Many people have posted their experiences with bears so I will share two of mine that scared the crap out of me.
The first time I got up close to a black bear was about 15 or so years ago. Usually, I’d hunt with my dad in eastern WA, but he got into a bad motorcycle accident and was out of commission. That put me in a precarious position because he had a truck, but I only had Mustang, thus, I couldn’t drive the logging roads into our usual areas.
Using google maps, I located a juicy looking tree farm that was about 30-40 mins from Mt. Rainier. It only allowed hikers—no vehicles—and required roughly 4.5 miles of hiking, with 2000+ foot of elevation gain, just to get to the first clear cut. Next one was 7 miles in.
I headed up there in mid-July with a gallon of water, some foil packs of tuna, an MRE, and a pup tent. Figured I’d stay 3-5 days and scout for bear and elk. The first mile was a brutal uphill trek but the last 5 were a cakewalk. Before I got to the 2nd clear cut, I saw a well-established deer trail following the ridge and took it. It led me to a beautiful, exposed ridgeline, populated with berry bushes and buckbrush, that overlooked a giant lake. I decided to make my camp there, right on the game trail, in the overgrown clear cut.
Right before dark, a thick, wet, misty fog rolled in, cutting visibility down to less than 100 ft. I got as cozy I could in the child-sized tent. The only way I could stretch out was if I laid diagonally. I put my rifle to the back of the tent and laid my .22 revolver and a flashlight on a yellow piece of felt by the entrance. I read for awhile and eventually fell asleep.
Sometime around 4am, I woke up with my heart pounding. Initially I couldn’t figure out whether I woke from a bad dream or something else. Right as my heart started to slow down, I heard breathing and the sound of footsteps on wet wood. Before my fear got the best of me, I assured myself it was probably just a curious deer or elk since I’d had several late-night encounters like that before.
I grabbed my flashlight and revolver, unzipped the tent, and stood up looking around. Much to my dismay, the misty fog had gotten worse and visibility was less than 30 ft with the flashlight. I was about to sit back down in the tent when my light picked up two yellow eyes roughly 60-80 ft to the left of me. The eyes bobbed down and then back up again, which reminded me of how deer behave when they’re curious about something. I breathed a sigh of relief and said in a low voice, “Piss off deer”. That’s when the animal started walking towards me.
The second I realized it was moving towards me, I knew it wasn’t a deer. The eyes were only 18-24” off the ground and it was walking directly at me with no hesitation whatsoever. I yelled “STOP IT’ and “F**K OFF”. The animal paused, giving me a moment to consider whether I should shoot the .22 at it. I reasoned that it was most likely a bear and that I didn’t want to risk only wounding it and pissing it off. I decided to duck into the tent and grab my 30-06. When I tried to pull it out, the rifle got caught in the tent poles and fabric. Like I said before, it was a pup tent designed for children. I was using it because it was super lightweight.
When the rifle got snagged, I looked out and saw that the eyes were bouncing and could hear that the animal was moving towards me again at a pace similar to a human jogging. I jumped back up and screamed at it which brought it to a halt about 30-40ft away. Still scared of wasting the 6 rounds of .22 ammo, I grabbed a chunk of wet wood at my feet and lobbed it at the animal. The wood landed a few feet to its left but it didn’t react. I grabbed another chunk and lobbed it, this time striking the animal somewhere on its back. It ran about 50 ft to my right and disappeared. I kept scanning for a minute or so and then reached into the tent for my rifle again. Immediately I heard footsteps again, shot up onto my feet, just in time to see a juvenile black bear galloping towards me at about 30ft. I screamed at it, pointed the revolver, and was about to shoot when it finally veered away and kept on running till it disappeared into the woods.
I stood where I was, scanning around with the flashlight, until the sun came up. Once it was fully light, I looked for tracks and found a couple paw prints and a fresh pile of scat. Both signs confirmed it was a juvenile in the 100-150 lb range. I loitered around til noon, trying to talk myself into continuing my trip, but my nerves were fried. I ended up hiking back out.
Though I camped and hunted in that area several times afterwards, I never felt completely comfortable there again and always had difficulties with falling asleep. I never saw another bear there. Only deer, elk, coyotes, and a skunk. I also never setup my tent on game trails again either.
In retrospect, I should have just fired the revolver to scare it off. At the time, my brain wasn’t functioning properly. I’d never been in a situation like that and didn’t know how to handle it. Oh well.
