So for those who don't know. I work for an armed protection agency in woodsy Maine. Our main contract is the largest wooded campground in the state.

Tonight I was patrolling the camp with my boss *owner of the agency* and we encountered a group of 4 coyotes out in the rearmost treeline. Nothing new. I hucked a sizeable rock in their direction and they scattered into the woods per usual.

I then decided to patrol an area we rarely visit. It is a 75 acre area of undeveloped land on the back stretch of the property.

About 1/2 way down the dirt path that goes through it we heard a rustle in the thick woods to our left. I promptly flashed my stream light stinger HL in the direction and low and behold there was the largest black bear I've ever seen in my life. My boss shreaked like a mortified house maid and bolted in the other direction as the bear and I both watched him run off. The bear and I both sharing the same puzzled look. I turned back to the bear as it came closer and closer. Showed no signs of aggression . More curiosity like....what are you doing here. He got within about 20 feet of me. Sniffed the air and then crossed the path and disappeared in the woods.

I continued back to the trailhead where I found my boss white faced and shaking. I simply said to him...."..that was entertaining chief. I named him brutus......he's not that scary" and entered my patrol car

So there's a real life scary bear story for y'all haha

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

So, it was actally a real Teddy Bear.
I do not have ane experience with bears other than behind bars in the Zoo. But I do think you act right to keep kalm and steady. It is anyhow a true story you can tell to your grandchildren.

Now, I hope you realize your boss had the right idea, he got out of the area, leaving you to be the bear's "tasty treat".

In Alaska when we would go fishing, the youngest guy carried the backpack with our catch. Our idea was if a bear was encountered, he would drop backpack and set a new speed record, hopefully the bear would enjoy the fish more than him!!

Trust me when you see a bear out free in the wilds it an awesome experience. When they bang there teeth together an attack is comming. Dogs sometimes do the same teeth banging too. Get the check out of there.

My daughter has a rifle, a Rossi 92 357, which has been living at my house for the past several years. This past Christmas it went home.

Because of some stuff going on in the news, lately, I called her and told her to load it. It could stay loaded for years without damage, and it's much easier to shoot a rioter if the gun is already loaded.

The Sunday after the verdict I called to check on her, and she said that she was going camping. Taking the grandgirls up into the woods for four days. "And since it's not a campground, but just 'the woods', I can take my pistol." I told her to take the rifle too.

Friday I call to see how they did in the woods. She said they were visited by a mama black bear and two cubs. They had the food in a bear-vault, and mama just kinda batted it around a little, and then they left. I asked how the girls had handled this wildlife experience and she said they sat quietly in the tent and watched.

I asked her if, during the visit, she had had the rifle in her hands. It would not be my first choice for bear hunting, but in a situation like that I woulda sure felt better holding it.

She said that no, it was in the van. While I was repeating, incredulously, In the Van??, she was saying, "I had a knife and a can of bear spray.".

"A knife and bear spray? Your pistol was in the van, too?"

Yep. It was.

I told this story, on another board. At the time it had not occurred to me to ask whether she had the gun, so I wondered, in my other post, if she had. One of the responders said, "If she didn't this time, I bet she does from now on".

So when I called the next day, and asked about the rifle, and she told me about the bear spray, I told her what Red had said, about "she will from now on", and she says, "Ooohh, you got that right".

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I always take precautions

Sounds to me like the youngest guy carrying the backpack with fish was bear bait and too young to realize it.

