Purely Whimsical

Last year, Ada and I visited my Mom and her husband at their camp on Clear Creek. The weather was beautiful, Ada loved playing with their dog, and mostly I just tried to relax. I did do some fishing, and caught a silver.

On the third night I was there, I woke up at around 0130. Mom’s dog was barking like mad, enough so that Ada whuffed a couple of times, even though she was clearly clueless as to why she should be barking.

Then I heard my stepdad yelling and cussing. He’s yelling at bears, trying to scare them out of the camp. I heard him go back into their cabin for his rifle, so I grabbed my pistol and stepped out of my cabin. I made sure Ada stayed in the cabin; she’s a city dog and would only get herself killed.

It was in the no-time of the morning in Alaska in the summer. While there is no true darkness, you get an endless, encompassing twilight that makes simple trees and bushes seem eerie, grasping, and menacing.

Carefully, I walk to my stepdad. He has a loaded rifle, so I make sure to make noise and call his name so he isn’t startled when I walk up to him. He points out the bears to me. There are three brown bears, one significantly larger than the other two. The cubs are just a little bigger than black bears.

My stepdad begins firing shots into the air, trying to scare them into leaving. Momma Bear leaves camp, spooked by the gunshots. Her cubs are still in camp, and my stepdad goes back into the cabin to get more ammo. One cub leaves after Momma, but the other turns back towards the camp. And me.

It’s moving towards me, so I shoot up into the trees. It slows down, but is still ambling towards me. So I shoot approximately a yard or two above it’s head. It’s still coming my way. Finally, I shoot to it’s left side near it’s head, aiming for a huge spruce tree just behind it. The bear cub rears, and I start to wish I had a 45. Finally, it turns and runs to Momma.

We walk to the edge of the river, and we see the three bears on the other side. They’re huge. I realize I’ve never been that close to a brown bear before. It was somewhere between 5 and 10 yards away.

Amazingly after all of this I immediately fell back asleep.

Y’all, this is a poorly written true account of an encounter with 3 brown bears.