Polar bear mums usually go ashore in October and November when the sea ice freezes together and dig a den in a snow drift or other deep snow. Paula Schleis can be reached at 33 or Follow her on Twitter at. My family spends so much time in the woods, so it’s special to find something like this.” “It looks like he was headed southbound on the trail, then turned around and went back north on the trail,” McCurry said. The prints were found on the trail, just north of Clinton’s trailhead on North Street and before the trail’s historic Lock 2. So she sent a photo to the Metro Parks staff and was rewarded with an answer Monday. No one in her party seemed to know, although bobcat was one guess. “What are those?” McCurry asked when she spotted square prints larger than other impressions she knows well. McCurry said she and her 7-year-old daughter, Teaghan, make a game of identifying different animal prints in the snow or mud while hiking.

That’s why Heather McCurry found it such a treat to find paw prints on the Towpath Trail. While sightings in Summit County are rare - being that Summit has one of the more dense human populations in the state - it’s not unusual to hear one or two reports a year. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates there are between 50 and 100 bears in the state. At this time of year, they likely wouldn’t venture too far from their dens,” he said. However, our naturalists believe there are two separate bears. “Bears do wander, particularly in spring. Metro Parks spokesman Nathan Eppink said the Clinton and Hudson bears are not likely the same animal. “The snow is melted now, but I’ve been back every day since, hoping I might catch sight of him,” Hines said. Then he turned back to the national park and disappeared into the woods. Leaving the dumpster empty-handed, the bear walked toward the highway but was stopped by the fence. He came from the back of her property, along a creek and past a pear tree that drops its fruit in the fall, then continued to a dumpster.

Hines told the story of her bear’s visit by following his path. Hines’ property is along state Route 8, across the street from Cuyahoga Valley National Park. But then I saw the bear prints and thought, ‘Oh, my God, I had a bear on my property,’ ” Hines said. I knew we had them, and maybe coyotes scared the deer. I thought that was strange, so I followed the footprints and saw coyote footprints. Shannon Hines, who lives in Stow, said she found the tracks after becoming curious about an odd pattern of deer prints around a tiny house she keeps on the Hudson property.

Meanwhile, the announcement of the southern Summit County visit prompted a resident in the northern part of the county to share that a bear was roaming her property Saturday in Hudson.

“What a cool find!” the park said on its Twitter page when it shared McCurry’s photo. Heather McCurry of Wadsworth spotted the prints while on a hike with other family members, and Summit County Metro Parks naturalists confirmed from a photo that the paws definitely belonged to a black bear. A black bear apparently enjoyed a stroll Sunday on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail in Clinton, and like any good park visitor, he left nothing behind but footprints.

Bear paw print in snow