Snaggle Nose a Survivor and Victor

Snaggle Nose 2016 by John Schilken of the Tannery in Leetonia

Snaggle Nose 2011

Yes, Snaggle Nose followers he is still ticking after all these years. The first I heard of Snaggle nose was the summer of 2009 when my neighbor called me stressed about an adult male bear who had part of his face hanging and bloody from a fight with another bear. This bear had to be at least 3 and probably 4 by that time. He is close to 11 years old now and is a force to be reckoned with. The other bears run when they see him and he doesn't hesitate during the summer non-hunting season to stroll around Leetonia in the middle of the day and take any food he can find.

His size is at least 600lbs and he sports a permanent growling appearance, which is not as noticeable in the top picture. John said, Snaggle Nose came up behind him while he worked on the door of his place. I am sure he quickly stepped inside the camp. John said, "Snaggle nose was smelling the back of Pats truck when I yelled at him. All he did was turn to get his picture taken. Walked on back side of truck and up the drive." Pat had left some feed in the back of his car and Snaggle nose would have been happy to relieve him of that burden.
This bear teaches me a lot of what it means to be gravely injured, heal and not only survive but thrive. If any of us had gone through what he has..would we have given up, hidden somewhere embarrassed by our deformity?  Would we have held so much trauma in our brains that we never again became a functioning member of this earth. Snaggle Nose didn't give it a thought. He healed, he grew, and he became the biggest bear in all of Leetonia. He is a force to be reckoned with and honored. We should all have the heart of this bear and not retreat from life, but face it with whatever face or body we have been given.  Of course he did not get it by having an easy life...his strength came through a journey from a challenge, then through pain, growth and victory. I am not sure how many cubs his has in the area, but you can bet the heart of this bear beats on in many of them and his legend will never die. Mountain Girl, Paula, logging out.

4th of July in Leetonia

Ferns on Leetonia Rd

Lee Mowing near Township mower

Ruins officially becomes the Tannery

There are a lot of people up to their camps this weekend. It is a big weekend for picnics and outdoor fun. Mother Nature cooperated on the 3rd, but the fourth looks like a chance of rain again. The rain has been so consistent that it has been hard to keep up with the mowing. It seems the sunny days are only for mowing the grass that has burst up from all the rain then it is back to rain. The township parked their mower in our yard for over the weekend as they too have been working on brush chopping the sides of the road. Next week they are closing Leetonia road going South of Leetonia for a couple days to repair a couple of culvert pipes under the road between Leetonia and Fahneystock.  The forest is so green in comparison to winter time it almost feels closed in this year...like living in a cave of green.

The old Ruins Camp is officially changed names to "The Tannery". They posted a very nice sign in front showing the old tannery. So from now on I will only refer to it as the Tannery. According to John at the Tannery, Snagglenose is still around and so is a smaller bear who is very much covered in mange. John thinks it is a second year cub. It made a disturbing look into his kitchen window while they were cooking bacon. The poor thing's entire face and ears were bald and most of its chest. Mange is very spreadable to other bears and the State tries to catch the ones with Mange and treat them or put them under if they have lost more than 50% of their hair. Mange is a cruel death when winter comes as the bears can not stay warm and will end up dying. Here is link to page with Mange bear's picture. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Snaggle Nose lives on

Snaggle Nose taken by John Schilken over the weekend

Snaggle Nose appears to have come through the winter quite well. It seems he is boasting at least 500lbs of weight. He hung around the old ruins camp for about 6 hours and they got quite a few pictures of him. He is in no mood to move fast and doesn't feel at all threatened by much in the woods including people. Last year we noticed the other bears ran off when he showed up and he is even bigger now. Even with half his nose bit off he is still a formidable opponent for any other bear male.

It couldn't have been a more perfect weekend with temperatures in the mid 60's the first weekend of trout season was pleasant for all. It gave me some time to take a walk and check out the pond in back full of water from the melt off. The woods however, is quite dry and it was windy enough there were grass fire warnings. All week in town the sirens have been blowing chasing one small fire after another. It don't take long for the wind to whip a small fire out of control.

