The idea for this photo essay came to me over Easter weekend
when we spent time at our cabin on the Stillwater doing a little r and r.
While Pat and the dog went fishing, I headed down river to the
nearest fishing access to hopefully get a few photos that I could
use in a future class assignment. When I pulled up the first
thing I saw was...
That was definitely a bit strange so I
took a closer look.
Sure enough it was what I thought it was! What made
it strange was that there is a public outhouse about 30
feet away. Why would someone put a toilet paper roll
on a stump when there was an outhouse so close?
Then I began to get kind of an eerie feeling...hmmmm.
Was there a bear around? After all we all know that 'a
bear shits in the woods,' right? Well if that's true, do they ever
use toilet paper? As I slowly turned around to look into the woods
I was relieved to see there was no bear nearby. However it did
make me wonder if the ever popular question referring to bears
and woods possibly was not just a proverbial phrase or rhetorical
question. Maybe the answer is 'no' or 'well, sometimes'!
I decided to do a little investigating on my own.
I went on a quest to find a bear or two. As luck would have it,
it wasn't long before I spotted my first bruin. It was sitting on the
bank of a stream doing a little fishing.
I didn't see him catch any fish but he did seem
to be giving some friendly nearby cats the eye.
He may have barbequed a couple up for dinner...
I don't know.
He eventually got up and ambled off
with me following at a safe distance. It
wasn't long before he disappeared into a
nearby farmer's outhouse!
After a few minutes he came out,
but not before taking a look around.
My guess is that he didn't want anyone
to see him emerging from the outhouse.
I was thinking that maybe this was just a fluke so
I decided to keep looking for more bears to see where
they did their business. No more luck that day but the
following morning I did manage to stumble upon bear
number 2! This one was a bit bigger so must have had
more luck fishing from the dock of a small pond nearby.
After some time had gone by the old bear got up.
I couldn't believe it; he looked around and headed to
an outhouse too! After several minutes the bear
emerged, grabbed his pole and headed back to the dock.
I was a little excited about catching him on
camera, slipped and made enough noise for him to turn
his head and see me.
Needless to say, it was time to head to the safety
of my car and head out.
So in closing I leave you with this question-what will your answer
be the next time someone asks you 'does a bear shit in the woods'?
