A story taken from another Forum Board I frequent

[Mikey]

Click here for Grizzly stuff (http://www.fourwheelstampeders.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2333)

A person whom I would call a friend had a close call .... I urge ya to take a read

[Valley Lad]

Holy crap! Am I ever glad we've only got black bears in Ontario! I'm nervous enough walking 1/2 a mile into the bush an hour before daylight with only a sharp stick to protect me - If we had grizzlies here I might not get out of the sack for many morning hunts!

[scooter]

This is actually a story from one of our members here, crazy davey.

Here it is:

As some of you know I have been very active in the outdoors my whole life. In those years I have seen roughly about thirty bears in the local mountains of southern Alberta. This would be the first year I have heard of so many bear sightings and encounters from people I know personally. After hearing all of these stories and talking with local fish and wildlife officers, the bear population is very healthy right now and getting stronger every year.

Right now at this time of year, it is a very dangerous time to be in the outdoors. Hunters are out filling thier tags and leaving numerous gut piles etc. all through the woods. This is very good for the bears and other preditors trying to fatten up for the long winter ahead. The berry season was not very good this year, so bears need to fatten up in other ways. This explains the number of sightings and encounters down at lower altitudes. Hunters tend to leave thier gut piles very close to trails, this can be a very dangerous situation for all outdoor users!

Now I will tell you what happened to us on the weekend in the Ghost area...

A very good friend of mine and I were out on the weekend hunting in the Ghost region. Starting Saturday morning we decided to leave camp before sunrise and head up to one of our favorite look out spots and maybe hunt some of the ridges in that area. This day for some reason we decided to drive instead of walk which we normaly do not do. As we came around one of the last corners before the climb to the lookout, we noticed lots of crows flying around a small growth of trees just off to the side of the trail. We drove to the top and decided to have a look before heading out walking. We were about 100 yards away from the spot the crows were flying, but couldnt see what it was so we decided it was probably a gut pile someone had left from the evening before.

We did our short morning hunt but were not seeing the animals we normally do because of the very high winds and decided to head back to camp for some grub. When we drove past the spot again it was quite a bit brighter than the first time we drove by so this time we could get a better look. With binoculars I could see a dead horse with a bullet hole in its chest laying in the trees about forty feet away. My friend had also noticed at this time there was a fresh set of black bear tracks over top of our fresh tire tracks, and they were heading towards our camp. We must have had spooked the bear off when we drove by first thing in the morning. So we drove back towards camp following the tracks all the way to within about fifty yards of our camp. At this time we decided to get a better look at the tracks and noticed there was a very small cub walking right in mamas tracks.

At this time a quick decision to let everyone in the area know to be on the lookout for this bear, and that she could be dangerous. After our rounds, we finished hunting for the day in another area.

Sunday was spent checking out some other local trails, and doing some spotting for our next days hunt. After dinner, we headed back to our lookout spot in the truck so we could see what the next morning might bring. As we rounded the last corner before our final climb we noticed that there was a bear on the dead horse, but this was not a black bear, it was a grizzly! Before we had time to say anything to each other the grizzly let out a loud roar and headed towards the truck like a frieght train. Before I could blink my eyes she was within five feet of my door on the passengers side. It happend so unbelievibly fast that all I remember is yelling, Go Go Go Go Go Go....... My friend slammed on the gas and we climbed the last hill at about 45 km per hour with the grizzly about two feet off of the back bumper following us all the way up this very long hill and swinging at the truck the whole way. There were marks on the truck to prove it!. Once we got to the top she very quickly headed back down the hill towards the kill. I guess I should tell you at this time that this is a dead end trail and we were now at the end.

Luckily we had cell coverage from our new view point. Phone calls were made to the local fish and game letting them know that this trail should be closed immediately! Names and GPS points were given and they were on the way to shut the area down. We were watching the bear through the trees, trying to decide when the best time would be to try and make our escape past the bear without having anything else happen. All of a sudden she came back out on the trail with three cubs behind her and charged up the hill towards us once again, stopping about fifty yards away and started pawing at the ground. Then once again she ran back down to the cubs, but this time she would not leave the trail. We called back to the fish and game officer and let him know that she also had three cubs with her. I loaded my rifle, just in case we had to let off a warning shot to help get her off of the trail so we could drive by her and get the heck out of there. Finally she left the trail and we drove by her fairly fast without incident.

