However, I have had 'interesting' moments

My closest encounters with blacks? One morning a noise on the porch of my cabin woke me. Thinking it was some ground squirrels violating my sleep, I rushed out, ‘buck naked,’ to tell them what I thought of their manners. Instead it was a black bear … looking sideways as they do (staring down is a threat), just wanting to know what all that wood was doing, stacked neatly ... until she had started climbing on same. Wellsir, I picked up a block of firewood and let it fly. The missile sailed clean past my target. Missed by a good 30 feet. And of course, the bear went chasing it, just as she was a K9 retriever.

Another time my son and I were on a taiga traverse (no trail) of 60 miles with heavy packs. Once the load was lifted onto our backs and we were moving, the best strategy was to plow though brush with a slow but steady pace. Despite singing, whistling, pack bells, and occasionally shouting my stock bear-country phrase… “Make way, lady with a baby!” … we ran smack into a black as scared as we.

Now I happen to think that in a situation as this, the atmosphere of fear creates more fear. Just as dogs and horses react to people being afraid of them, bears …who really are gentle Ben’s… will raise to the occasion. Being so loaded down I couldn’t run, and the nearest climbable tree 50 miles away, and in totally surprised, I reacted by instinctually kicking out... to connect with the most black bears most vulnerable spot. His nose. Boy did I feel bad afterward. I have never heard such squealing in my life as that 300-pound baby ran off to try and find his mother.



I have mentioned dogs in comparison with black bears, and there is a yardstick here. If you are the type person that dogs indistinctly hate, stay out of bear country. Another comparison. Of the two species of bears visitors to Alaska might encounter (polar bears a really remote) the black has more “incidents’ on his record than grizzly’s. However, it is the Alaskan sled dog, perhaps running loose, fending for themselves in the summertime, that is something to be feared. (continued next page)