The furry ferocious 500 lb. beast of nature that we commonly associate with terror and helplessness cannot be the bear anymore. Apparently, they keep to themselves when we are around, and just extricate everywhere. Seriously. As a newcomer to the Rocky Mountains, the thought of bears attacking, viscously without remorse of course, quite honestly crossed my mind several times a day while on spike. These thoughtful assumptions came from years of believing that Grizzly bears will floss their teeth with human bones and Black Bears are just plain evolved mutated dinosaurs. Already, only three weeks into the MCC Crew Member season, what I just now named “the bear scare” has become more of a myth to me than blister free work boots!
I wish I could say that I could prove this theory through an awesome story about tag, hide and go seek, and checkers with a Grizz, but my only proof of their endangered existence are the tree trunk scratches and the feces littered camp sights. However, bear stories aren't usually kept untold between crewdren for too long and every story of surviving a bear encounter contradicts the bear scare.
Personally, and undoubtedly for our entire crew as well, our first four day hitch (in the Hungry Horse Ranger District) felt like a burst of excitement, natural wonders and an overwhelming release of anticipation. Speaking for myself on this one, I hadn't realized how anxious the bear scare would make me until my first wilderness journey. As I walked alongside our wise sponsors, I quickly had yanked all of the info they had about bears as soon as possible. Interestingly enough, this specific question that I had brought up out of pure terror is what almost simultaneously led me to my newfound semi-fearlessness of bears. After thinking of an engaging way of bringing it up, I blurted out to our rad sponsor Erich from the Forest Service, “what is the most common misconception of bears out here?” He replied saying, “people see bears as monsters, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. More people die from sheep every year!” The first thing I thought was great, he's joking about it, I am a dead man. But with his personally famous tale of an encounter with a bear, I was soon to be enlightened. It goes roughly as follows. One day, Erich was 20 or so feet from a massive Grizzly. Wisely choosing not to tango with Erich and his weapon of non choice, the hoe dad, the Grizzly crossed paths with Erich, not so much as batting an eye. The war for dominance and ultimate survival was over, or so he had thought. Minutes later, Erich was harassed by a medium sized Grouse. Erich honestly admits his fear of Grouse is close to ten fold of the bear scare,
Spending these last few weeks with amazing people have actually relaxed me about everything including bear attacks, and I am pumped knowing that I can call Kalispell my home and the people I now camp with my crew. I hope being somewhat fearless when it comes to bears will serve me better than the previous contrary, in case my karma from writing this blog catches up to me. Maybe when I actually see a bear, he will look like Smoky or the Sugar Crisp Mascot. There I go again, I better watch my dime for bear. Peace
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