The Bear Facts

    Âaround him. A lone bear probably meant it
    Âwas a boar as, carefully as I watched, I could find
    Âno evidence of young ones or of this bear paying
    Âheed to what could have been another
    Âbear. This bear had evidently either not
    Âseen me, or did not consider me a threat, for he
    Âcontinued his foraging even as I parked my
    Âvehicle and began a short semi-circle to insure the
    Âwind, such as it was this clear, calm day, was
    Âcompletely in my favor. It is said that if a
     Theleaf falls in the forest, the eagle will see it; the
Bear Factsdeer will hear it and the bear willsmell it!Â
    ÂHis olfactory sense is that superior!
    Â    Â
    Â    Â
    Â Slowly and carefully I began to pick my
    Âway across the old logging unit. The first
    Âthing I discovered was that the brush that
    Âappeared chest high from the road was much
    Âtaller than it had appeared from the friendly
    Âconfines of the Tracker and I often found myself
    Âin a jungle that was only possible to see out of
    Âby looking straight up! Where possible, I
    Âused down logs to traverse the rugged
    Âterrain. At other times, I was on my
  Bybelly, crawling under the thick brush. For
    Âmore than an hour I sneaked across the three
    Âhundred yards (270m) I had estimated him to be
    Âfrom me when I began this exercise.  I
    Âhad no idea if the bear was still in his place as I
    Âcrept up on him. It certainly would not be
    Âthe first time I had executed the "perfect" stalk
    Âonly to find that my quarry had long since bugged
    Âout for more friendly, if not safer,
    Âconfines.Â
    Â    Â
    Â    Â
   Thom Cantrall At just under what I judged to be one
    Âhundred yards (90m) from the bruin, I crossed a
    Âsizeable log and was able to peek over the brush
 The sun had passed its zenith and theto see my bear still contentedly munching in his
tide was busily filling the inlet slowing the fishing toberry patch. Quietly, I dropped back
the point that it was time to find other things todown off the log and continued my stalk, now
do for a time. Besides, after four days ofspending more time on my hands and knees than
fishing, the freezer was full and there was noon my feet, slowly, but inexorably closing the
more room to store the salmon wedistance separating us.
caught. Those fish caught in the morning    Â
had been filleted, wrapped and stuffed into the    Â
overcrowded freezer awaiting our trip home in At fifty yards (45m) from the bear, I
two more days.Âcame upon a doe and fawn, also feeding on the
    Âsucculent and tasty berries and had to stop my
    Âstalk and move to where I could, without being
 From the sleeping area of the cabinseen, toss a couple of rocks into the brush near
came the rasping and wheezing sound of menthem, but not so close as to scare them.Â
sleeping. The thought came to mind that,My aim was to cause them enough distress to
perhaps, there had been a woodcuttersleave, but not enough to spook them, thereby
competition scheduled without my knowledge, butspooking my main quarry, Mr. Bear. As
after careful investigation it wasrevealed to be nomy right (throwing) shoulder is completely
more than four men snoring contentedly, probablyinoperative due to the lack of a rotator cuff
with visions of thirty pound salmon runningwhich has been destroyed by arthritis, I had to
through their minds.fling the stones with a kind of underhand motion.
    Â It was not pretty, but it was effective
    Âas the stones landed close enough to catch their
 Taking advantage of the lull, I took myattention and alert them that not all was well
gold pan and loaded my carcass into the little Geowithin the kingdom today and that it was perhaps
Tracker available for our use and headed for theprudent to move on to more receptive
tiny, no-name creek I had spotted in one of myclimes. The result was, as I had hoped,
earlier perambulations away from camp.Âthey simply moved off into the brush, not
This creek showed on my map as being shortpanicked, but merely wary.
and fairly steep, falling from some high country    Â
that gave every indication of containing mineral    Â
and I was excited to do some test pans. With their departure, I continued crawling
    Âthru the re-prod (newly planted) timber and brush
    Âuntil I figured I should be within bow range of the
 As is my usual wont, I wanted to knowbig bear. Although I was totally unarmed,
as much as I could learn about the stream beforemy original goal was to see if I could get within
investing time and energy into the testing torange of my bow without him sensing my
increase my chances of finding mineral bypresence. At that point I found a large
eliminating prospecting in unproductivestump that I felt I could scale fairly easily.Â
waters. To this end, I turned the TrackerDoing so afforded me a magnificent view, not
up the old, semi- overgrown logging road thatonly of my immediate vicinity and Mr. Bruin, quite
seemed to parallel the stream up thein view at a range of between thirty and
mountain. About a half mile off the mainthirty-five yards (27-32 m), still enjoying his fruitful
road, the logging spur veered sharply east and uprepast, but across the island to the east, the
a short ridge, away from the stream. Â Asstraits and on towards the mountains on the
I reached the peak of the ridge, I stopped to lookmainland east of Wrangell and Petersburg.
