i flew up in a luxury jet. it was great. we flew low over anything that looked interesting and got an amazing history lesson about the arctic circle, the inuit, and other natives. man do i love a guy who can tell a good story. makes for a very quick flight. another guy picked us up in his work truck and drove us the short distance to coldfoot camp.
like many of you probably, my wife was jealous of the accomodations. notice the lean, sad looking pine trees behind the trailers. many of them are
surprisingly old.
after arriving, i walked around and met a few of the locals. the cook was an avid fly fisherman and gave me the scoop on their grayling. i caught a few very
near by that afternoon in the few minutes i had to spare. again, my new yellow FF79.5 (seen in my avatar) served me well. the next evening we got out late,
but the sun was still plenty high in the sky so i hiked the 90 minutes to the spot on slate creek the cook told me about. around 11pm i turned off the trail
and walked through some tall thick fern-like vegitation and walked about 80 yards to the creek. it was a beautiful area, with strange foliage and thin scrawny
pines. i took my time rigging up and savoured this unique place. i caught a nice grayling pretty quickly.
very shortly thereafter i heard a noise in the gravel behing me and up river. coming out of the brush, i saw a very lean, meduim-sized grizzly bear (about 40
yards away). it was looking directly at me. i postured down, reeled in slowly, and ambled slowly down river. i could feel my pulse in my temples. i kept
thinking about my young children and i really had a sick feeling. the bear just watched me walk away. when i was another 40 yards away, the bear began
walking upriver and disappeared into the vegetation. then i also cut through the thick vegetation back to the trail, walking at about a 45 degree angle away
from the bear to insure that i didn't meet it in the brush. the minute it took me to get to the trail back to coldfoot seemed to take a lot longer than a
minute. relieved to be back on the trail i headed off at a brisk walk. not 30 seconds after i came out of the brush, that same gaunt bear came out exactly
behind me onto the main trail. i considered running or waving my arms and trying to appear bigger. i thought about how my backpack may protect my spinal cord
and how lacing my fingers behind my head or neck may help. i literally prayed that i'd be able to see my wife and kids again. i slowed my pace a bit and
kept walking. the bear just stood there watching me. it was getting a bit dusky and though it was pretty cool out, i was very warm. i could only see it with
my peripheral vision as it watched me walking. after a few very long minutes it did move. the grizzly began running at full speed. for the longest 3 or 4
seconds in my life, i couldn't tell if it was running directly toward me or away from me. the few TV shows where i have seen bears running didn't
really help... i'd never actually seen it from this perspective/angle. as i realized that the bear was heading the other way, i was only slightly
relieved. as the bear disappeared, i doubled my pace and got to my palacial room in just over an hour (then i was fully relieved).
no, i don't really hate bears at all. i will however, be much more careful in the future. grayling aren't worth it (no offense Arctic Grayling).
-mike
