It's official...

...I am a bear magnet. Today we switched field partners so I'm now paired with another redhead. It's natural to get a sense of what other people's comfort level is around bears and what their personal preferences are on carrying firearms in the field. Unlike my last field partner, this one wouldn't shout out, "Hey bear!" Or "Go away bear!" unless an actual bear was in the vicinity. Instead, we both decided to shout "Here we come!" or just make a lot of noise to notify any potential bears in the area that we're approaching. She also decided to not carry a firearm but we're both required to carry bear spray.

At about 11am today, my field partner and I were exiting a dense alder thicket (we couldn't see anything other than the next branch in front of us until we entered a meadow) when I hear her yell, "Heeeeeeeey bear!!!" Hey bear? Hmm, I thought she didn't mention "bear" unless....OH SHIT! I looked up and a sow and her cub were directly in front of us. This is the worst possible the situation to be in because sows are very protective of their cubs. Everything happened in a split second. The sow, no more than 20 feet away started charging at us - I immediately unclipped my gun and had it ready while she grabbed the bear spray on the back of my pack. As her cub ran up a tree, the sow started circling around us, we think because she was trying to get a whiff of our scent. We quickly backed into the alders and thankfully didn't see them for the rest of the day.

Every time we (I) have a bear encounter, we have to fill out a "Bear Incident" report. Apparently, our group is the only group out of dozens of people that travel into the field for months on end that has seen a bear on almost a daily basis (I've seen one 3 out of 4 days) - everyone else is convinced that there is no wildlife in Alaska. Lucky us (me). After the incident today, my field partner radioed the rest of our crew and the call went something like this, "Hey guys, this is ___ and Greta. I'd like a new tech. Greta has done it again." There is one last person I need to rotate out with in the field and he has yet to see any wildlife. As we're flying back to camp, I looked down out of the helicopter and gazed at a black dot on the landscape, "Hey! There's another bear!" to which my next field partner replied, "Jesus Christ! We can't even be in a helicopter with you!" To which I replied, "You just wait, I'm saving the grizzlies for you."

Having fun in my soil pit