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I've said before that despite being many places that bears frequent (including having seen bear scat within 100 feet of my house), I have never seen any bear in the wild.

But this makes me think maybe I should carry something defensive more often.
 
Yikes indeed. The fellow is cool as a mountain lake.

I've encountered black bear many of times whilst afield (hunting, logging, hiking, etc.). There was a momma bear and cub that "lived" on our acreage for a spell. A couple encounters come to mind:

  • When first here, so early my first child was still in womb, I hiked up to mark trees for logging the next day. I hear a rustling sound and a cub comes barreling down the hill. The cute little fellow almost ran right into me. Then I see his mother tramping through the brush and I opted to bug out down the hill double quick. (I was armed only with a 7.62㎜ Tokarev automatic stuffed in a waistband.)
  • A recent winter I went and got more wood for the fire, spied the she-bear only a few yards away, mentally said "uh-oh", and raced back to the house. My wife said "That was fast ... what you see a ghost or something" to which I replied, "No, just the bear." :s0114:
 
Seen a lot over the years. Most recent was when I was peeing into the bushes out on a hike. Suddenly these two soft, furry, black ears rise up from behind the bush. Just the ears. They twitch a second, and I realize what's happening... then, bang!, it took off running like it saw (or got pissed on by) a ghost.

My great grandfather had a bear skin on the floor. It had a bald stripe in its forehead about 8" long from the axe he burried in it when it got too close while he was chopping wood.
 
Lived and been in the woods up here since I was 12.

I've seen exactly 1 bear. He was on a road I was driving down to go shooting at 18 and I hardly saw anything but his rear end as he dove for the brush.


I've seen a ton of scat and read enough stories though to never go out into the woods unarmed and without a big knife. Hiking trail or not...
 
Bears and other critters are out there...
Do I overly worry 'bout them...No...

But stories like the OP and the others posted here do serve as a good reminder that wildlife is Wild...and the animals you see* when out in the forest , mountains , parks...will not behave like those in a Disney cartoon.
Andy
*Edit to add :
Or maybe more importantly do not see....
 
Bears and other critters are out there...
Do I overly worry 'bout them...No...

But stories like the OP and the others posted here do serve as a good reminder that wildlife is Wild...and the animals you see when out in the forest , mountains , parks...will not behave like those in a Disney cartoon.
Andy

I ate some mushrooms once that made me feel funny.

The birds and squirls were talking to me but it was all kind of boring:D










Ok not really :rolleyes:
 
The nice thing about being prepared for an encounter with the wildlife that inhabits our beautiful lands is that you are also prepared for what I consider a much more likely threat, two legged critters up to no good or looking for a victim.
 
FTA:
"but I had a GPS and the coordinates I needed to get to, so I was just taking a bearing and walking to that"

Literal in both senses, as it turns out.
 
I use to work w/a lady who's dad hunted/trapped bears for the Washington timber association back in the 40'/50's. Twice he was attacked, both times the bears were in traps and he was attempting to dispatch them. One was w/a hatchet, he eventually killed it but there's a pic of him sitting in a chair w/his arm in a sling and head wrapped in a bandage brandishing the hatchet in the other hand. He was only 5'5" and weighed all of 150lbs wet. He killed so many bears he got sick of it and developed a feeding system that reduced timber mortality by 80%. Since then he's been all around the world helping other countries w/bear issues (he's been passed for a number of years). It's all in a book called 'Education of a Bear Hunter', his daughter had a lot of anecdotes growing up w/hounds and eating bear about 75% of the time. She was quite the gal herself, fished the Quinalt and Queets w/her and her nephew who's a native for a few years back in the 80's.
 
Last Edited:
The nice thing about being prepared for an encounter with the wildlife that inhabits our beautiful lands is that you are also prepared for what I consider a much more likely threat, two legged critters up to no good or looking for a victim.

^^ This!;)


I was thinking about adding that but you covered it spot on:cool:
 
The nice thing about being prepared for an encounter with the wildlife that inhabits our beautiful lands is that you are also prepared for what I consider a much more likely threat, two legged critters up to no good or looking for a victim.
Ive seen some pretty scary lookin mushroom pickers during elk season.:eek:
 
Gotta do what you gotta do.

Amazing the bear was sill alive when they went back, glad they put it down and out of suffering. Sad about the cubs.

C44B76EA-B84F-4400-B01F-011C43DB8935.jpeg
 

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