I visited the bear tree again yesterday, concerned about the herd of cattle that have been staying around the nearby pond. Often they use the trail that leads to the bear tree, with the result that I end up with many--unwanted--pictures of cattle on my cameras. Yesterday I again found that the cameras had taken hundreds of pictures, most of them of cattle but the bear tree had also been visited by four different bears, this large brown bear --

 --this black bear with a line of white hair along his/her lower lip--

--- a black bear with a white chevron on his chest---

---and a smaller, rather shaggy black bear. This latter animal walked along a log which leads up to where one of my trail cameras was mounted. He examined the camera but fortunately did no harm.

 The same could not be said of one of my other cameras. This one had been directed toward an opening in the trees bordering the pond. Bears are attracted to water, both for drinking and swimming, and I had placed a camera at the pond to record those activities. 

On my approach, I noticed that camera missing. The strap and part of the camera were still attached to the mounting tree but the rest of the camera was gone. Then I found it--lying face down in the shrubbery at the base of the tree. The flash fired when I moved it, so from that I concluded that its "vitals" were not damaged. 

Back home, I got out a roll of duct tape and put the broken trail camera back together. It may not be beautiful but I expect that it will be functional.

In the rim of mossy, slightly more moist forest near the pond, I found the beautiful blooms of Twinflower. Though very small, it is classed as a shrub. The sets of twin flowers are born on thin Y-shaped stalks which rise up from horizontal runners.