Usually the songbirds started a new day singing in exuberance. Not one was singing today. Fargo rode with every nerve tingling. Grizzlies were notorious for ambushing their prey. They were also cunning at concealing themselves. He searched in a loop. The ground was hard and there were plenty of pine needles to cushion the bear’s great weight but he found a partial print and then broken brush, enough to tell him the giant bear had headed west. Fargo went slowly, as much to keep from being jumped as to not miss any of the spoor. Tracking was often painstaking; with grizzlies it was more so. From the spacing between prints, Fargo deduced that the griz had been moving at a fast pace. It made no attempt to hide its passage and for over an hour Fargo made good time. Then he crested a rise. Below spread a granite slope sprinkled with scattered pockets of bare earth. Dismounting, he checked the bare patches first but he didn’t find a single print. It was possible the bear’s claws had scraped the granite here and there but the nicks would be slight and hard to find.