out over the basin through which the creek    Â
meandered.    Â
    Â To say I was stunned would not do
    Âjustice to that moment. It was absolutely
 To my utter dismay, the creek flowedthe most magnificent panorama I could ever hope
out of a very beautiful and very substantialto view. I was so enthralled, I
lake! It was quite scenic and picturesquemomentarily forgot my bear. I used the
to behold, but it destroyed my hopes of findingrest of the roll of film in my little Nikon camera on
any color in its waters, let alone the Mother Lodethe view, temporarily forgetting I had come to
every prospector expects to find with each pansee the bear.
he washes! Any gold in the stream would    Â
settle out in the lake and not be carried further    Â
down stream. When my sanity returned after a short
    Âhiatus, I judged the bear to be in the "nice bear"
    Âclass on the Twangg Universal Scoring
 Disappointed but not disillusioned, ISystem. The levels on this system are
continued up the road, past the lake and into thequite simple and don't involve a lot of superfluous
upper reaches of the now tiny rill. I nowmeasurements as to most other scoring systems
had nothing particular on my mind, but wasin use today. It simply goes from "little
merely on an exploring trip, seeing what I couldbear" to "good bear", "nice bear", "great bear",
see of this vast and beautiful country that was"OH MY GOSH" and the ultimate is "Faints Dead
Alaska.  Presently, I left the cover of theAway". I use this same scoring system
timber and entered an area of almost alpineon all major game species and some fish.Â
beauty. There were extensive meadowsIt's the most universal system ever
interspersed with a multitude of beaver ponds,devised. For safety's sake, when applying
with a tiny stream vigorously working its waythis system to the Grizzly Bear, Ursus Horriblis,
from one pond to the next as it made its wayany class above "little bear" should be done while
down the slope toward the lake I'd seen earlier.vacating the area the bear inhabits!Â
 Between these diminutive ponds, standsFurther, it is recommended that any larger Grizz
of spruce and hemlock with an occasional pinein the TUSS scale be estimated from film taken
struggled to make a living in the damp, boggy soil.while retreating!
    Â    Â
    Â    Â
 As I left this area, I entered a region This was definitely a lone boar and would
that had been logged several years ago.Âmeasure between five and one half and six feet
My best estimate would be six to eight years had(about 2m). Â He weighed about 375-400
elapsed since it was logged. The stumpslbs (170-180 kg) on the foot (bears don't have
of great Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock and Redhooves)! He was a very nice bear...
Cedar stood as silent testament to the greatmaybe even a "great bear" and, if I had been so
stand of timber that had once stoodinclined and so armed, he would have been a very
here. Everywhere, there were youngsimple target. As it was, however, all I
trees growing in the comparatively drier soil, givingwished to do was to watch him and learn
promise to the great stand of timber that wouldsomething of his traits from close observation.
soon be found here again in a very few    Â
years. Today, though, it was at the prime    Â
age for wildlife as the brushes were growing in All too soon, a vagrant wind betrayed
great profusion at just the age of maximummy presence to his ultra-sensitive nose and he
tenderness and nutrition. The small Sitkabegan a slow, careful, tactical retreat. I
Blacktail deer indigenous to Southeast Alaskagot my camera reloaded in time to get only a
were everywhere! They obviously foundcouple of longer range shots, but he will live
the young brushes to besucculent eating andforever in the view screen of my mind.
were making good time on getting their fair share.    Â
    Â    Â
    Â As I retreated in my turn to my vehicle
 As I continued higher on the mountain, Iafter his departure, I pondered God, Life and
was watching very closely as the blueberry andBears and our place in the overall scheme of
huckleberry brushes were becoming morethings, a scheme that we all too often don't
prevalent and berries in this area generally meansunderstand or cannot comprehend, but suffice it
bears! Â It was not long before I wasto know that such places and such creations do
rewarded and I spotted a lone black bear feedingexist. That is sufficient unto my soul for
on the ripening blueberries growing in profusionthe present... perhaps for always...