A BEAR story

Bears are just Bears they are lazy by nature and do not like human contact.  If you are hiking down a trail the bear will more than likely pick up your scent or hear you long before you see them and they will disappear into the woods.  If hiking in thick underbrush, you are walking into the wind, near a river that would mask any noise you make during normal hiking it is important while hiking in bear country to make extra noise by clapping your hands, singing, hitting your hiking poles together,  anything to make noise.  Some hikers wear rather large bells that are tied to their shoes so as they walk they ring, with every step.  I personally would never wear these because first of all they would drive me nuts and I would wind up throwing them away, because I laugh at those that do wear them but mostly because they give a false sense of security.  By this I mean if you are hiking along a noisy river there is a chance that they will not be heard and you could surprise a bear.  Some people call these “Dinner Bells”.  This brings me to the most important rule in bear country.  NEVER surprise a bear.

So what to do if you encounter a bear, there are a few variables here but rule number one is never run from a bear.  Bears can run as fast as a horse for some distance so you are not going to out run a bear.  So that only leaves “Stand Your Ground” raise your hands to make yourself look bigger.  If you are with anyone else stand close together, make yourself look bigger the more the better.  Talk calmly “Hey Bear” and back away slowly.  If the bear charges again stand your ground, make yourself look bigger.  Most charges are stopped short.  The changing of undergarments can  be done later.

Quite a bit more to this subject but I have spent enough time on the basics.  I have followed these rules for years while hiking in bear country and have rarely seen a bear and those that I met who told me of regular encounters is perfectly understandable because they had a dirty camp making food available to the bears.  This will bring yogi and bo-bo in every time.  The dirty camp reason is why we have been having a problem here lately at Eklutna Lake campground.  Surprisingly mostly from Alaskans who should be very aware that a clean camp with no food, no garbage and on items with food scent be left out when not in use.

So finally my bear story:

Last Sunday started out like every other weekend early in the morning I would drive around checking to make sure everything is clean doing any trash pickup as needed and also checking for coolers that were left out after our final check from the previous night.  If I found any and they contained food then somebody else was getting up early besides me and receives a lecture on what not to do.  Everyone that I have had to wake up so far has apologized for their actions and truly believe we had a “teaching moment”.  Now what I may have taught them is if I do not want to be waked up at 6 am…….. Whatever works.  So I just finished up and came back to my travel trailer and deciding what to make for breakfast when somebody comes up to my door and tells me the bear is back.

As I leave I grab my bear mace a air horn and my two way radio.  It rarely is worth while to go to where the bear was last seen because they never wait for you to catch up so as I walk the campground I listen for yelling, screaming, horns blowing from the cars or more often than not large groups of people standing around taking pictures.  That is how I found this one.  Now just about everything I told you above is used but in a different matter.  Now it is not back away from the bear but to try to position things so the bear wants to go in a different direction and if that doesn’t work then to make sure the bear does not find any food so as I go I tell the campers to put everything in there cars.  This bear was a medium size back bear not aggressive just walking around looking for food.  I have not caught anyone yet but some are stupid enough to leave food out to lure the bear in, so they can get pictures.  Big problem with this is that bear will come back to the same spot long after they are gone looking for more food.

I walked the length of the campground twice as this bear lurked behind the camp sites, a couple times he made it right up to the sites but the air horn would drive him back at least a few yards.  Finally he left the main campground and went towards the lake.  I could still see him walking just inside the woods but he knew exactly where to go.  As soon as he got to the area of the day use area he started heading for the picnic pavilion.  The pavilion was reserved for a class reunion of about 100 people with burgers cooking on the grill’s they were told to put all food away they were doing that while I along with a couple others from the reunion clapped and re-directed him.  This goes to show that the bear has no interest in us, he wants the burgers on the grill, no way could we stop him short of shooting him.

About this time the Ranger arrives and the sound of him racking a shell into his shotgun got the bears attention and away from the pavilion.  The first option is to make it uncomfortable for the bear to stay so a couple bean bags are shot at him hitting him in the hind quarter with very little effect.  Obvious that he has been hit with bean bags before otherwise he would have run for the woods.  The Ranger made the decision to switch to slugs and put the bear down.  As he is loading up the shotgun malfunctions, the magazine spring is probably broken.  His Remington 870 pump is now a single shot shotgun.  I head back to my travel trailer and pickup my Remington 870 for the Ranger to use, only gone a few minutes I head back into the woods looking for the Ranger only to find the bear first.  The original plan was just to replace his shotgun now I am 20 yards from the bear.  I radio the Ranger and advise him and he authorizes me to take the shot but I am only 50 yards away from the pavilion and having never shot a bear before I decide it is better for him to take the shot if at all possible.  The last thing I want is to would a bear especially in close proximity to all the people at the picnic pavilion.   About this time I can see the ranger beyond the bear’s location so I turn it back over to him.  A few minutes later and two slugs it is over………… and the bear is running back into the woods.  No blood trail, the bear is gone and a week later has not returned.  Not sure what happened, did the bear finally get the message that he was no longer throwing bean bags at him and decide it is time to look for food someplace else or did he hit the bear only to have him run off and die someplace.  The later is unlikely because a blood trail would probably have been found.

Hopefully the bear is fine but the sad truth is that this bear is like any other bear and easily conditioned by food.  He has probably obtained food from the campers either voluntarily or accidentally but by doing so they are doing everything but actually pulling the trigger.  Once a bear finds an easy source of food they will keep returning and every time they return become more comfortable with that human contact.  Humans will than re-enforce that comfort level by gathering around taking pictures and probably feeding him.  In a very sort period of time we will now have a dangerous bear when somebody gets just a little too close and the bear’s instincts kick in and somebody gets hurt.  The Rangers have to make the decision based upon the bears behavior first raising the comfort level by shooting bean bags and other non-lethal tactics,  when these fail and the bear continues to get close and show no fear of humans they have to put that bear down.