*What A Rush*
Today I did some final inspections and clean up on some logging blocks we are prepping for the planters this spring. This is bear country up here in the Wilds of Canada... It was about 4:00 PM and I wanted to get finished, so I was hustling along before it got dark. I had my boy, age 10, and one of my aged-out Junior Rangers with me, age 18, who started working for me this fall.
The block is on a hillside facing the south. I was at the bottom edge working my way along an outcrop of trees along the standing timber. I was looking down, walking fast and making a lot of noise. When I hit the end of the stand, I stepped out on the road and looked to my left.
Now, they say that time slows down in a tense situation, It does. What couldn't have been more than 2 seconds seemed to have lasted 10 minutes. Every sense in my body came to life to it's maximum.
As a parent I always ask myself, "would I put myself in harm's way to protect my children?" That question was answered today.
You see, when I stepped out on that logging road from behind the standing timber into the 3 inches of fresh snow and looked to my left, Standing not more than 50 feet away was the biggest Grizzly I have ever set eyes on.
He looked at me, and me at him, like we were in a vacuum. No noise, nothing. All that went through my head was "where's my son??"... Then it happened, His eye brows thickened and made a straight line across the top of his eyes.
Like a scared rabbit I scrambled towards where I thought my boy was, yelling "Get to the truck...Get inside the truck!....Grizzly!!!!" When I finally located him half way between my position and the pickup I made a beeline across the block yelling at the same time, "Derek!...Get the rifle!...Grizzly...Grizzly"!
I didn't look back once, only ahead, and was going to grab my boy on the way by. All I could see was the fading northern light glistening off a 40mm objective of a Burris 3 to 9 Rifle Scope. Light of life for some, light of death for others. Then I saw the rifle come down.
I covered the 300 yards in record time and arrived at the truck about the same time as my boy, and Derek's eyes were like pie plates. The bear had come after me for a bit, and when it heard the door of the truck slam, it looked up the hill and saw Derek and took off. If Derek had not been by the truck when I yelled the first time I wouldn't be writing this right now, I'd be a winters supply of hibernation grub.
We measured the tracks. 11" by 8". This makes it a 9 foot bear, most likely around 7-800 pounds.
What a rush!
Chief
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