We are glad to have made it through a hard Leetonia winter and happier than most to see Springs and the warm weather. Lee and I got the screens up on the front porch to keep the barn swallows from building nest and the bugs to a minimum while we sit on the porch glider and enjoy the songs of birds once again enjoying the mountains of Leetonia. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Snaggle Nose lives!

New Paint for the Eagles and Bears

Thanks to Bob Paul, I have good news for all the Snaggle Nose the bear followers...he is alive and well. Bob spotted him on 7/19 around 10:30 PM. I am figuring this bear was born in or near 2006 so is now around eight years of age. The average lifespan for a black bear is around ten years although a few have been recorded at thirty years of age (Information from Defenders of Wildlife).

Snaggle Nose earned his name from horrific injury to his head in 2009, which has made his survival even more amazing. He is a huge bear and I am sure is weighing above 500 lbs at this point. His belly scraps on the ground he has become so large and isn't afraid of anything. He is a testament to survival and earned my respect a long time ago. Check here for a picture taken in 2010 of him.

I have been doing a little restoration of my bear carvings in the front yard. It started when I noticed a smaller bear(not pictured) had completely rotted out. He went to carving heaven and I cleaned up the other small bear and the eagle on top of the rock. Then I decided to cut the big bear off the tall log that was rotting and move it down to the sign. This task was not without some injury to the bear as he lost part of his arm and the eagle when he fell over. I had to glue and screw him back together again.  I painted all of them and put the big one on a rock to slow down the deterioration. 

The bigger one I had carved right before my accident six years ago. The accident stopped all progress on the carvings and I had never painted the big one. I believe he looks much better painted and he now has a job holding our address number. The address spot was lost during bridge construction last year. So if you are around check them out and keep an eye out for old Snaggle Nose. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Pa Grand Canyon Marathon

On July 28th, the first Grand Canyon Marathon will be held. Part of it will run down Painter Leetonia Rd. a mere five miles from my place so I will probably walk over and watch a bit. I hope for their sake it is much less humid and hot than it has been. Just walking in this weather is a challenge let alone running. I am putting a map of the run down below and you can use the flyover feature. My map is a little off distance wise but you get the idea. The race starts at 7 am and they only allow 6 hours to finish so it won't be a causal walk in the park.

Here is there web site for anyone interested in entering: Marathon If this isn't long enough for you they are doing an Ultra-Run 100k or 100 mile on Sept 7th. on Rails to Trails. The Ultra-Run down the Rail to Trail will be easier as far as elevation change, but a much longer distance.

Also heads up for those of you coming to the area avoid Elk Run/Cedar Mt Road as they are running pipeline trucks up and down loaded with pipe. Lee met one last week and said it was not a very pleasant experience.
The bears are out and about a lot lately. I have seen one everyday going in and out of the woods for last three days. Yesterday, I saw Snaggle Nose on the road at 1 PM just a couple hundred yards down from the house. He didn't want to get off the road and I worried the big bear might have a heat stroke before he finally jumped down to the creek. It got near 99 yesterday in Wellsboro and 94 back here along with similar humidity numbers. I had to look at snow pictures yesterday just to cool off.  Today won't be better but they are promising a little break for the weekend. I hope they are right. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Kimberly Reese photographs Leetonia Wildlife

