prominent canine tooth puncture.
There are
some residents in the valley who make it a practice to leave food out to
attract bears. Some of these people are
hunters practicing unethical baited hunting.
Others are best described as just marginal in several manners.
There is a
federal wilderness area to our south and the Cherokee NF runs southwest to
north east with borders less than 100 meters from our back door. We’ve seen most of the game animal, most of
the raptors, and most of the big game animals that populate the valley and its
surrounds. While the NPS may be shut
down, the word hasn’t filtered down to the local fauna.
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