Bearfence

Look at the trees. Nearly everything along this crest is oak. Over half of Shenandoah is chestnut oak or red oak, up on the ridgetops and upper slopes, and they took over when the chestnuts died. Oak looks like it's been here forever, and it's the newcomer. One preliminary pollen study says the forests on the Blue Ridge today aren't typical of the last forty-five thousand years. Much cooler forests stood here until about twelve thousand years ago, and the study found no sign of this kind of oak forest before about fifteen thousand years ago. On this mountain's clock, that's last week. The bears have noticed. A bear's fall is one long meal, and the key food is acorns. It can put on one to two pounds a day. In a good oak year, the crop shapes where they go, and they go a long way. In Shenandoah, a big male's range ran as large as nearly three hundred square miles, about the size of the whole place, and most ranges ran well past the boundary. Then, in October and November, they den, most often in hollow trees, with others in snags, rock crevices and brush piles. So an old hollow oak is worth more than it looks. Some bears roam all winter if it's mild, but in the den they go without eating or drinking. In the fall, read the color by the tree. Trees at the top change first, and it moves slowly down the mountain. Oaks go a rich red-brown. Birches and poplars go brilliant yellow. Black gum, sumac and maples go red and orange. Oak rules the crest, so expect more russet than scarlet. There's a trick to reading these woods. You can judge how dry a place is by its oaks, with scrub oak at the dry end and white oak at the wet end. Scrub oak has another name, too. Bear oak.