My Black Bear Story

[SnowWalker]

I was 19 and living and working in Banff, Alberta. We worked at a motel on the outskirts and we lived there for free in a cool cabin near the back end near the treeline of a vast forest. We had a lot of fun living there. I also have a great story about climbing quite a ways up Cascade mountain with four other boys. I love that story because I climbed higher, by myself and without using the rope, than any of the boys would climb, but that's another story.
Outside of our cabin was a big, steel barrel quite a bit off to the side and we would throw our garbage bags in there and then the maintenance guy would come and get it every other day. A black or brown bear (can't remember which but it def was not a grizzly) I think black, would come every other night like clockwork, as though it knew the garbage would be gone the next day. It always came around just after dinner at around 7:00 PM, broad daylight, lol, and he would steal a whole garbage bag from the barrel and take off back into the bush with it. The ground sloped upward pretty high at the treeline and man could it run fast up that hill through the trees with a full garbage bag, I mean, wow.
We'd try to make sure that there wasn't anything sharp in our garbage so that he wouldn't hurt himself. This went on for a few weeks. Anyway, someone would holler "The bear's here!" and we'd all belt to the window or doorway to watch him. He would look right at us while he proceeded to steal our garbage and wasn't too afraid.
One of the boys got brave one night and walked out toward the bear yelling at it to go away. He got about twenty feet away from it and then stopped. The bear stood his ground for a few seconds and didn't move and glared at him...like 'I dare you kid' Then the bear started to move away, but not towards the trees but slowly to around back of the cabin, very slowly. That then spooked the guy and he came right back to the doorway. We tried to track where the bear was through the back windows but couldn't see him anywhere. I was a little frustrated with the guy for bothering the bear and possibly angering it. All of a sudden, and I was standing at the door watching, it comes flying back out from behind the cabin, knocks that huge barrel right over, grabs a bag and took off into the trees once more. So fast it was almost a blur. We were kind of amazed since he always stood up at the barrel and reached inside of it to get the garbage before and we didn't realize he could knock that huge barrel over like that so easily.
The rangers came the very next day and set up this huge humane bear trap for him, pretty far away from our cabin but near the treeline. The trap was like this huge barrel thing that was placed down horizontally and was open ended but with some kind of trap doors on each end. They put some kind of meat inside of it as I recall but I didn't get too close to that thing.  I guess somehow the doors would shut if anything went inside. The whole contraption was gone the very next night when we got back from somewhere or other. My boss told us that they had caught him and transported the bear very, far away, deep in the forest. Anyway, we never saw it again.
Unrelated...one morning as I walked across the huge motel yard toward the office where I worked, I stopped dead in my tracks. To the left of me, not very far away, three giant Elk stood there grazing. They are very big guys those Elk. Bigger than I had imagined before seeing them that up close. They were also not afraid of me and just looked at me and continued to graze. After a bit I kept walking because I was sure they didn't care. They didn't stay long. We saw tons of Elk and deer around Banff. Once we had to stop the car on the highway there to let a very big herd cross. It was fun living in Banff, I loved it

[Puckway]

Sounds very interesting, I can understand that you loved living there. Thanks for sharing.

[Mroz4k]

This is the kind of stories that had always made me long for a game like The Long Dark. I cant get this sort of experience, because here in central Europe, there is no wilderness. The wilderness that I can get here is just several acres of forests that still have roads all over them and you can meet tourists every half an hour or so.

Also why I always loved visiting our cottage in Slovakia, because it's a lot more remote in not so populated forested hills and there is a chance of meeting wildlife, even brown bears, in there.

I actually have a story with a bear too, but we didn't even see it. Once my whole family decided to go up several kilometres from the cottage into the hills to pick blueberries. It was a whole day trip and once we arrived, we picked for two hours after which we have several kilos of blueberries to bring back with us. On a way home we were all stopped dead in the tracks - the path we went on had curved to the right and to the right there was a small cliff as the path carved into the mountain with thick bush on top of it. Suddenly there came a very hostile growl from those thickets right over us. It continued on for about 5 minutes, until it started getting weaker. In between the growls we could also hear faint squeaky growls. 

It appears we crossed path with a mama bear and its cub when we cut them off on our path down the mountain as they were about to cross it. Probably went on a way to the creek which was under the path. I was maybe twelve years old back then, so I had my heart in my throat. Luckily there was about 7 of us so we were quite a big group of people for the mama to take on, and she decided to retreat back up the mountain after those 5 minutes. My father and grandparents were really concerned because female bears with young are highly unpredictable and very hostile. Guess we were lucky, but that picture haunted me in the dreams for a while afterwards. Now, I find it amazing.

I have a lot of fond childhood memories from time spent up there in that cottage.

[SnowWalker]

6 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

The wilderness that I can get here is just several acres of forests that still have roads all over them and you can meet tourists every half an hour or so.

Banff, Alberta, Canada is a Canadian national park where wildlife and their habitats are protected and preserved. It's smack dab in the Rocky Mountains. It's very beautiful there with lots to do and see if you love the outdoors, the wilderness and it's wildlife.

6 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

It appears we crossed path with a mama bear and its cub

I believe that a mama bear won't attack if they are not cornered and have a clear path to get away. Most of the time anyway, lol. I grew up in a fairly big city in northern Ontario Canada, right on Lake Superior right in the middle of a heavily forested area and we did all things related to the outdoors. Where I am now though, southern Ontario, Canada, not so much. There are forests here but it is also heavily populated around here and it's a long drive to anywhere that you could call wilderness. I miss that and so TLD takes me back into the wilderness and is also why I love the game. You are very lucky to have a cottage to go to. Here in Ontario they are very expensive to buy. Thank you for your story. Memories like those stay with us always. I also have nightmares about bears, I don't know why?

[Mroz4k]

Actually, most brown bears don't attack unless they are cornered, with the exception of female bears who have cubs. Those are deemed very unpredictable and very dangerous because they will often be very aggressive if they feel that they need to defend the young ones. This trait is most distinct for grizzly bears, but brown bears as well. But the European brown bears are generally not very aggressive. 

Luckily my nightmares about bears have passed me, now its mostly taxes that I fear , luckily that is not something I have to deal with just yet since I am still a student.

 

[SnowWalker]

7 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

Luckily my nightmares about bears have passed me, now its mostly taxes that I fear