[at-l] Grizzly years

[janl2 at mindspring.com (Jan Leitschuh)]

Oh hell, now I'm reading an interview with National geographic.
Here's a rip-snorting except, adventure lovers:

"Why did you go into the wilderness after Vietnam?
   	

Like so many other veterans, I was so out of sorts when I came back. I 
couldn?t be around other people. I required a great deal of solitude. 
For me, the best place for that solitude is out in the hills, 
mountains, and valleys, by myself. Some people can get that same 
feeling in their backyard, and I don?t begrudge them a bit.

Anyway, I camped out, and by the end of the first summer I?d run into 
grizzly bears. They utterly riveted my attention. Which turned out to 
be exactly what I needed.

   	Why grizzlies?
   	

Because you really can?t be self-indulgent in grizzly country. You?ve 
got something bigger than you out there, something that can kill and 
eat you any time it chooses to, though it seldom does.

Being among grizzlies forces humility. And that?s what I needed, 
because that?s the emotional posture behind learning: humility.

   	When was the last time you felt that humility?
   	

Just last week in Yellowstone. I?m in grizzly country at least a 
couple of times a week. I can?t live without that feeling. I would 
utterly despair.

   	What?s the most memorable grizzly encounter you?ve had?
   	

There?ve been lots of them. The most memorable experiences are the 
ones where the bear really granted me quarter, had the grace to let me 
out of a situation where it really had the right to just chew my 
shoulder off. That?s a great, incredible lesson?the lesson of muscular 
restraint.

I still think about the time that I ran into a black grizzly on a 
ridge top after he finished an inconclusive fight with a sow and her 
yearling cub. I had to get past him on this knife-edge ridge to get to 
my little camp because a winter storm was blowing in. I decided I was 
going to try my luck with him. He was only 30 feet [9 meters] away 
when he noticed me.

By the way, this is a bear that I know well. He?s a cantankerous son 
of a bitch. Some years he cases and attacks and tries to kill all 
other bears. But he was my favorite grizzly there, this black grizzly.

When he saw me he came and slammed his paws down, 15 feet [5 meters] 
from me, and stopped. Stared right at me. Bears only do that when 
they?re being confrontational.

His ears were back, the ruff on his neck was up?all signs that I going 
to get charged. With a sow grizzly you might just get chewed on and 
you can play dead and maybe get away. I don?t really know what happens 
with a big male like that.

He stared at me for what felt like hours, but was probably only a 
minute or so. Then, almost sadly, he flicked his ears and looked off 
to the side, and I felt something pass between us.

He disappeared into the bush, and I shot by and got my ass up to the 
top and built a fire, which I almost never do in grizzly country, 
because I don?t want to bother bears.

But then after 45 minutes, here came the same grizzly. I could hear 
him in the brush. And though it was dark by then, I could see his eyes 
glowing red from the firelight.

He came all the way up to my fire, and I got some firebrands and 
backed him down the hill. But an hour later he came up the other side. 
This scene repeated itself until about two in the morning, when I 
finally passed out."
more:
> http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0007/q_n_a.htm


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