I hunt mostly the Southern part of Essex County. The Ticonderoga and Schroon Lake areas. When we brought one of the bears to the Taxidermist(North Country Taxidermy in Keene, NY) the guy told us he was getting a lot of bears from the Schroon Lake area. What it's worth he also said that usually a majority of the bears brought in come from the Saranac region, but a lot more were coming in from the Schroon area. This fits with the number of bears we have been seeing the past couple of seasons. Over the years, I've passed up shooting 3 really nice bears because I didn't want to shoot them just for the sake of it. Now that I've decided I want one, I will probably not see another bear in the woods again.

If you're ever in the area of Keene(it's just a little south of Lake Placid) you need to stop in at the North Country Taxidermy shop. They've got mounts of all different kinds of animals from all over the U.S. and from around the world. Check out their site at http://www.northcountrytaxidermy.com