There's a lot more of everything really. There are even elk now not far from where you grew up, and a hunting season on them too.

There's a section of the OHT where it merges with the BRT along Richland Creek that has the highest population of bears in AR. I've spent a lot of time there but still have never seen one. I've still never seen one here either, though one hung out for awhile eating corn from my neighbor's deer feeder just a few hundred yards away.

I do believe I've seen panthers (mountain lions) twice though near our place, but just a glimpse of them. We've got so many deer where we live that they don't really pay much attention to us. I see them in our yard all the time. Back in the `40s they were practically extinct in Missouri. According the Dept of Conservation there was one small herd about 10 miles from where we live and another up near Kansas City, for a total of, I think I recall, less than 40. Now each year there are more than 40,000 taken in Missouri alone during hunting season with probably around 5000 taken within a 50 mile radius of us. Northern Arkansas is just densely populated with them.

Shoot, we've got lots of beaver, and now we even got lots of otters here. I've seen them in the creeks, lakes, and rivers from south of where you lived to north of me, and people hunt and trap them here.

And from what the Dept of Conservation says, we have more wild turkey here now than there's been in over 300 hundred years.

It really is a pretty astounding comeback story and you have to give the locals credit. For the most part they all join in the conservation efforts and it's really paid off for them. Since I've been here the bear, elk, otter, beaver, and even mountain lions have all made substantial comebacks. We still have a few that will shoot everything within their sites no matter the season, but their numbers have really dwindled down to the point where it's hardly measurable.

They held a "Champions Bass Masters Tournament" on Bull Shoals Lake here last year I think. They started just a couple miles from where we live. As I recall the guys fishing said at the weigh-in that they caught more total weight here than anywhere else all year. They didn't get the biggest fish, but big ones are in there for sure.

It's really a pretty good time to be here now. I'd love to hike the OHT with you. Keep me in mind if decide to come. I'll drop whatever I'm doing to hang with you.