re: #395 Walter L. Newton

Yep… and even if they are not trying to be aggressive, you don’t want a 900 pound bear walking into you, “friendly” pawing you and they can damage property just by passing through it. They are fucking big.

No kidding they’re big. At that time I had just gotten back from 5 months of living in the bush while tree planting. In the last camp we were at the bears were so bad that they hired a ex-vet to stand bear guard and keep them out. It was normal to be walking through the tents and see a bear circling the perimeter.

A month before that we were on a heli contract where we had to be flown into the block every morning. So I’m planting along and about 50 ft away a bear pops out of the bush. Okay no problem this has happened before. I start backing away and out pop two cubs. Oh shit now we have a problem Houston. Not good. I end up climbing up a huge slash pile and sitting there as quiet as I can for two hours while momma and her cubs wander around doing what they do.

Needless to say by the time I met the bear in the kitchen I was thinking, “Oh cripes, not here as well, dagnabit”