Once we got a ways away from her we flagged and marked all of the trails leading into that area that we could think of. Finishing that up fairly quickly we headed back to camp and packed up. We did one final drive around to all of the campers within a couple of miles and suggested that they leave the area, and that fish and game were most likely going to tell them to leave anyways. We set up camp a few miles away and settled down for the night.

If we did not call fish and wildlife, and did not close these trails immediately, I would have to say with almost a hundred percent certainty, that come Monday morning there would have been atleast one dead hunter if not more. THIS BEAR WAS EXTREAMLY AGGRESSIVE! This trail is walked almost every morning by someone during hunting season, and usually in the dark. I myself have seen tons of bears in the wild, but never seen one this aggressive up close. I would hate to think what would have happened if we walked instead of drove that night. A RIFLE AT THAT SHORT OF A DISTANCE WILL DO NOTHING TO SAVE YOU! I myself do not know any hunter that can pull a rifle and shoot it making a kill shot within a very few short seconds like that.

So if you decide to head out to the mountains this fall, please be very carefull. Carry a gun if you can, it might help scare them off from a distance, but dont shoot at them unless you have to. The cubs would not live through out the winter without mum. Avoid all areas that are posted with bear warnings. Avoid areas where you see lots of crows and ravens etc.. Remember that this is not our home, we are visitors and sometimes the hosts are not very friendly!

If you do see anything that could be a dangerous situation, phone local fish and wildlife as soon as you can. For some strange reason alot of users wont do this according to some of the people we talked to. You can call 1-800-642-3800 and they will put you through to the right people, or call the the boys in Cochrane at 1-403-932-2388.

Of course I am sure that I am leaving out some details, but you get the point. Here is one of the only decent pictures that we got that evening, this is just as she headed into the trees for the second time at about 100 yards away. This was not a good time for a photo session!


http://www.bowzone.ca/cgi-bin/albums/albun36/aaf.jpg

The pic does not give it justice. She was a very large bear! I have seen bigger males, but at a distance. I would have to say the top of her head would have been right around five feet while standing on all four feet. I was close enough to her to know. If you dont think that is intimadating, take out a tape measure and see for yourself.

[Mikey]

Doh .... I keep forgetting that hes a member here too ....
Cause he posts up so damn much :lol: :lol: :lol:

Put in his situation I am quite certain anyone of us would need to change our pants when we got to a safe spot

Glad to see ya still kickin Davey

[crazy_davey]

Yaaaa, still kickin Mikey :lol:. Just dont want to pull anymore crocidile hunter type shit for a while :shock:. I have had a few of these happen to me. A few years back I came eye to eye with a big black bear trying to get in a back door of a building I was going to enter. That one I think I left some bacon strips in my pants if I remember correctly :lol:.

In my post I was just trying to let some of the recreational users know that this is a time of year that they should be very carefull when out in the woods. Most hunters are usually aware of this allready.

Here is some of the other stuff I posted on the other forums:

Fish and game were there within about two hours and closed off of the whole area. I was goin to post the location but changed my mind. Some people would like to see nothing better than this bear dead for different reasons, poachers, trophy hunters etc. and I will not give the location of where she is. Dont worry, if you go there you will know, the whole area is closed and marked very well.

If anyone has any questions for fish and game officers about this or any other incidents call Stan Hawes at 1-403-932-2388 this is the Cochrane fish and wildlife office.

The only time I was really worried during the time this happened, was when she wouldnt leave the trail for the longest time, knowing we had to go back by her. The chasing up the hill I actually found a bit funny even though it wasnt.

The part that worried us most during this whole thing was, what would happen if someone came down the trail walking while we were on the phone with Fish and game. We would have had a front row seat for a grizzly attack. If she would have tried something like this, I would have shot her for sure, even though I did not want to.

Luckily it was Sunday night, with not many people left in the valley. I was more worried for other people in the area than I was for ourselves. There were lots of hikers in the area this past weekend, trying to enjoy some of the indian summer we are having.

[RodS]

Wow, that would be a little unnerving. I know here on the Island we have had a record number of Black bears in town this year. Game officials have never seen it this bad before. I know of 10 bears killed in town by game officers this fall, and a buddy of mine had about a 400 lb. bear rip his rabbit pen apart, ate the rabbit and damaged his shed. This at 2:00am. He had a real good look at it at 25 feet as it stood up to check him out in his security flood lights. That was only two nights ago, just behind town this fall in an area I bowhunt in at times I ran into 3 very large bears in one small area. All three would go over 350 + lbs. One was taller than my motorcycle at the butt. I was shocked at the numbers and the size of these bears. Ususally don't see a lot of big bears close to town that much, especially during daylight hours.