Gone bear hunting...Well, sort of!
- Nov 9, 2014
- 2 min read
I may have mentioned this before, but I’m not a bucket list person, per se, but I do have a short list of places that I’d like to go and things I’d like to see and do. And with my wanderlust mind, I can read an article or see an episode of Globe Trekker and get a new idea for a place to go and totally put my short list on the back burner.
So on a whim, I decided to make a day trip to Northern New Jersey to try and photograph a black bear (yes, a black bear). There is an overpopulation of black bears in that region and the state of New Jersey has established a week in December for a bear hunt to stabilize the black bear population. I’m not saying I’m in agreement with this approach, but I did see visiting the hunting location as an opportunity to get a picture of a black bear… something I’ve always wanted to do.
I was in good company with my man friend as we set out with a full tank of gas, a picnic basket and my Nikon and new monopod for the 2.5-hour drive to go bear hunting, as we affectionately called it, at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Unfortunately, this is where the story shifts towards being just a nice long drive to enjoy each other’s company while taking in the beauty of the park because the natural daylight hours drew shorter and shorter and we were overwhelmed with the size of the Recreation Area, so we didn’t have as much of an opportunity to get out and search for bears.
Thankfully my man friend was more interested in enjoying my company than actually spotting a black bear so we each had a good time because my wanderlust was satisfied with just getting out of town and taking in the different surroundings. And, we did vow to return to the area in the summer when we were better equipped to do some hiking and would have more daylight hours available.
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