Grizzly Stories

I know I said I would write about Russia and I will.  Just this great story telling time came to me yesterday and I need to write it down. 

There are three of us who have offices in the Homer location.  My colleague spent years as a professional downhill skiing instructor, river guide and hang glider instructor, all this long before extreme sports were categorized.    He has broken many bones and thinks this helps qualify him for setting up of the safety programs in the villages.  He does know a lot about emergency situations.

He said that as a river guide he brought thousands of people into the woods and has had 100's of bear encounters.  Let's start with his mild story.  He had to portage his kayak 3/4's of a mile and was very tired.  He was by himself on a day trip.  He heard crashing behind him and branches breaking.  He stopped the story to tell me that in the fall smart people stay out of bear territory.  The bears are preparing to hibernate for winter and if they did not store enough fat on their bodies, they'll be looking for slow food.  Note to self on this one.

So, he saw the water up ahead and started running for it.  He reports that he no longer felt tired.  He said that usually he would position himself in his kayak, get settled in and then take off down the river.  This time, however, he threw the boat in the water, his day pack into the boat and pushed the boat out as far as he could before scrambling in.  He paddled out about 35 feet from shore.  He looked back and saw standing on the shore a very angry, skinny bear.  He said he judged the distance to shore and figured he'd better paddle out more and he saw the bear judging the distance to him.

Skip grabbed his camera and shot a picture and then started to row.  Skip went to a photography school in California and felt he had his priorities straight.  He paddled out to about 60 feet from shore and he and the bear stared each other down.  He said that everyone who sees that photo comments about how angry the bear looks.

Finally, the bear turned and walked back into the woods.  Skip said that the water was as smooth as glass and yet he saw ripples in the water flowing outward from his kayak.  He realized that he was shaking so hard he was creating these ripples.  He said he had a ton of energy after that encounter to paddle all the way back to camp.  The end of this story.

Next story:  Skip was working as a river guide and had a raft full of people back about 100 feet from the boat in front of them.  The raft ahead rounded a corner that brought the raft very close to shore.  Skip looked up and saw a bear standing on the cliff, 10 feet up above the raft of people.  This was a grizzly bear who appeared surprised by the appearance of the folks below.  He said the bear stood up and started yelling.  The people in the raft below were just chatting away unable to hear the bear over the river. 

Everyone in Skip's raft froze and Skip said he started pulling his boat toward the center of the river to avoid that swing over to the cliff.  He said the bear reached over the cliff for the people in the raft and realized he was too far up to grab one of them.  The bear became enraged and started throwing small spruce trees and chunks of dirt up into the air.  He was destroying everything around him. 

The folks in Skip's raft asked what Skip was going to do.  He replied, "Well, by the time we get by the bear will still be working on the folks in that raft."  He said people were horrified but then quickly responded with okay that works.  He was their hero guide at that moment. 

Skip went on to say that the bear was still destroying everything, all of this happening in a matter of seconds, and then started to run after the people in the raft along the shore.  Skip said he almost could not watch.  All of a sudden, the bear ran into a larger spruce tree, appeared stunned, calmed down and walked back into the woods.  Skip said that he looked down and saw his legs shaking so hard he could see it.

Skip explained that a bear will let you know within the first few seconds of an encounter just how that encounter is going to go.  That one was not going to go well.

I have more stories, lots more since I got up here.  I just need to get back to work.