Bear Essentials: Where are the West Virginia Bears?

  Our kind host in Elkins, West Virginia, led us along a trail where bears had been seen on occasion. In fact there was a spot where they liked to cross, to lumber over the mountain to see what they could see, or whatever bears do.  Pungent evidence of their presence had been found too.
   In fact, recent guests from England claimed to have seen a bear in the vicinity - just as our guests from England in Western New York had seen a mother bear and three cubs crossing the road in front of their car as they left their campsite. It is, as you might say, not fair. Come to America for years and not see a bear; come to America for a week and see a whole bunch. Huh. Not that I want to get on the wrong side of one, of course.
  Well, wouldn't you know, on this occasion, we didn't get the slightest whiff of a bear.We didn't see a beaver at the beaver dam either.

                                                         

 Not that we haven't seen wildlife in all its shapes and forms and life stages, particularly in the road: possums, squirrels, skunks, vultures licking their lips, deer making their minds up whether to cross  and one that had evidently chosen wrongly and was travelling in the boot of the car in front, antlers sticking out, presumably being taken home for supper. I still have to keep remembering that this is not London but rural America.