Bruin news

Photo: James Poulson

A couple of great shots in the ADN today of a cellist serenading brown bears in an old Sitka paper mill. And a fellow Anchorage bike commuter is surely thanking his lucky stars this evening after a run-in with a brown bear on his morning ride to work. The (defensive) attack occurred less than three miles from my daily commuting destination north of Tudor Road.

Trouble Bruin on the Kenai

A Kenai Brown Bear (photo by Daniel Ogden)

The Anchorage Daily News features a report this morning about a harrowing brown bear encounter in Soldotna - a town about 150 (road) miles south of the big city. Evidently local fishing guide, Greg Brush, was charged by an old, starving bear without any warning. Brush, alone but for his two dogs, was able to grab his handgun and fire a few rounds, killing the charging 900 pounder with a "lucky" shot . The bear collapsed and slid past Brush on its chin. The article goes on to mention that the number of bear-human interactions on the Kenai Peninsula is increasing. And compares the Kenai bruins to their Kodiak cousins who, as I have witnessed first hand, are much less interested in human encounters. While the debate over the best management practices for the omnivorous beasts will certainly continue, the conversations that I have had with Alaskans living rural communities is mixed. Some say that the bears are a nuisance and should be removed, while others recognize that they are part of Alaska's unique landscape and thus people should adapt their habits. Me, I'm not concerned at all about crossing a bear - Rebel is quite the bear dog (yeah right).

New Bike + Hungry Bears = Kodiak Excitement

The bears on Kodiak are in the final stages of hyperphagia. Although most have of the bears around town have fattened up, they are still looking for a few thousand more calories before heading to the hills for winter. Their preferred food sources, salmon and berries, are becoming less available and we have had numerous reports of bears picking through trash cans. The local experts say that we will see bears in and around town for the rest of the month. That said, we are on high alert for hungry bears. I was on high alert for big brown bears on my mountain bike ride yesterday. Sure enough, near the end of my ride at Boy Scout Lake, a forested state recreation site, I rounded a turn as a very fat dark brown bear was making his way down the hillside toward a stream. I skidded to a stop and caught the attention of the bear. He started to move back up the hillside, stopped, and looked over his shoulder to figure out what I was. A large tree blocked our direct eye contact as both of us waited for the other to make a move. After catching my breath and relieved to see that he was not moving any closer I used the most confident voice I could muster and told the bear to "go on, go on." Once he realized that I was just a nonthreatening human he began to walk down the hillside, keeping one eye on me as he made his way down to the stream. After that I headed for home, on the paved well-traveled main road. October bear count = 2.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Photos)

"I'd buy you a kabob."

The view from our "idyllic" campsite.

Our dinner guest at a safe enough distance to be photographed (rump only).

Meghan -- shaken, not stirred.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Thursday August 14, 2008 7:00 pm.

Cave Mountain National Forest Campground

(near Glacier National Park, MT)

After our second day of driving from Denver, CO to Kodiak, AK Meghan and decided to camp at the foot of the Montana Rocky Mountains in the Lewis & Clark National Forest. The campground sits on the banks of the North Fork of the Teton River. We arrived at the campground late in the evening and had our choice of several campsites. After browsing the available sites Meghan and I chose a beautiful site with lots of privacy at the end of the campground. I remember wondering to myself why such a idyllic site was vacant even though there were several other parties at the campground. I soon shook off the worries and thought that we must have lucked into the spot. Meghan went to the pay station while I set up the cook stove to prepare our dinner -- shish-kabobs and beans -- Rebel (our dachshund) stood guard near the site's picnic table. Meghan returned from the register station and said that another group of campers had told her that there was a bear in the area. "They said that a group that was tent camping for the last few days didn't have any trouble, though" Meghan related to me. "Oh okay I said, sounds good."

After cooking our shish-kabobs and sitting down for a long-awaited protein-rich dinner we began to relax. I remember reaching for my second Big Sky beer and the bottle opener when Meghan gasped, "Oh God there's a bear." Sure enough a larger sow grizzly was watching us from the hillside above our site. "What should we do?" asked Meghan. From the table we watched the grizzly slowly pace above our site. Then the bear seemed to realize that her appearance did not scare us away from our delicious protein-rich dinner. Perhaps out of frustration the large bear, in a display of power, stomped and scratched at the ground -- looking very menacing. Well the display scared me and definitely frightened Meghan - "Oh God!" Meghan gasped and began hurriedly packing up our half-eaten long-awaited meal. I stepped on to the table top and faced the bear with a very odd sense of confidence. I am sure, however, that had the bear taken one or two more steps in our direction the feeling confidence would have drained out of me as quickly as the color from my face. While Meghan packed up dinner, the stove, the tent, and our (silent) guard dog Rebel I stood on the table two, bear spray cans at the ready, and watched the bear circle our site until it disappeared into a thick stand of trees.
We moved to another site across the campground. I was excited about the encounter while Meghan was very shaken up.