My mom and her old flame were winter watchman one year at a Peter Pan Seafood cannery on the Alaskan peninsula. It was a remote location and their job was to keep it from freezing up over the winter. This bear was a continued problem and was constantly trying to break in. Finally when it broke down the backdoor to the mudroom of their house they openned up on it. It ran outside and died.
Look at the head on this thing.
Probably one of my favorite series of old pictures is below.
My wanna be stepdad and I encountered this bear in a meadow.
He was 33 and a heavy weight boxer type who sported a fairly large ego.
He also thought he knew something about bears.
I was 14.
I remember plain as day him saying, "Oh hell, we have nothing to worry about. They always do a false charge once or twice before they come for real."
I also remember like it was yesterday saying, "OK that sounds just great. Here is my camera. Get some good pictures. I will stay back about 20 feet behind you."
Since we had no gun or spray my 20 feet was more like 30 yards.
He proceeded to walk towards the bear.
At first it just continued to eat grass and slowly drift away.
Until it didn't.
I remember the very second this bear huffed and started coming.
I turned and ran as fast as my legs would go.
After a short burst and not hearing any screaming from the big guy who couldn't run as fast, I turned around to see him slowly walking towards me laughing his a$$ off.
He said the bear bluff charged to about 20 yards, stood up, turned around, and walked off.
The guy is still alive and nuts to this day.
The pictures were taken with an old one button camera that didn't have a zoom.
You can judge for yourself the yardages.
