RC, I remembered the story of your bear encounter when I read this.

[littleman]

http://www.ktvq.com/story/33299198/montana-man-documents-moments-after-grizzly-bear-attack

[Rumbas]

Shit.

[rcjordan]

About once every year, Louise & I go up to that resort area where I was a stupid, stupid boy (there are a lot of areas like that in the US, but I'm referencing the bear cub incident here) . I can recall just about every second of that event 55 years ago  ---particularly the bear going around the car and trying to get in the windows. Good thing she didn't figure out it was a convertible.

Also, good thing it was a black bear, and not a grizzly.

[Rumbas]

The closest I've been to a real life bear:

[rcjordan]

>closest

My story would be better if I said I could feel hot bear breath down my neck, but she was still about 20' behind when I dove through the open rear window of the car.

<added>

But closing FAST! hhh

[ergophobe]

I've been bluff charged 4-5 times. If you stand your ground, a black bear mother will stop about 20-30 feet before collision. It's pretty scary up until the moment she actually stops though.

I don't know what happens if you run, but it sounds like RC does.

I've also come close to colliding with a bear while running. He was coming around the boulder from one side and I was coming around from the other. We were about 6-8 feet away before we saw each other. He being the far superior athlete, wheeled and ran and was about 50' away before I could even gather my thoughts.

Grizzlies are another matter...

[rcjordan]

>sounds like RC does.

I was about 8-9.  I tried to kidnap her cub.  She wasn't bluffing. You could tell by the roar that shook the trees for 50 yards around when the cub bleated.

[ergophobe]

I was about 8-9.  I tried to kidnap her cub.

That's not advised.

If you look threatening, but the cubs are up a tree, she'll stand her ground and grunt and stamp her feet and whatnot. If you actually get within touching distance of the cub, that's not good.

If she's habituated, who knows what will happen. One day there was this bear jam and I knew if it wasn't cleared quickly, it would result in gridlock. Arriving there, I saw the bear in the deep grass and charged her to chase her off so people would get back in their cars and drive on. She ran away all right, but what I didn't see is the two cubs also in the grass. They climbed up a tree, but the only tree in this meadow as a 5" diameter tree with very few branches. So now, instead of everyone watching a sow half obscured by grass, there were two cute little cubs on essentially a flagpole.

I sheepishly waited for the cubs to climb down and then in soft voice shooed them into the woods, trying not to spook them lest they go up a tree again. The mom just sat in the woods on the edge of the meadow watching the whole thing until I shooed the cubs close enough and she gathered them up and went back about her day.

[rcjordan]

>That's not advised.
>>stupid, stupid

It's also not advised to climb the tree to grab the cub. There was a pair, the lower cub was probably 15 feet off the ground. Surprisingly, they stayed quiet until I reached out to grab one ...my hand was within inches of the cub when it bleated for mom.  Then came the roar. Even as a boy of 8-9, I knew this was an Oh, sh##! moment.  Luckily, she had retreated down a 40' deep, steep ravine and across a brook into the woods & undergrowth. To this day, I think the time it took her to scramble up the rocks was what saved us (my older brother was an accomplice).  

From my vantage point in the tree, I could see her coming through the woods. Well, not actually see her, but she was coming through the saplings and reeds so fast that she was plowing them over. I could see a "V" in them as she just ran them down.  Then she made it to the clearing at the shallowish brook. She was running so fast that she threw a spray of water to either side, like a car hitting water on the road.  This was when I pretty much decided we were dead, so I jumped from the tree rather than take the time to climb down and hit the ground running.

Here's the car the family was in. Even the same color --Bahama Blue.
http://www.mad4wheels.com/webpics/hires/00006597%20-%201956%20Cadillac%20Eldorado%20Biarritz/1956_Cadillac_Eldorado_Biarritz_001_6331.jpg

<added>
The rag top was up.

[ergophobe]

heh heh. That's awesome. In retrospect

[bill]

That looks like a fairly bear-proof machine, aside from the rag-top.

There have been a bunch of bear attacks in Japan this year. It has made me a bit wary of going to some of those areas. The wild boar are bad enough to worry about usually. When they charge they rarely bluff, but at least they can't climb trees.