Was out grousing with the lab yesterday. Came across this. Lilly popped her head up about 70-80 yards down wind of this, and worked right to it. She doesn't range far, but when I got up to her, her hair was standing on end and her head was just inside the entrance. When she was a pup, I had shot a buck and took the head and scared the daylights out of her with it, Since then when she smells deer, or dead deer her hair stands up like that.
It took me a second to put 2 and 2 together and quickly called her off. This pile was very big, and the entrance was about 2 feet high or so. At the base of the mountain we were hunting we had seen fresh bear tracks. We had a decent amount of rain last week, and the snow had just come about this week. These tracks were fresh enough that the labs hair stood on end at them too. Needless to say we went the other way.
Thinking of contacting the PA game commission on this and see if for sure it is a bear den. I would love to be able to go out with them, and their biologist and see them do their job. Plus checking out cubs, if it is a bear den, and the bear is a sow, would be pretty cool.
We had a decent day grousing, we put up 7 and I missed one. Man I love hunting ruffed grouse, and watching the dog work!
