Ever had a close encounter with a Grizzly?

[Ducker]

Have you ever had any close encounters with a Grizzly? Please tell your story.

I have had a few, so I will talk about the worst one.

My wife and I were camping in the back country of southern Alberta (Oldman Headwaters). We had returned from a great evening of fishing on the river, had supper, cleaned up and retired to bed at about 11:30pm.

A half hour after we got settled into the tent, my wife asked me what the sound was coming from down the road. We could hear a sound that resembled hooves on the road, so I told my wife that it was just some deer walking across the road, but I knew that it was the claws of a bear clicking on the gravel. I had hoped that the bear would wander back into the bush, but the sound got louder and was coming towards our campsite. Soon enough the sound had stopped, but only because a Sow with her two cubs were checking out our camp site, and more importantly our tent - with us in it.

The sow walked around our tent 3 times (within 2 feet of the tent), stopped on my side and pressed her nose in on the tent above my head and sniffed. Mean while one of the cubs was checking out our camp stove and tarp by the table, and the other one had wandered up stream, and began to beller....which got the sow running. By the time we got out of the tent and into the truck (a matter of seconds), the bears were nowhere to be seen.

You have no idea how much a bear weighs until you press your ear to the ground, and you can hear/feel the bear shake the ground as it walks in close proximity to your tent.
That is the closest encounter I have had with a Grizzly, and it was an experience that I will never forget. I have also learned alot from it, but it will not stop me from going into bear country. I just prepare better for it, and I keep myself bear aware.

Ken

[shmode]

Yup, that was the most .....ummm..... interesting experience to say the least. It took me a while to want to go camping again because of it. i believe it was shortly after that when we started searching for our first trailer. It's stupid but I felt safer in the trailer than a tent, even though a bear could rip through either easily.

Oh well, live and learn....hopefullly.

Jody

[Hubbard]

That would be a little un nerving can't say ive had the close of an experince, had one come after a salmon on the end of my line up in alaska but he was just interested in the fish luckily. Seen lots out in the area where your talkin about but never came that close.

[swalker]

While growing up in the Yukon we had a hiway lodge 70 miles north of Whitehorse.Being out in the middle of nowear I had a couple of close calls with Grizzlies.

The first one was when I was about 14,a friend,my 2 younger brothers,and myself were out walking around in the bushWhen our 2 dogs started going nuts.One dog was standing on something and both were barking like crazy.I went over to see what was going on.When I was about 10 feet away from the willow bush the dogs were barking at a 9 foot sow stood up .I must of been in shock for the first few seconds because all I could think of was what a magnificent animal!While she stood there roaring at us and thedogs barking her 3 cubs woke up and they started crying.By this time we had gathered our wits and started to scream at the bears as we run in the other direction.My one brother claims that as I ran by him I tripped over a log ,bounced to my feet and still passed him.I can only guess that with all the noise the sow just wanted to get out of the area.Lucky for us !!!

The second encounter was many years later,It was a hot summer day,in the middle of the afternoon,I was mixing a batch of bread for the lodge.It was one of the rare times when nobody was around and we had the front door of the resteruant open.The waitress was in the back getting the rooms ready.When I had finished the bread I ent out to the resteruant to get o pop out of the cooler,when I turned around there was a 3 year old Grizzly sitting im the middle of the dining room.I have no idea how long it had been there,but it was just sitting there.I started to yell at the bear to scare it away,called it dumb for hanging around people it would only end up dead.The bear then got up and left.