Indigo Bunting

Lee's Hummingbirds

Hummingbird and bubbles

Snaggle nose splashes in the pond

Cooling off Snaggle nose style

second year cub explores feeder

Mange attacks another bear

Over the weekend, Kimberly Reese came up to Hooke's cabin. Hooke bought the place from her grandfather, John Reese's estate. John Reese was the founder of Reese's Candy and the famous Buttercup, which he generously gave out to us kids during the summer. Kimberly has professional photography equipment, which explains why these pictures are so much better than anything I could take with my little web camera.
In only two days time she got pictures of three different bears including the "Famous Leetonia Snaggle Nose," whose deformed face and size is enough to frighten most city people. He showed up and night and took a little swim in the pond. So it isn't as easy to see him as the other bears. The other two were a bit shyer  and a lot smaller. I am guessing they weigh one to two hundred pounds compared to Snaggle Nose's five hundred pounds. As many of you regular readers will know Snaggle Nose lost part of his face in a fight with another bear about four years ago. This hasn't slowed him down and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other bears in the pictures are his prodigy.
If you click on the individual pictures they will get larger and you can see the detail Kim caught in the hummingbird's feathers. The picture of the Indigo Bunting looks like it could go on the cover of a bird magazine.
For any of you who love birds this is a great place to watch them in the summer months we have so many varieties of birds you don't see much in the city. Kim got quite a few good pictures during her only two days and I can't begin to show you all of them. But it is nice to see them as bright and detailed as I see them everyday, while I am Lost in Leetonia. Thanks again to Kim for letting me share these with you. Maybe she will come back next year and stay a bit longer.  Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Porti-Potty for No Where

Porta-Potti at Pipeline

Dead brush

Opposite side of road from dead brush

Leaf eaten by caterpillars

Oak tree with leaves gone

First with the good news. Thanks to Bill Rhodes who reported seeing Snaggle Nose at the BonneyView Camp we now know he made it through the Winter and hunting season. This makes the bear at least seven years old. I am guessing he was probably 3 or 4 when he was first in a fight with another bear, which caused his face-deforming injury in 2009.

Now on to the first picture. It seems the people working on the pipeline project can't be too far from a porti-potty even when they are in the middle of the woods. I think this is extremely funny since, loggers have been working these mountains for centuries without a single such luxury. They placed it at the middle of one of my daily hike routines. At first I thought, "How nice I can use it instead of the side of the road." But as luck would have it since the appearance of the facility the urge to go before returning home has left me. 

The next strange thing is just next to the top, an area of brush seems to be dead in a large area just on one side of road. As you can see from the next picture, which was taken exactly opposite from the area what the underbrush should look like. This makes me wonder if they have sprayed it for some reason. Although, I haven't found another area like that along the pipeline or road. Just seems weird.

Last two pictures show a leaf on the road eaten by caterpillars and what the bare oak trees still look like in a few areas. The caterpillars are going after more than the oaks as you can tell from the leaf. They sure can do a lot of damage for such a small insect. 

We have had a couple of cold mornings with clear skies at night the heat leaves fast. This morning I awoke to 39 degrees. That is pretty cold for June 20th. I didn't catch yesterday morning's low but they are saying it was a record. Of course for the weekend we are supposed to get back into the 90's yuck, so much for the nice moderate weather. Our feral cat is back for a visit. He must be an expert at avoiding Bobcats and Coyotes to stay alive in this woods. At least now since his vaccinations he can't bring any diseases back with him. Well off to the city of Wellsboro to work. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Snaggle Nose lives

Just got an email from a camp owner who has spotted "Snaggle Nose", the bear who about three years ago lost half his face in a bad fight. He is now closing on 600lbs. This big guy looks very mean with his permanent snarl look from his injury. So keep your camera ready and get a 2012 picture of him if you can and send it to me.
The mountain laurel is blooming great on Cedar Mountain and is quite beautiful. Looks like it may warm up for the Rattlesnake Festival in Morris, which is good news for the snake hunters. Most of the snakes have been hiding during the cold spell we have had last week and the warm sun will bring them out to warm up. I will be getting some pictures to share. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Snaggle Nose LIVES!

Snaggle Nose was first injured in June of 2009. None of us thought he would make it past the first hunting season and yet here he is over two years later. Dutch one of the township road workers took this picture during this summer of the bear right in our front yard. Snaggle Nose was in pursuit of a female bear at the time and didn't seem to care that the men watched him. Somehow he must be able to smell in order to track a female and keep from being shot. Unlike humans who might feel a bit intimidated if half their face was torn off old Snaggle Nose still makes other smaller bears flee in fright at the sight of him. And appears to be quite the lady's man.

I often wondered what the other bear looked like that Snaggle Nose tangled with. He is truly one amazing animal to have not only survived but prospered after an incredibly hard fight. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.