I was young, nieve and scared of nothing and never took anything serious when I worked in yosemite and the grand tetons in 1960 and 1961. They were a daily occurance depending on what area I was working. In looking back at it I/we were lucky. In those two years I never seen anyone hurt. We never went armed and probley would have got fired if we did. I did hear several storys though from the older guys that had worked those places prior to me.
Two girls were killed in their sleeping bags but it wasnt published that it was the wrong time of the month. The worst one I heard was where a tourist set his young daughter on a bears back for a picture and the bear killed the girl!
Once when I was working in the tetons we were up late one night playing poker in the bunk house. A couple of young guys were at the door all excited. They had been hikeing and a bull moose had treed them early in the morning and kept them in the tree all day. A couple of times the moose walked off and they chanced comeing down but the moose would charge them again. Finaly that night they seen the lights of our camp and the moose had left for awhile so they made it to our camp.
The thing is I have been reading these bear storys forever, what gun to pack etc. Still, our goverment boss`s thought nothing of sending us to working alone by ourselves in the woods with no gun and not even a pac set in those days. And none of us worried about it or questioned it. I suppose many national park workers still do it. I assume they now carry radios. When I worked the only time I seen a radio was when maybe a crew of a half dozzen or more of us was together working a fire. They were huge and heavy compared to years later. Probley was from world war two.
I still dont take things serious and maybe should. Maybe thats why I get a charge out of reading of some of you packing at home walking through the house room to room.

I also worked in Yosemite in the 60's. I worked there about 3 years after Merril worked there. One night we were sitting in the bunk house at Crane Flat and I heard a noise at the back door. I opened the door and hit a bear in the butt as he left the area. He became a nuisance so they brought in a culvert trap and caught him and relocated him to the back country via a helicopter. Another time we were back packing in the back counter looking for white pine blister rust in Western White Pine and Whitebark pine. We were camped at Benson lake and had our packs tied up from a limb and I woke up to a tingling. There was a black bear standing on his tiptoes trying to pull our packs from the tree limb they were tied to. We did not quite have them pulled high enough. I hollered at him and he left. I heard a commotion at each camp along the beach as each camper shooed him off. It was quite comical when I watched him in the full moon light come back along the beach with a disgruntled expression. When I got up in the morning I discovered that I had left a piece of salami in the pocket of my Filson cruiser vest and the bear had destroyed it so the bear had the last laugh. Like Merril said we spent all day in the woods by ourselves and were unarmed other than a grub hoe for digging up gooseberries. One time I was walking along a stream just south of Hetch Hetchey armed only with a shovel handle that I used as a walking stick. I came upon a small meadow with the grass all mashed down and there was a dead doe in the middle still hot to the touch. The only marks on here were bite marks on her neck. As soon as I saw that I immediately left the area as I realized I had disturbed a Cougar on its kill.

I was deer hunting in Northern California a few years ago and was taking a break sitting on a log beside a logging road with my rifle sitting on my lap pointing to the east when a black bear came onto the road about 75 yards to the west and started walking toward me. I was watching him and when he was close I decided my rifle was pointing in the wrong direction. I moved it as fast as I could but before I had it off my lap that bear had made a left turn and was crashing thru the woods. I was surprised how fast he could move.

I spent two 1/2 years doing field work in Alaska for USGS repairing and maintaining remote seismographs. Quite often if a seismograph was not working the first thing we would see when flying in via helicopter wound be the instruments scattered about the mountain having been dug up by a bear. We often fantasized about taking a can of hornet spray and wrapping a piece of bacon around it and leaving it behind but we never did. We just cleaned up the mess and moved on. We were well armed having a Winchester Model 70 375 H&H and a Smith Model 29 handy at all times. We never saw a bear while on the ground but saw plenty of them from the air. There are some big bears in Alaska.

Ive had more trouble with moose than bears.Crossed paths with a mama and baby a couple of springs ago and she came after me at a fast trot through the woods for several hundred yards.I just kept weaving around,keeping some trees between us until she got bored and wandered off.This guy trapped me on a sandbar in the upper Poudre River.I really didn't want to swim for it in my waders.

EQ guy, I once had to clean up probley that same building after a bear broke into it at crane flat. As I recall it got into a bag of sugar and tore up a old kitchen. It was after the normal work season and no one was there. 3 years? I bet there is a huge chance that was the very same bear!

