Last year I was riding my 4-wheeler up the mountain here on the ranch to check on a fire that we'd had the previous day and come up on a decent size bear right in the middle of the old logging road that I was on. The bear saw me and turned tail and run straight up the road. So I slowed down a bit and gave it some space. About then the road goes to switchbacks and gets a bit narrower so I'm taking my time and looking around for the bear and not seeing it, not a good feeling. I come around a corner leaning forward trying to find this bear when a pinecone falling out of a tree hits me on the shoulder. I just about broke my knee on the handle bars trying to abandon the 4-wheeler and I'm pretty confident I the scream I let out sounded about like a 3 year old little girl.
The funny thing is I catch myself looking in the trees alot more now.
:D :D :D :D Thanks for the laugh
Quotetrying to find this bear when a pinecone falling out of a tree hits me on the shoulder. .......trying to abandon the 4-wheeler
Then the pinecone was your clue that the bear was above you and throwing/dropping pine cones? ??
Not sure why you would then abandon your ride and not give it some gas and get the heck out of there fast.
I'm missing a connection in the story. ;)
I think that he was on edge wondering where the bear was and when the falling pinecone hit him he reacted without thinking.It happens.
Somebody needs to be in charge of writing beenthere foot notes. ;) Paul? ;D
Thanks for sharing your experience. :o
Oh how I've been there! Only not on an ATV....I'll have to dig up a story for you...
OK...hopefully you don't mind the high jack but I couldn't help it! I hope you enjoy:
Quote
Imagine my surprise (by me)
I lived in this little town called Ocean Falls in British Columbia when I was 12 years old. During the three years there I met a lot of wildlife and this is a story about just such an instance.
I was 12, after all, and rather mischievous, so I took it upon myself (with a few friends all of course young boys themselves or they never would have seen the wisdom of my plan) to scare a young lady -- go figure, a 12 year old boy trying to scare girls – and while I don't think we succeeded in scaring her, we certainly scared someone.
One of the dirt roads in Ocean Falls paralleled the only paved road in town, called The Valley Road, from above; it was some 25 yards up on a fairly steep angle and merged with The Valley Road at the bottom of the grade. Here we had perched ourselves behind tall grass and berry bushes to wait for this unsuspecting young lady to walk passed us on the road below.
The plan was to begin rustling bushes to make it seem like there was a bear above her. There were a lot of bears in Ocean Falls and we felt this would be a good way to give her a fright and to have some fun. I mentioned that we were only 12 year olds right?
As we waited for her we all quieted down and watched her distant figure approach our ambush. Then there was the noise of rocks stirring near us. I remember telling Cooper, one of my friends near me "Quiet Cooper, she will hear us!" After all, who could be making those noises if it wasn't me? But he was not making any noise and we began quietly arguing over who was making the noise...she approached closer and I heard someone (or thing) behind me...as I turned in the now darkening night to see who was sneaking along the road behind me, imagine my surprise when all I saw was black fur!
There no more then 8 feet away was a BEAR! He was probably 350 to 400 lbs of black furry and rather curious looking bear...he seemed to look at us and think "what the hell do they think they are doing"
My heart stopped and I must have been white as a ghost! Without a second thought I took off like an Olympic runner and headed down to the road over the fastest possible route! Here we were the would-be ambushers being ambushed by a black bear! He began, of course, to trot after us as if to say "I better follow them, they obviously know something is here to be running from" so there we were 4 or 5 boys and one bear, running and screaming (the bear never bothered to scream) down the road toward her (Danette I think was her name). All of us, including Danette (and the bear) then continued to run down the road toward the valley in hopes of out distancing the bear! Of course he was not about to let us leave him for whatever had scared us! So he tagged along for a few minutes...then maybe he realized that he had no reason to be afraid, after all he was a BEAR and what could he fear...soon a truck pulled up and took us to the valley and the safety of a home!
Who knows what happened to the bear...he probably still wonders what we were afraid of, after all he could have just chased off whatever it was in the first place if we had bothered to ask!
I wrote that along with others to capture the adventure of my youth in remote places in Canada mostly for my kids and friends.
Funny thing is, it's the truth!
Cheers
Erik
Quote from: Jeff on January 22, 2013, 11:33:51 AM
Somebody needs to be in charge of writing beenthere foot notes. ;) Paul? ;D
:D :D
I don't mind that.
But the story doesn't add up IMO. ;)
" hey, something hit me on the shoulder, oh it was a pine cone. Oh, that bear must be in a pine tree above me.
Oh crap, I'm going to bail off this ATV and make a run for it on foot? "
Running on foot from a bear is not good. Accelerating the ATV would make for a much faster and positive reaction........ IMO But the story leaves out what caused the panic attack. Surely not just a pine cone on the shoulder. A bear paw, that be different.
Sorry justallan1, don't mean to offend you or your story telling. ;)
While it is true that running on foot isn't a good way to get away from a bear (I've seen that first hand) it is possible as long as you are faster then the other guy!
lol
Sorry, couldn't help it!
As for the ATV story I think it's called 'instinct'. He reacted without thinking becuase he thought the bear was flying through the air to attack him.
Bears are fun, I see and talk to them all the time , nice story :D
Maybe you just have to have had a similar experience to understand the panic attack part. In my experience it surely doesn't come from any logical or sensible place. I laughed pretty hard when I read both of the stories. They reminded me of a skunk hunt I was involved in once and a time when a couple of moose followed me through the woods of Alaska one winter night. I was so convinced those moose were trying to get me...
Beenthere, its not that it was a pinecone, it was that something hit him in the shoulder. It could have been anything. Maybe even A BEAR PAW!. I'm sure that it was only a pinecone was only the realization after the fact. Never once did it occur to me to think that he thought a bear was throwing pinecones. I have had a pine squirrel throw apples at me.
The whole thing makes sense to me. I've seen people fall down when you say "BOO!"
Years ago, and I mean back when I was probably between 18 and 20 years old, I was walking out of the woods at near dark, and was startled so bad I dropped my bow and started to run. I was walking through some pines, just coming out into the hardwoods and a white oak sort of exploded above my head. when I looked up, I thought it was the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. It was the very first time I had seen a roost of Turkeys startled. :D I still see flying monkeys in my minds eye.
OMG! That always gets the heart rate up! :D
Sorry about the clarity of my story. When the pine cone hit me I thought I was being attacked and it wasn't until I was away from the bike that I was even able to have a thought. lol. I guess it being me that told the story, I understood it perfectly.
Eric, I sure don't mind you putting your story here. By the way, great story.
And Jeff, you need to warn people before you go painting pictures in their minds of bears throwing pinecones, I just about lost a mouthful of soda.
Reflex to a scare doesn't always make sense. One late night when I was a kid I was walking home on a road that twisted with a stream that ran beside it. It was pitch black. Next to me there was a lot of loud splashing. Probably a deer. What did I do? Knees buckled and I fell on my butt! :D