Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Other Day I Saw a Bear

To say that my husband is an outdoorsman is like saying Tiger Woods golfs once in a while.

The man that I married eats, sleeps & thinks about being outside. If he's not out there hunting, fishing, scouting, or hiking he's planning the next time that he will be. Of course when you put in the time, like he does, every once in a while you get the days that you will never forget.

So it is for this reason that Tony has had his fair share of animal encounters. A few weeks before our wedding he managed to crack two ribs escaping from a sow black bear with two cubs. Then there was the black bear that decided to use him as a punching bag. When he arrived home that time he was covered in blood, but still standing! whew... And then once, while deer hunting, he was stalked and attacked by a cougar. He managed to come out of that encounter with barely a scratch. I can't say the same about the cougar!

Usually I am the recepient of these tales after the fact and when he gets home. He has this amazing ability to weave a story as he elaborates on every detail. I can listen to him tell the same ones over and over. But once in a while I get to see it for myself.

We had been camping at Barnes Lake with our friends and were on our way back from a little side trip to Oregon Jack Provincial Park (we went to see the pictographs there). We had just rounded a corner when Tony said, "There's a bear!" I was still processing the word 'bear' while he was making his way up the mountainside with our new camera racing after it. At first it seemed as if the bear would disappear in a hurry. In fact it stood on its hind legs and huffed quite a bit. I take this as not a good sign. Tony takes it as a sign to get closer.




After that it was as if the bear decided to pose for a spread in Outdoor Life. Slowly it meandered to a stump and put his elbows on top of it. "How about this?"



"No? Something softer? A little prettier? These flowers look nice. Let me sit behind them."

We probably stayed and took pictures and watched him for about 1/2 hour while he gave us ample opportunity to take these amazing photographs.

Of course my favourite is the one of my outdoorsman and his 'voguing' bear.





2 comments:

kfroese said...

that's amazing. great bear pics. i didn't know you had this other blog until today ... how do you find time to update 2 blogs and facebook? oh, that's right, you're up late at night just like me.

Steve said...

Love hearing about your adventures! I can just hear what the bear is thinking, "oh, its Tony! I've heard about you!" 2nd pic leaning on the stump, bear says, "Eh Tony, where have you been? pass the mata?"