Hey Bear! - Part 2 of 3

Random Encounters with Ursus Unexpecticus

You can find PART 1 of this story here.

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Like many other hikers, I’ve often seen bears below a trail feeding streamside on the fresh green veggies of spring, or in the meadows later in summer among the sweet and juicy blueberries and huckleberries we sometimes devour together in the wild, albeit at a distance. I’ve rambled around a bend on a forest trail and watched bears quickly scurry off. So when I say I’ve encountered a lot of bears, most are of this innocuous variety.

I do have a few more anecdotal snippets, however, that are a bit more memorable.

Around eight years ago, I was in Alaska to attend public meetings related to my job with a federal energy agency. I took a couple of days to visit some sites in the field, one of which was outside Valdez, Alaska. The weather was great and I wanted to car camp. I picked a place with skinny campsites along the road shoulder on the south shore of the Port of Valdez.