[Brushbuffalo]

Here's a fun one that should be free of controversy ( unless it involves grizzly vs. black i.d.).
What is your bear count for this calendar year? (  not beer count )
Mine is a meager 4 ( bears...Many more beers!)

1  Bear and  1 cub on Stewart Mtn near Bellingham in April

1 on Sauk Mountain in September

1 on Highway 20 east of Rockport in September

What's yours?
(Grizzlies count tenfold....zoos don't count at all, nor do the many bruins captured digitally on Bootpathguy's fabulous thread "I Told My Wife...")

Another thing I just made up....a brown or cinnamon black bear counts double. I always have to look carefully when I see one of those...

Grizzlies in Canada or Alaska only count once. In Montana a grizz is worth double. A grizzly charging you is worth 50 bears!

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Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still

[texasbb]

I'm at zero bears this year.   

[Sculpin]

I have somehow only encountered half a bear this year.

I was on the lower Prince Creek trail, came around the corner in thick brush, and there he was on the trail maybe 30 feet ahead.

I hate it when I come across half a bear!  Because you know that it could be one and a half bears that you found, and the full bear may not be happy about you being 30 feet away from the half bear.   

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Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir

[coldrain108]

3 long distance sighting across Sol Duc Park, just black dots moving across the meadows. I'm on constant lookout and I know where and what to look for.

1 about 100 feet below camp.  Grazing like a big beautiful shiny black cow.

1 rolling on a snow field just above the High Divide trail.

Another wandering aimlessly towards us until I clapped my hands and waved politely at it. It ran like the devil himself was chasing it.

2 feasting on the greenery along the backside of Bogi Peak. One slowly walked away looking back over it's shoulder to make sure I wasn't following. The other just buried it's head deeper into the greenery. You could hear that one munching loudly. 

All on one trip to ONP July 22-26.

I didn't see any on my excursions to the Cascades.

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"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch and do nothing"  - Albert Einstein

[RichP]

Lots of this but no bearers.

A big load from a big bear.

[Foist]

We saw at least 2, possibly 4 in the Middle Lakes area above Whatcom Pass.  The problem is that it's hard to verify whether it's the same bear if for example you see one fairly close, it ducks behind a hill, and then you see another one (or the same one?) ambling further away.

[the1mitch]

Do out of state bears, not beers count? I am at one black and one Silver tip Grizz. He was 100 yards away across a river, feeding on a bull elk he had drowned. I was still afraid whenever he looked our way.

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illegitimi non carborundum!

[Brushbuffalo]

Out of state, out of country, sure!
A grizz.....cool!
So you're at eleven!

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Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still

[awilsondc]

Three bear sightings this year, all on the same trip.  Lost Basin and Grand Valley ONP.

Looking for grubs

[Now I Fly]

Monty and I (Monty spotted it) saw a beautiful cinnamon brown, black bear, near the tarns on the high traverse to the Avalanche-Snoqualmie divide. It may have been with a cub. It was cool. :-)

[Cyclopath]

I'm about to bring the controversy:  if you see the same bear on multiple days, can you count that multiple times?  (Like McDonalds with their trillions and trillions served?)

I taught Bear to floss.

[thunderhead]

765!


Ohhhhhh.... bears

0 this year

[Brushbuffalo]

Clever!
I knew this would somehow get controversial!
Your Bear, being brown, would count double. But your Bear is a cat so is disqualified.
Multiple sightings are within the rules, however, as long as the bear is 'wild.'

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Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still

[FiveNines]

Wear's Waldo

1 bear and six beer (not pictured) at the lake.
Total stats for the year is 4 and twenty-four.  That's a lotta bear for me, but not much beer.

Solution

[Nancyann]

Do bears down by the Sultan McDonald’s count? He was standing straight up on his hind legs for extra credit.
Out riding one day this summer my horse spotted a bear in front of us on the logging road and quickened his pace to catch up, until he stopped to sniff a steaming fresh pile of scat. Then he lost his nerve.
My favorite this summer: