Oroblanco
Gold Member
- Jan 21, 2005
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Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp said:
I realize that this reply was addressed to our mutual amigo Unicorn, but it has raised questions for me.
First, perhaps I misunderstood - do you spell that title "misc adventures and experiences of treasure hunters"
or is it "MIS-adventures and experiences of treasure hunters"?
Next, that fellow in the sheep country - do you mean our mutual amigo Pronghorn?
As for my reliability for protection of a partner - you need not ever have any concern about that matter amigo, you can count on me standing behind you!
<I am not specifying about how far back behind you that might be, but it will be within the range of three feet to six miles or so!>Bears, mountain lions, wolves, rattlesnakes, scorpions, bandidos and drug smugglers all make the avocation of treasure hunting more interesting. I guess the story of how I learned the importance of carrying a firearm may be amusing.
A partner and I had spent most of the summer in the Arctic, split about evenly between Yukon and Alaska, and had little luck in finding anything worth bothering with so decided to try a creek that had been mentioned in a 'gold rush' diary from 1901, on the Seward peninsula north of Nome. (It always sounds odd to hear someone say "north of Nome" but Nome city lies on the south coast of the peninsula, which is about the size of West Virginia. So you can go north, but not so easily south.)
The creek was quite a hike from the nearest place you could drive to, and since we had been forced to lug heavy high powered rifles thanks to Canadian restrictions on handguns for nearly three months without once encountering a bear (except the black bears raiding camp at night) we decided not to lug those things along. Hiking across the ridges is not so bad there but the valleys tend to be largely covered in muskeg - and anyone who ever hiked across muskeg can testify to how tiring that is. With the long days at the high latitude, we had plenty of time to set up camp, pushed on to the creek and got our samples panned out, and since it was still not dark we set up the corner monuments for our claims as it had turned out to be a pretty good prospect. Needless to say we were both feeling pretty beat and tired when we finished up, the sun had set and it was getting harder to see when we started hiking back for our camp. The route to the camp passed through some large thickets of willows that grow about ten feet high, and we had seen old bear tracks and sign about but nothing newer than a month old so were not concerned in the least, just trudging along and forgetting to either whistle, sing or talk - always make noise in bear country!
As we neared the thicket, my partner said "Did you hear that?" and I had to say I did, something like a "woof". Just as I said yes, the bear stood up in front of me and popped his jaws making a loud "pop" and less than twenty feet away. He looked like a giant to me, as he stood taller by a full head than the willows which we estimated at ten feet. I reached instinctively for the sling of the rifle, which was safely packed in a case in our camp!
I stepped backward, and we very quietly backed away while trying to look as tall and imposing as possible, and the bear stood there staring at us. He was in a direct line between us and our camp. As we got farther away from him, he finally went back to all fours but did not leave - I guess there were berries or perhaps a fresh kill he had and I was not about to dispute the matter with him. We ended up hiking at least three miles in a circuit around that bear to get to our camp, and were utterly dog-tired when we got to the tent.
Needless to say this was my first encounter with an Alaskan grizzly, and a good lesson about carrying a firearm - you may well never need it, but it is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
I am enjoying the stories, keep em coming!
Oroblanco
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