Gerald Martin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 8,953
This is bear country! Apparently, from the number of signs posted by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks and from reputation among other hunters, the piece of ground Timothy and I were scouting yesterday, can be grizzly central at certain times of the year.
Having a healthy respect for grizzlies and knowing there have been several serious maulings in the past couple of years, I put Timothy in charge of our single can of bear spray and instructed him to keep close and remain vigilant.
The terrain was interesting, deer sign was commonplace and I was getting excited about potential hunting prospects for this fall when Timothy's excited whisper jolted me to a sudden rearrangement of priority.
"Dad! Right there!" I knew by his tone it was serious and didn't move a muscle. Turns out it was a good call.
There he was! Ten yards away, unaware of us, head down and feeding. I judged him to be large male based on body size and disposition. To my relied he was upwind at the moment. Time slowed to a crawl as I noticed the way his fur rippled in the breeze and the way the sun shimmered off the tips of his fur.
Most predators have a perimeter where they don't react to perceived threats, but I knew we were in the realm of AT&T "reach out and touch someone", close.
Knowing we couldn't run without alerting him to our presence and being reluctant by personal nature to run from any animal, I decided to hold our ground and hope he moved away.
Just then I felt the wind on the back of my neck and knowing discovery was inevitable I raised my video camera to capture the outcome. Whether my son Timothy might be remembered in association with another unfortunate character who had the same first name as he did and the last name of Treadwell, was out of my hands now.
As our scent hit his nostrils, his head slowly raised and his beady little eyes met mine. There was no hesitation at all as he stomped his front feet and exploded towards us....
Words can't express the drama of the next few moments as well as video can so I'll let you see for yourself the trauma of what we went through....[video=youtube;eOCNw95FWAs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOCNw95FWAs&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Having a healthy respect for grizzlies and knowing there have been several serious maulings in the past couple of years, I put Timothy in charge of our single can of bear spray and instructed him to keep close and remain vigilant.
The terrain was interesting, deer sign was commonplace and I was getting excited about potential hunting prospects for this fall when Timothy's excited whisper jolted me to a sudden rearrangement of priority.
"Dad! Right there!" I knew by his tone it was serious and didn't move a muscle. Turns out it was a good call.
There he was! Ten yards away, unaware of us, head down and feeding. I judged him to be large male based on body size and disposition. To my relied he was upwind at the moment. Time slowed to a crawl as I noticed the way his fur rippled in the breeze and the way the sun shimmered off the tips of his fur.
Most predators have a perimeter where they don't react to perceived threats, but I knew we were in the realm of AT&T "reach out and touch someone", close.
Knowing we couldn't run without alerting him to our presence and being reluctant by personal nature to run from any animal, I decided to hold our ground and hope he moved away.
Just then I felt the wind on the back of my neck and knowing discovery was inevitable I raised my video camera to capture the outcome. Whether my son Timothy might be remembered in association with another unfortunate character who had the same first name as he did and the last name of Treadwell, was out of my hands now.
As our scent hit his nostrils, his head slowly raised and his beady little eyes met mine. There was no hesitation at all as he stomped his front feet and exploded towards us....
Words can't express the drama of the next few moments as well as video can so I'll let you see for yourself the trauma of what we went through....[video=youtube;eOCNw95FWAs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOCNw95FWAs&feature=youtu.be[/video]
