Dam icicles & fresh Bear tracks

The other day Bob, Peggy & I along with the dogs went up to the dam , it was a beautiful sunny day and 20 degrees so we decided to head to the dam before it got too warm. On our way there we did a couple of repairs to our road and the bridges we had built out of snow we made it. While we were at the big slide repair and while watching the dogs checking things out I noticed some tracks I knew weren't the dogs, even Peace's big feet were no match for these tracks, they belong to a very early bear that is confused by this weather and lack of snow so he's already moving around. I went out Tues morning to meet Bob & Peggy at the garage I thought I saw some tracks that looked like bear tracks coming this way but knew it was just too early for them to be moving and so thought we might just have a very big wolf out here, well after seeing these tracks on Thur I realized I had seen bear tracks.
While going to the dam and climbing almost 800' elevation from my house we found almost 1' of POW. These are just a few photos I took while at the dam and on the road to the dam. The top 2 photos are icicles from the dam that are getting bigger everyday. The 2 lower photos are of the bear tracks that were on the road to the dam. The dogs went a little crazy wanting to find him, it really kept them busy and got Peace to stop looking for the dipper bird to chase.
The conditions out and about are really great for being able to really go anywhere and if you are looking to do some backcountry touring either snowmobile or skiing you really can't ask for much better conditions. The Phelps Creek TH road is clear and has 2-6" of POWder and closer to the TH almost 10-12", even though the base is great it isn't as frozen as it had been so makes for great exploring. Since we have seen temps in the 40's each day the afternoon's are better for snowmobiles especially since the trail is very hard and icy in some places, but ice scratcher's help greatly, late afternoon's you might post hole in some places as the snow softens late afternoon, as soon as the sun goes behind the mountains though the snow is quick to firm back up. These are the things that make living here so great, everyday is something different, spending time with my dogs watching them enjoy life, the only thing that would make it better is having someone to ashare it with.
We found our Paradise, hope you find your's too. Peace