[Southpaw]

Richard,

Years ago I went on an Alaskan trip. Bush pilot dropped us off on a tundra pond with rafts to inflate to cruise down a nearby river fishing for salmon, trout, grayling, etc. We were in the wilderness for a week and never saw another soul. Saw all kinds of fresh bear sign everywhere we went but I was not in hunting mode so I always made plenty of noise and always talked real loud coming up to blind bends in the river. Great trip.

Did not actually see a bear until the next to last day. Just set up camp for the night at 11 pm and you know that feeling your being watched and I turn around and 100 yards up river and wind is a Grizz standing there. We lock eyes and before I could even say hey bear it lit out like a scalded dog running and crashing through that willow and alder scrub that comes up to my chest. I could see the bears head bobbing around every now and again but man it was moving. I never felt so small in all my life and no we only had pepper spray. But I was pretty confident I could out run the rest of my party.

Not thinking anything about it but feeling thankful it lit out and thinking bear had gone pretty far I walk up to where I had seen the bear on the gravel bar to see how big its tracks where compared to other bear sign. I think the other ones were black bears or smaller bears sign we had seen all week. Anyway if life is a movie this is when people in the audience throw popcorn at the screen yelling "don't do that you idiot". I get there and right beside the big bear track is a set of small bear tracks that were just as fresh. Right then is when a cold chill just ran down my spine. Never saw the cub and my immediate thought was if she lost track of her cub she was going to circle back on me, and me just holding a 6 weight fly rod. Man I felt really small and stupid at that point. Walking cautiously,briskly and whistling as loud as I could I slip back to camp I kept thinking and saying to myself "lets not be a statistic". I kept looking around for an exit strategy thinking where is the tallest tree and could I make it if she showed up. Problem with country we were in is that all the trees are scrubby and the tallest for miles was no more than 10 to 12 feet tall. I did not sleep a wink that night, but I did find out why she was there. We were at one of their fishing spots as there was a shallow river wide riffle that was easy pickings for the salmon. Needless to say I wanted the heck out of that area.

Great trip though. Did land a 54 lb king salmon on light tackle. I ate so much fresh salmon that week that it took me a year before I could look at salmon again as a meal. BTW that bush pilot that dropped us off and picked us up was incredible. Name of his company was Ptarmigan Air and his slogan was "We're not Chicken". That was first time I had heard the story about Chicken, Alaska and how no one there could spell the name of those funny looking birds hanging around.

Lions, Tigers, Bears, Wolves, Coyotes..... Oh my.