I received the following from Jack and Sue LaGue:

 Hi, we just saw a small black bear cross West Shore Road on the way home... we first saw it off to the right side of the road just past your camp's driveway... s/he went into the bushes near the culvert... we waited a bit and then s/he came out and cross the road right at the culvert and headed towards Ned's 2-car garage.

Small one.... probably a yearling...bigger than a cub but not particular big... I would guess 100 to 125 lbs.

 

 

I think Jack and Sue may have seen the bear around 8:30 or 9 p.m. 

I suspect we had a visit from perhaps the same bear - it would have been sometime between 6:30 and 8 that it visited us. We left a little before 6:30 to meet some cousins in Danville and got back a little after 8 o'clock. I found one of the caps on the railing to our deck off, and when I picked it up it had a scratch and what could have been saliva on it - and there were some wet spots (saliva? do bears drool?) on the deck. There is no food around, so he must have been just inquisitive. The vinyl trim caps on the posts are securely glued in place, and even without being glued, they do not come off easily. I wonder if the animal tried to climb up on it - but there is no food around, no bird feeders or anything, so I guess he/she was just inquisitive - it it was a bear. I can't think of any other animal that it might have been. When I went into the house, our cat, Woody, was very nervous and unusually cautious as he went outside. He is normally not skittish unless he's seen another animal. He did a thorough investigation of the deck - another clue something had visited while we were gone.

Actually, my cousins came over from Barre and stopped to see if we wanted to go to the Ice Cream Social in Danville - so of course we said sure and went off to meet them there. Turns out the event is tomorrow. We had seen Jamie and Marie just before we left and Marie told us then she thought it was Sunday (which makes more sense, being Father's Day). So we sat on the Green and had a nice chat - watched the sun disappear behind the library, and when it began to get chilly, called it a day and parted company. It was nice to see them and fun, even without the icecream. We all agreed we really didn't need the extra calories. 

Now I'm going to see if I can find Woody. He finally went out just before dark and hasn't came back in yet. He's probably found more evidence of an intruder into his territory. I just hope the intruder isn't still around.