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| Name: |
Straight To Panic |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Kekakabic |
| Date |
May Day, 2002 |
| Time: |
Aftrenoon |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
2 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Persistent |
| Ended when: |
Bear left on it's own
|
Important
Details: |
Paddling a small portage pond, (name forgotten, but experience
long remembered), my elder companion and I were first presented
with an enormous bull moose completely submerged near the portage
shoreline. Drifting along waiting for the other two solo boats
to catch up, my elder and I, Marsh is his name, noticed a big
dark shape crossing the lake at an unusually rapid speed. I advanced
my prism solo on the round black shape to find a huge boar swimming
the longest length of the lake. His body was completely under
water, only his massive head bobbed above the icy surface. As
the others continued to catch up with Marsh and I, who were now
plenty close to the speeding bruin, the bear continued to outpace
the rapid yet reluctant strokes. As he hit the shore, he busted
through a thicket of tags and birch that would have stopped a
Mac Truck. As he cleared the shoreline thicket, he stopped to
give one good shake and a sneering glance over his haunches, as
if to encourage me to keep following. Once I realized what he
was and what he was doing, I kept a respectful and safe distance,
at least safe for him. I think if he would have wanted, he could
have come pretty close to keeping pace with our weary flotilla
of soloists. Just remember, if you encounter a bear in the great
north woods you donāt have to outrun him, just the unlucky son
of a birch next to you.
Cheers |
| Name: |
jdeloria |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Spoon |
| Date |
September 22, 2005 |
| Time: |
Dusk |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
2 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Unknown |
| Ended when: |
Bear left due to loud noises
|
Important
Details: |
I had turned in for the night after feasting on big Leonards'
beginners luck big pike, chunks of which augmented freeze dried
chowder wonderfully. That and some onions and jeeze; smoked oyster
appetizers probably constituted bear bait, but then I always think
that. We were at the site nearest to Pickle L. portage facing
west.
Anyway, I'm jarred from ny deep rems with,"Hey, there's a bear!"
Uh-oh, slip out of my solo tent, stumble down to the fire ring
and just see the bruin across a small bay slipping into the bush.
My bug-eyed rookie companion has me shaking with his quick recount
of watchng Yogi come out to the beach to splash and rise up on
hind legs and growl and that's when he hot-footed up to my tent.
The bear then worked its' way through the bush toward us, about
200 yards and we began an un-holy tirade that apparently thwarted
his ambitions. Burned a lot of the woodpile waiting for more excitement
but never heard from him again.
Did an especially thorough camp cleaning in the morn. before departure
to not invite nuisance on the next guys. |
| Name: |
Paddler |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Pawness, Little Sioux |
| Date |
July 29, 2005 |
| Time: |
Aftrenoon |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
6 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Unknown |
| Ended when: |
Bear left due to seeing me
|
Important
Details: |
Swimming across river.
Not sure if it saw us while it was swimming.
Stood up on bank and turned away.
|
| Name: |
Ken and Liz |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Alton and Beth; portage in between |
| Date |
August 21, 2005 |
| Time: |
Morning |
| Type: |
Portage Encounter |
| Number of people: |
2 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Aggressive |
| Ended when: |
Bear left with foodpack
|
Important
Details: |
I met lg. bear (300 lbs., ranger estimate) on path; shouts
did not deter. It veered thru woods to where my husband waited
at the portage end--took our 40-lb foodpack and was gone in 5
sec. This bear has been raiding camps and portages on Alton/Beth
for a month. |
| Name: |
asmjock |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Knife (SW) |
| Date |
August 8, 2005 |
| Time: |
Dawn |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
2 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Timid |
| Ended when: |
Bear left due to seeing me
|
Important
Details: |
Bear was feeding on bushes next to water's edge less than
25 meters from camp. Bear saw me (quietly tying my shoes) went
back into the bush and seemed to be heading closer to camp, but
never showed up. Nothing was disturbed during the previous night
(we had five food 20# food cans on the ground and one pack hanging
in a tree). Bear was medium size with a light tan muzzle (German
Shepard like). The other observer didn't see the bear but heard
"something in the woods". Our party size was eight (the other
six were still in their tents). |
| Name: |
paddlemaker |
Location: |
Quetico |
| Lake: |
Carp Lake |
| Date |
July 7, 2005 |
| Time: |
Evening |
| Type: |
Distant Sighting |
| Number of people: |
Solo |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Timid |
| Ended when: |
Bear left due to seeing me
|
Important
Details: |
We were on an unmarked campsite on the NE end of Carp Lake,
not far from the Emerald portage. We spotted a bear across a small
bay, about 350-400 feet away. I think we startled it and it slipped
into the water. It splashed around and eventually climbed out
of the water and into some brush. This is very close to the area
of the previous sighting listed here. The bear was small and I'm
wondering if it was the same one... |
| Name: |
ANDY |
Location: |
Quetico |
| Lake: |
CARP |
| Date |
June 30, 2005 |
| Time: |
Morning |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
4 |
| Cubs present: |
Yes, 1 cub was present
|
| Personality: |
Unknown |
| Ended when: |
Bear left on it's own
|
Important
Details: |
Sighted cub only crossing beaver dam near portage from Carp
to Emerald. Saw cub when we were about 50 feet from beaver dam,
backed off and waited for Momma bear, but did not see her. Cub
ambled out of woods and crossed dam slowly, didn't seem to notice
us. |
| Name: |
Noah Binkley |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Crooked Lake, Saturday Bay |
| Date |
June 21, 2004 |
| Time: |
Dusk |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
6 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Aggressive and Persistent
|
| Ended when: |
Bear left because the food was
gone |
Important
Details: |
Large island at the entrance to Saturday Bay. Bear spent
the night eating from food pack. Repeated attempts to scare him/her
away were unsucessful. The bear left only when sun was completely
up. Bears hiss. |
| Name: |
Larin Roberson |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Crooked Lake, Saturday Bay |
| Date |
June 21, 2004 |
| Time: |
Dusk |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
6 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Aggressive and Persistent
|
| Ended when: |
Bear left because the food was
gone |
Important
Details: |
Large island at the entrance to Saturday Bay. Bear spent
the night eating from food pack. Repeated attempts to scare him/her
away were unsucessful. The bear left only when sun was completely
up. Bears hiss. |
| Name: |
arkansasman |
Location: |
BWCA |
| Lake: |
Snowbank/Disappointmetn |
| Date |
June 25, 2004 |
| Time: |
Aftrenoon |
| Type: |
close encounter |
| Number of people: |
4 |
| Cubs present: |
None |
| Personality: |
Timid |
| Ended when: |
Bear left on it's own
|
Important
Details: |
After completing portage from Disappointment to Snowbank,
bear walked out as we were loading canoes, wife had stayed on
the Snowbank side as we double portged and heard it in the bushes
but did not know what it was... We were able to video it and photograph
it as it stayed for a minute or two... small bear probably 130
pounds. Bear left and walked up the portage trail toward Disappointment. |
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