Lundy Canyon Resident Beaver Made it Through Winter + Sow and Cub (black bear)
I’ll be home tomorrow with a bunch of material—I got enough and enough variety in spite of being laid low by a back problem for 3 days—can hike again now.
The resident beaver (there are others up and down too) made it through the winter.
I saw a nice healthy sow (female bear) as I drove in at dusk... she stood up on hind legs to check me out when I got out of the car. A beautiful orange colored black bear (not black at all). Coloration looked more like a grizzly than a black bear but fortunately there are only black bears in California.
A bit later while driving out, I spotted a furball of a bear cub. I decided not to photography there that evening, not so much because I was worried about safety for myself, but I prefer the windows and doors on my van intact rather than lying on the ground torn away. I would advise anyone visiting Lundy Canyon to take appropriate precautions because sooner or later bears discover what an ice chest means. There are no bear boxes at the Lundy Canyon trailhead.
Kudos to Canon’s superb focusing in low light. The Canon EOS R just nails it and the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L is everything I might hope for in a lens.
The tweaked back was OK 4 days later.