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I remember when I was a wee lad hearing the heavy horses pulling a wagon coming down the road at Oxenden, the farmer going to town to get their groceries. I would run up the road and stand just a few feet away and watch them go by. I could feel the ground shake. It was quite a spectacle that I will never forget. Here's just a couple pictures of the most stunning and beautiful Noriker draft horses I have ever seen and likely ever will see.

Barry thanks for the explanation. This is great. interestingly my cousin’s good friend was attacked by a grizzly while mountain climbing in the park. He ended up having a significant part of his thigh torn off of his leg and ended up in the hospital for a long time. My cousin wss sure to bring his sons with him to visit his friend in the hospital. He wanted to drill into their heads that bear and wildlife safety is no joke. He specifically had a rule about not being out of site while they were young. Between the grizzlies and mountain lions that hung around his place they both presented a very real threat to young kids. Interestingly the local mountain lion that frequented his driveway would hiss at him like a house cat. Funny how such a big animal still displays regular feline behaviour! lol

Someone took this photo today in temagami and posted online.

Not sure if I showed you this picture in one of our private talks or not Barry, but I went out on the back deck early one morning a few years back and this big ole black bear was sound asleep at the back of my yard. I went for my camera and when I came back he was awake and just watching me. He let me take the picture then he got up and sauntered off LOL

Howdy Akrisoner, it's been a spell. Unless you have been around bears as much as I have it can be difficult to tell the difference. The way I put it is if you see a black bear, you're not sure if it is a grizzly or a black bear, if you see a grizzly you know it is a grizzly and not a black bear. My wife and I, especially myself have spent decades studying bears especially grizzlies. I was very fortunate to have worked along side bear biologists to tag and weigh etc. grizzlies from helicopter. This is actually a fairly big bear and lacks the very distinctive shoulder hump that grizzlies have even at a young age. It gives them incredibly powerful shoulders and front legs . A grizzly does not have the tall rounded ears of the black bear and also the grizzly has a concave face from it's eyes to the tip of it's nose where as a black bear has a relatively straight face from it's forehead to the tip of it's nose. Colors can vary widely for both bears. Even grizzlies can be from their typical brown color to several different shades of brown to black and white and one never knows where you may come across one, they certainly are not restricted to the mountains. A few years ago a fellow was killed by a grizzly an hours drive north west from the house here, west of Airdrie, and I have seen grizzlies near Hinton. Here's a picture for comparison. I must say I envy your cousin living near Hinton. Beautiful country, that's where I should be living with my outdoor photography and other activities.