A juvenile black bear ran in front of my vehicle today at 3 pm on Route 32 just before the Canaan Institute parking area (almost to Davis). Thankfully, I did not hit it, but was surprised. This was my first bear sighting in the Canaan Valley area since 2001. I know the populations are increasing and see signs of them everywhere (scat mainly), but it was nice to finally see one live. Made my day. Anyone else have any recent bear sightings in WV?

Almost the exact same thing happened to me about 7pm one evening when coming back from Moorefield. This was before Corridor H was open and I had just come down off of those three really sharp turns before heading back up the other ridge. It's the spot where that tiny little church is at the bottom.

Anyway I was coming down to that little dip and a fully grown adult black bear ran across the road and I slammed on the breaks. I get the feeling hitting that would have been like hitting a steer in the road, neither would have been plesant. This was a few years ago. Haven't seen any since.

If you want bears, go to Heartstone Lake west of Harrisonburg. Also a good spot for coyotes and some utterly deep, lonely, isolated hiking. Most isolated place I've ever hiked in the Mid-A. I loved every minute of it, even the thunderstorms two consecutive nights in a row. But bear... my gosh it's like they own the place.

Spent a week at our place in North Face (at Timberline) last week. Got a message from the HOA before we went up about frequent bear sightings in the neighborhood. People are still leaving garbage in cans outside their houses up there despite instructions not to, which brings in the bears. One apparently tore some siding off a house trying to get into a kitchen window recently according to the HOA letter. Anyway, after several evenings of dog walks without seeing one, my wife, her sister and four kids were walking our dogs up Salamander and came almost nose to nose with two small-to-medium cubs checking out the deck of one of the houses near the base. No sign of mama, but the cubs wandered through North Face checking for garbage cans and ended up knocking one over behind the house across the street from us. Later that night I was using the wifi access outside Timbers Pub when one of the cubs strolled into the parking lot and stayed quite a while. Some people who had been at Timbers for several rounds were opening bags of chips in the parking lot for the cub, teaching him that people mean a steady food supply. Guess they haven't heard the "fed bear is a dead bear" motto up there quite yet. Thrilling to see the cub, sad to see its treatment.
Last December I was in the hot tub on our deck about 11PM, after we had grilled a salmon for dinner. We had scraped the grill pretty well and set it on high heat to burn off the scent, but sure enough after a nice soak I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and turned around to see an adult bear on the deck between me and the door to the house, getting ready to check out the grill. He noticed me just after I saw him and I'm sure he was as surprised as I was-- he took off for the woods and I headed back in the house for another drink (that one was a double).

Two weeks ago there were multiple bear sightings in Timberline HOA. The first was a 500lb adult who entered someone's garage off Mountainside road and spent the afternoon eating dog food he found in there. Later, he apparently went around back of the house and stretched out on the deck to finish off the bird feeder. A cub was sighted later that evening.

What I have heard - bear experts and RogerZ feel free to confirm or deny - is that the bears are on a 3 year cycle. After birthing, mama will keep her cubs with her for 3 years before kicking them off on their own. That sets up an active period where the mamas are free to go looking for love, the males catch on to that quickly and are happy to oblige. On top of that, you have all these adolescent bear cubs on the loose trying to find their own territory for the first time. We are supposedly at the end of one of these 3 year cycles this year in Canaan.

I haven't had any first-hand sightings this year. 2 years ago I spotted one though the fog as he loped across 93 just outside Davis. The year before we saw one settled in a meadow off 32 near CVSP. When we first saw the house we eventually bought, there was mud sweared up high on one of the glass doors - we figured it must have been from a bear peaking in the house one evening.

I'm not sure about the three year cycle part of it but summer is definitely the time of the year that the cubs get kicked out. They may be three years old when they get kicked out. It's also mating season. Here's an article about it and all the bear sightings in Montgomery (Virginia) county recently. There was actually a bear that managed to wander all the way into downtown Roanoke a few weeks ago. A year ago, maybe two, one stumbled into a hospital in Franklin county. Sadly, they shot that one as it cowered in a doctor's office.

That would make sense because this is the same time of year that many young birds fledge from the nest. Birders enjoy poking around the woods, watching the action and trying to identify juveniles. What surprises me about the bears is that I spend a lot of time in the woods at CV, being very quiet in earth tone clothes, trying to find rare birds, and have never encountered a bear. I guess all the bears are around Timberline, where the food is. Someone will probably have to get injured before the situation changes. Last year, I talked to a WV Department of Natural Resources official who was setting bear traps near Wintersett. I suspect more trapping will have to occur and perhaps some more enforcement of trash regulations, by HOAs and perhaps by the the Tucker County Sheriff's dept. Northwoods/Northface had to move its compactor operations to Mountaintop Realty because of the illegal dumping issue. Trash is definitely a problem in CV and it is only getting worse with the influx of more people.