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Black
Bear Hunting in West Virginia with a Yamaha Rhino
SxS
::Continued::
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One of the
many over looks from the Elkins, West
Virginia mountains
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What wasn't’t clear cut or timbered was
filled with laurel so thick you could be 15 feet
from someone and not see them; again, this indeed
was where the bear lived and where we would have
to go to find them. One could easily look out
over the valley and ridges below and envision
what those of 150 years ago saw as they populated
this area.
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These streams
were once crystal clear & yielded
many fresh trout are now murky & muddy
from the logging operations before the
timber companies were forced to reduce
there impact on the land
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Conversations sometimes would turn to the land and
how the timber companies had done things that would
force further action to protect the area, especially
when it came to water run off and the many streams
that flow from the mountains. Concern from the hunters
was sincere and while you wouldn't’t expect
such caring from such rugged individuals, you could
tell they had respect for the land and all that
dwells in it. I witnessed pristine streams filled
with native trout that I was told at one time ran
muddy and remained murky due to run off before the
timber companies were forced to make changes to
prevent the damage.
It was good to hear and even better to see it
with my own eyes as I join forces with my fellow
outdoors men with regard to keeping our woods
and forest in good shape for future generations
to enjoy. I can’t tell you exactly where
we hunted but the names that were used were sometimes
a mystery. One such turn in a logging road was
known as the “tractor”, even though
I saw no such machine, I quickly assumed that
at some point in time something or some event
formed the moniker for certain areas and everyone
knew exactly where to go.
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Specially
trained hunting dogs are used to track
down black bears & are essential for
the hunt. A good hunting dog can make
or break the hunt
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This type of terrain and the time of year also
brings a new aspect to hunting that many will
never get to enjoy, and that is the use of hounds
to help locate, track and tree a bear. In such
remote and rugged terrain, the dogs are the hero’s
of the day as they fearlessly track down a bear
and bring it to bay for the hunter. That may seem
easy, but a lot of training hours, practice runs
and extreme care by the dog owners go into every
hound that enjoys the hunt. These dogs may fetch
prices of several thousand dollars and to the
hounds’ men; they are part of the family.
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