re: #408 Jadespring

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”

Wal-mart in Round Rock Texas, about 2000 or so. I’m walking though and I see Pocahontas on a TV, which I had not bothered to see before. They are showing the scene in which she is singing about the color of the wind* and the voices of the mountain* and…and…cuddling a bear cub while Mama Bear watches.

I’m from the NW and I, yes, have been through basic wilderness training. My jaw dropped. It was wrong on so many levels. Indians would have known to stay away from Mama Bears. It’s Wilderness 101. If you see a Bear cub, just start running, because she will defend her cubs immediately and to the death. Obviously, the script was written by someone who has so romanticized nature that they think that singing animatronic beavers are close to accurate.

*If the wind has a color, I suggest you don’t breathe it, and don’t stand in it.

**The mountain does not sing. It plays percussion. Trust me.