Thats two close encounters and not a scratch,I consider that some kind of luck! :lol:

[Mikey]

I have had a few ...none as close as Jody and Ken thats fer sure .... I dont think the sow ran off because of the cub bellow ...I figger it was the stink of you guys soiling yerselves ...LOL ...the closest I have been to a grizz was in Pine Pass BC on AZueta Lake ...basically across the highway from Powder King Ski Village and the old AZU resort..... Friends of my folks had a cabin on that lake and a grizz come walking up to the front door ... I ran up the stairs and watched it walk by 10 feet below me from the balcony ..... Dad made a lil sound and it ran off

the same friend of my parents lived all year round at the AZU resort and thats where my most memerable memory of any bear encounter came from ....... we took our camper up there .... I was living in Prince george at the time 2.5 hours to the south on hwy 97 ..... I was walking from camper to the house when a Black walked out from behind the power station ...... I was 10 maybe 12 at the time ...I filled my pants I am sure ...we both frooze and stared at one another for what seemed like days ....all of about a minute evidently ....my folks seen me standing frozen through the kitchen window ...... I am pretty sure that bear was as scared a I was ...... just before Dads friend opened the house (split second ) it statred to huff and Bluff charge me ....... the bear mustve seen the door open cause it stopped and darn near turned it self inside out and bolted the other direction..... never seen it again after that ......another bear story from there relates to the woman that lived there ... Carla .... this couple is Austrian straight from the mountains .... Carla worked at a Chinese restaurant in Mackenzie ...she would bring home Chow mein to feed the squirrils .....(who knew that MSG was like heroin to squirrils) A small grizz smelled this stuff and came lookin for it ..... Carla seen the bear and chased it off with a damn garden hose ....WTF I thoght ...she is crazy ... I asked her about it ...."oh that lil ol bear ....hates water ... I chase him off once a week it seems"

those are some of my most memorible moments with bears ...... funny all in the same place ....hmmmm

[Dillershortbow]

Ive had a few incounters with gizzilys falling in Nights inlet in the mid eightys i would walk in and out of the bush with my chainsaw running . Bears love the taste of gas i had one chew my gas can 20 feet behind me i didnt even see it but the can was ripped and gizz track were there. Another time i was working in the nass valley in north western BC there was an old trail called the grease trail ( natives packed fishoil from stewart to Bella coola on this trail ) Anyway one fella i was working with told me about 6 graves about half a mile up the tail so one afternoon i walked up to take a look found the graves 2 where marked and 4 werent. On my way back a grizz stepped out behind me i just kept on walking it followed me all the way back . It took a long time for me to feal comfortable in the bush alone..

[calgarychef1]

So this guy was talking about hunting bears with a knife. He tells his buddy all ya gotta do is get real close to the bear then reach in your pants --take out some poo and rub it in the bears eyes , then stab him while he's blinded.

His buddy says "how do you know there'll be poo in your pants"? The first guy says "don't worry it'll be there all right"!!!

HAR HAR!!!!!!

the chef

[shifter]

I have had over a dozen run ins, but never been mauled, I was in a bear awareness video for the B.C. forest service in the early 90's, for personnel working in bear country.
I had to kill a large bore back in 1977 when it attacked me, another one ran me of a cliff when I was bowhunting, he ran over my bear bangers, that just eratated him more, and I broke two of my shhoting fingures when I landed in the alder.
Another large black bear came up a tree after me while I was bow hunting, I had to arrow him through the face as he came up, this was about the scariest episode I ever had, because of no where to go but up, I had the story in a couple of hunting magazines back in 1982.

[4blade]

two for yah.partner and i set up for elk in clearing we had called a bull into earlier inthe day ,went back for evening,set up 100yds apart cow calling back and forth ,after about an hour we here something come thumping into the clearing ,turns out to be young grizzly looking for the elk making all the noise.interesting part is it stops 10 ft away from my partner looking for elk.now what to do?he hollars and it runs away. lucky oh yeah.#2hike up this ridge before daylight looking for mule deer,take a break and enjoy sunrise,steam coming off rocks below me, no breath of big boar grizz about 80 yds away.i wait to see how things play out as he doesnt know i,m there.5 min later i see him 60 yds away on same e. lev as me. istart talking to him to let him know i,m there ,his reaction was to start popping his jaw and bouncing back and forth on back paws.pepper spray bear or myself so i,ll taste better not sure.anyhow kept talking to him and he stood on hind legs looked at me and took off other direction which happened to be the way back to my truck.