Bear Tracks

On Wednesday, the 13^th of July, Tan and I went for a hike on the Box Ridge Trail.  The trailhead begins on the Hatcher Pass (Willow-Fishhook) Road; a narrow, windy, steep dirt road that crosses the southern part of the Talkeetna Mountains.  The trail begins below the tree line and follows an old ATV trail.  It starts off nice enough, running through the birch trees and crossing a small stream.  So far, this is different from our regular trails, since it is not completely in the mountains, in the tundra or boulders above the tree line.  The trail gradually ascends to a ridge above the tree line, with some wildflowers, shrubs, and tundra.  Interesting though, once you are up there its pretty flat, and not mountainous.  There are probably great views of the surrounding mountains, but it was pretty cloudy and we had limited visibility.  Well, while following the path on the ridge, we couldn’t help but notice all the bear tracks.  They were everywhere, small paw prints and large ones, some going in every direction—the bears must use this path as their own highway.  Well, despite the presence of the clouds, at least we were above the treeline, so even if there were bears near by, we stood a good chance of spotting them.  Luckily (for me, Tan was disappointed) we did not see any bears.  Had we happened across a mama bear with some cubs, it would have been trouble.