Wouldn't that be something Merrill, it is not out of the question. Maybe they flew him into Benson Lake and I ran into him again in 1970. It sounds like he must have gotten into the kitchen at Crane Flat. The large building nearest the road was the kitchen and the other one behind it was the bunkhouse. It was an old CCC Camp. The first year I worked there, 1964, we had a cook named Gibb. Man he could cook. Our crew that year was 7 guys. I wonder if you worked with Joe Calizo from Napa Valley. He took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. In 1965 there were only 4 of us and in 1966 I was the only one to return so they made me the Foreman. I hired three fellows from Humboldt State College which is where I was going to school. In 1967 I dropped out of college and enlisted in the Army in the 120 day delayed entry program and went to work in Yosemite in February and worked for the Forestry crew. I did a lot of spraying of Lindane on beetle killed trees. I worked till the end of June and then off to the Army I went. I worked there the summer of 1970 after I got out of the Army. This was the last year they had a Blister Rust crew there. Our job that year was to check for Blister Rust on Western White Pine and Whitebark Pine from 7000 feet to timberline. That last year there were only two of us.

I apologize to the OP for the thread drift.

That cook was Gibb Douglas. Supposedly he was a rodeo champ when he was young. I would estimate he was in his late 60s at least in 1960. He had me drive him to a big rodeo at the cow palace in san francisco. Gibb and another 70 year old I think we called "Pop aldredge" was our cooks out of tulome meadows pack station. We were spraying trees in the high country after the college guys left for school. I had a sprayer leak, was wearing a web canvas belt that got soaked and I got a huge blister and had to go to the valley to get it taken care of. A big wind storm had knocked down some big trees in the tent camp for the curry company guys killing, I think around a dozzen! I had to help buck up that mess. We had a goverment mule packer, I belive we called him "Dirty murphy. I worked with clyde "montanna" folley and everett demoss. Bob sharp was the park forrester and the guy right under him I belive was a big guy by the mame of bill? smith. A old regular was a modac indian "John lennard". I knew the father/son team of tree toppers the castros. Most of the crews were college kids that were political appointees, meaning they got their jobs through uncles that were congressmen etc. Most of the time we were stationed at wawona. Since I wasnt going to school I stayed on the full six months and then was laid off. I was on two different large fires that were over two weeks apiece. One was above hetch hetchy resivore that something like 8/900 hotshots and indians were brought in. That was late in the season. The other was a big fire down in sequia NP that they trucked us down too. Somehow I was appointed to work with the chopper pilots. After that whatever fire I went to the pilots would reconise me and I would work ground crew for them. We had lots of fires that year and I am sure that our (blister rust crew) fought fire more than working the blister rust. Some years later I read where the fire fighting crew from yosemite was killed fighting a fire near los angeles that they were sent to. That would have been in the late 60s. Same deal as this last one in arizona. I am going to do a computer search on that one.
EDIT: I remember a guy that was kind of small and dark with a similar name. I remember a few of the guys would bug him singing, "Poor ol kaliza, he never got a kiss--- That old hank williams song. Must be the same guy?

We were up to my camp in vt for a weekend. We had the dog with us. About 12am something was scratching at the roof vent trying to get in. The dog was growing. We all just stayed in our bunks ready to bail out if it broke thru the vent. I had my 357 snubbie ready to rock n roll. But I told everyone to get out first if it came in here and cover your ears once your outside. It finally went away.

I don't pack in the house; too much trouble and I'm lazy. I have a pistol handy at every room where I spend much time; haven't put one in the bathroom yet, though.

I'll bet your Boss won't be heading into the woods for inspections for a while........

We had a friend who used to bake wedding cakes. One day while she was baking, a bear came through the open kitchen window and ate the cake she was working on! Only trouble is, I don't remember the rest of the story. I seem to remember her chasing it back out. Her grandson worked on my crew Friday night, but not tonight, or I could have asked.

Guess it is good to pack at home!

