About a quarter of a mile from our house is National Forest Road 5300. It is a seldom traveled one lane road that winds through the mountains, intersecting other Forest Service roads and logging roads, eventually coming out near near Waldport after about 15 miles. Monday, I hiked it out and back about 9 miles. There was a down tree across the road near the start that I had to climb through. After my turn around, I came upon a bear cub about 50 up the road. It quickly scrambled off into the berry vines. I was carrying a big stick and talking loudly as I passed by where it was. A few minutes later, I heard the slow loud drumming of a pileated woodpecker.
Tuesday, Gail and I drove up to the downed tree, cut up a passage through it with our chainsaw, and drove up a couple miles to begin a hike further along the road. It was a beautiful sunny day, with some awesome animal sign along the way.
Monday
This downed alder meant I probably wouldn't have any vehicles on the road to disturb the peace.
Turn up your volume and listen to the territorial drumming of North America's largest woodpecker.
Tuesday
After cutting our way through the downed alder and driving up the mountain a couple miles, we parked and started walking.
This large bear scat contained the hooves of a fawn.
Further up the road, another large bear scat.
A thin layer of mud on the tarmac was a perfect substrate for these bear tracks.
We noticed that banana slugs have an appetite for various scat. This one is dining on bear scat.
After a few miles, we explored down a secondary gravel road that is pretty much a half lane road now. We want to come back to this one and explore further.
A Pale Swallowtail butterfly on a cow parsnip flower.
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