Crossing this spur of the Divide, the grizzly entered the woods. Here he
spent so much time rolling logs about and tearing them open for grubs
and ants that I nearly caught up with him. I watched him through the
scattered trees from a rocky ledge until he moved on. This after a few
minutes he did. As he came to an opening in the woods, I wondered
whether he would go round it to the right or to the left. To my
astonishment, without the least hesitation he sauntered across the
opening, his head held low and swinging easily from side to side. But
the instant he was screened by trees beyond, rising up, with fore paws
resting against a tree, he peered cautiously out to see if he was being
followed. When the next opening in the woods was reached, he went
discreetly round it. You never know what a grizzly's next move will be
nor how to anticipate his actions.
Old Timberline started down into a cañon as though to descend a gully
diagonally to the bottom. I hastily made a short cut and was ready to
take his picture when he should come out at the lower end. But he never
came. After waiting some time, I back-tracked and found he had gone only
a few hundred feet down the gully, then returned to the top of the cañon
and followed along the rim for a mile. He had then descended directly to
the bottom of the cañon and gone straight up to the top on the other
side.
Autumn is the time when bears most search the heights for food. Old
Timberline's trail headed again for the heights. When I next caught
sight of him, he was digging above the tree-line, but as it was now
nearly night, I went back a short distance into the woods and built a
fire by the base of a cliff. Here all through the clear night I had a
glorious view of the high peaks up among the cold stars.
Before daylight I left camp and climbed to the top of a treeless ridge,
thinking that the bear might come along that way. In the course of time
he appeared, about a quarter of a mile east of me. After standing and
looking about for a few minutes, he started along the ridge, evidently
planning to recross the Continental Divide near where he had crossed the
day before. As I could not get close to him from this point, I concluded
to follow his trail of the preceding night and if possible find out what
he had been doing.
A short distance below him I found his trail and back-tracked to a place
which showed that he had spent the night near the entrance of a recently
dug den. I learned some weeks later that this den was where he
hibernated that winter. A short distance farther on I came to where he
had been digging when I saw him the evening before. Evidently he had
been successful. A few drops of blood on the snow showed that he had
captured some small animal, probably a cony. From this point I trailed
Old Timberline forward and eastward, and near noon I caught a glimpse of
him on the summit of the Divide.