My brother-in-law's father was an avid outdoorsman. About 40 years ago, he was camping in his pickup camper, sound asleep around midnight, when he heard a noise outside. He looked out to see a bear trying to get into his brand new cooler, which he had left on the table outside. As he tells the story, he ran out, stark naked, with a 12-lb frying pan and smacked the bear as hard as he could right on top of his head. The bear stood up, made a loud groaning sound, turned, and ran back into the woods! I can only imagine what the other campers would have thought if any of them happened to see the commotion.

My first bear experiance was the day I hired in yosemite. Done my PW, and they told me to spend the night in a tent cabin by the HQ. I heard a ruckus, looked out at the next tent cabin where evidently the occupent had left the light on and probley some sweet goodies and had left. Two bear cubs were jumping up and down on the beds like kids. The light was makeing them look like a shadow show. I nievely yelled or something and they peeled out past me.
Many years later I and a friend were on a MC trip through the northern part of yosemite and spending the night at a campground. A couple near us started yelling. A bear had walked right in their tent. It shook them up.
Another time when I worked there we were just lounging around on our days off. I looked out the tent and saw my buddy sitting against a tree reading a book. I seen a bear walking towards him from the other side of the tree. Neither seen the other. I wasnt going to spoil the fun either. I grapped my hawkeye and got a good picture of them, each running the opposite direction! I got to dig for that old picture some time and post it.

As the old story goes, the fellow says to his buddy "I don't have to outrun the bear...I only have to outrun you"...

Somewhere I read that if you are trying to our run a bear, try to run straight down hill. Supposedly their hind legs are longer (or was it shorter?) than their front ones. The hope is they lose balance and roll out. If they were chaseing me though, there would be a good chance they would slide and skid in the, er, "mud" I would be leaving.

lucky your boss didnt knee cap you first. but at least you know hes got your back, why else would he be behind you?

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the rules? there are no rules

Way back when momma and I were young, one of our tricks was to head out for a camping weekend. One night we got to the campground late. Put the cooler in the car but she left a 6 pack of Pepsi on the picnic table. We were tired and sleep came quickly. Yes, I had a gun even if it was a National Park. Rules are for victims and I didn't plan on being bear dinner. So along about 3 or 4 AM I realized I'd been hearing a noise. I rolled over and turned on the flashlight. There was the bear. Sniffing at my soft drinks! Then it did it. It bit into the can. Got it stuck on its teeth and started bawling. And as it shook its head, the stuff started spraying out. I guess it got a snoot full because as soon as it got the 6 pack loose, it bit again! Lots more noise and campers coming to watch the show. Finally it got the idea and ran off into the woods. No one hurt, just a lot of laughing.

We just got in from a Colorado vacation. We went to Buena Vista, pronounced "Bueny". Their local paper, the Chaffee County Times has an article. You can't read the thing because they charge, but its about a bear that smelled pizza in a Corolla (I think). It somehow managed to try the doors and one of the back doors wasn't locked. So in it climbed trying to find the source of the smell. They took the pizzs indoors, but while looking the back door slammed. So it was trapped. And totally trashed the car trying to escape. The next morning it was still there, and unhappy. The locals tranquilized the poor thing. Then they killed it because it was classed as an aggressive bear. They also said the car was totaled because it tore the entire dash board out. Poor bear. Its aggression was only trying to escape. Guess I have another reason to dislike furrin' cars. They all need emergency crash bars to let bruins get away.

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Dick Burg

That's the joke in my neck of the woods (NW Wyoming=grizzly country). Carry a .22 and shoot the other guy in the knee....................

wyo-man

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Live free or die

Problem is. I can easily outrun my boss :-p.

Plus he was carrying a .22. I had 165g Bonded PDX1's.....47 of them to be exact haha he felt perfectly fine leaving me to deal with the bear, Hes a city guy.......I'm not haha

He did. He entered exactly 15 feet into the trail last night. Drew his weapon...and stopped and said "ill let you check it out" lmbo