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We have another bear sighting in Southwest Roanoke County. Richard Reed sends us this account:
“I live at 2630 Gaylord Road, in the Crest Hill subdivision, less than two blocks distance from the Catholic Church on Rt. 419. I have a garden in my back yard, with a peach tree in the back edge of the garden. About eight feet further back from the tree is a hedge of forsythia bushes that separate my yard from the neighbors back yard.
“On Thursday night, July 3, 2008, deer got in the garden and ate or pulled up bean vines that were about 4 inches tall, aggravating me so much that I finally installed an electric fence around the garden. I energized the fence for the first time on July 8th. On Thursday morning, July 10th, I found the fence torn down and a hole in the dirt where some animal had made a twisting motion. The hole was just behind the peach tree, at a thin spot in the hedge. Suspecting deer, I looked closely, only to find the footprint of a bear in the soft, wet (it had rained the previous afternoon) dirt under the hedge. The pad of the print was approximately 1.75 inches wide and 2 inches long, with distinct toes and nails. From end of toenails to back of pad was 4 inches. From the print, with the opposite foot the animal had stepped over about two feet of landscape timbers, which caused it’s foot to slide about six inches under the fence. The chewed up dirt in the hole made it appear that it got shocked by the fence and did a quick about face, pulling out some of the wire as it retreated.

“I had not seen anymore evidence until Monday, July 21st. While showing a relative the spot where I had seen the footprint under the hedge, we found another footprint in the soft dirt, possibly made the week before when the dirt was wet. The pad on that print was almost twice as large as the first one, but without the toenail marks that were very clear on the first print.
“The peaches have been harvested, so I don’t expect the bears will be back this year. (The deer seem to come each year when a neighbor’s early apples start falling.) I would suspect that the bears are now eating peaches in Wertz’s orchard on Twelve O’Clock Knob. “

We've previously reported bear sightings by Bill Shepard on Twelve O'Clock Knob Road and J. Lambert out in the Bent Mountain area. We've added all those to our online map of bear sightings. Have you seen a bear? Let us know at news@swo-co.com

And if you're really into bears, here's a creepy photo of a bear trying to claw its way into a house just outside Salem.