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Never would I have thought I would start writing at 73 years of age. I have thoroughly enjoyed my voyage into the written spirituality of poetry and am thankful for the opportunity. In my seven years here I have met many new and wonderful persons. Having them accept me as a friend has been a moving experience.

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My Bear Story Retold

Blog Posted by Charles Henderson: 2/5/2014 2:35:00 PM

One year I carried six of my Boy Scouts to the the mountains of North Carolina to hike 100 miles down the Appalachian Trail. The trail is well marked and touted as being one of the most remote as well as one of the safest of hiking trips. The trail traverses the eastern seaboard going from Maine to Springer mtn., Georgia, some 2200 miles. The most exciting part is in North Carolina where it heads to the peak of the mountains and you can see as far as the eye can see into states on the left and the right. The peak is only yards wide in some places, maybe even feet wide. It isn’t as tough as scaling cliffs but can be much more exciting. All is within protected game preserves, overseen by local forest rangers. They patrol and respond to emergency by horseback and helicopter. But their rendition of how “safe” it is to walk those wild places should be taken with a grain of salt. Safe is only “relative” to what you compare it to. It is safer than being in a cage with a wild tiger. It is very safe “most of the time”. But this story is about “one of the other times”

I know this story is hard to believe. But, before it began, the young man involved was peace lying in his tent with his head out of the end looking at the stars and eating a candy bar. He was one of about 20 foot ball players getting the seasons first workout; hiking the Appalachian trail. They had completed a long day of walking, had supper and he was in his tent enjoying a candy bar. (One thing which we were warned about. Keep all food in a separate tent away from the sleep area.) The first time he noticed the bear it’s head was right in front of his face. (he smelled the candy) The young man immediately ducked down in the bag and as he scurried to the bottom end and broke the zipper trying to get out, the bear was ripping to shreds from the other end. This “boy” was six feet tall, 170 pounds. That’s when he bit him in the upper back the first time and picked him up. He must not have liked the hold he had because he set the boy down and grabbed him more to the other side to pick him up again. He said the bear picked him up like he was nothing Note that this was a male bear. When the bear put him back on the ground he was facing to the rear of the bear. He said that all he could see was these two huge things in a sack hanging down. He made a fist and hit the things as hard as he could, whereas the bear reared up with a terrible growl, groan, (and probably a plead to please don’t hit me there again). He immediately ran down the hill, the kid ran back to the camp.

The bear had bitten him twice . The tooth marks of the tusks were 4 inches apart on the upper fleshy part of his back. We only had some bacitracin ointment, which I had in my first aid kit. The team coaches who brought the boy up had nothing. I packed ointment into the wounds which were more than a half inch deep. We left early but received a note from the coach after getting back home. The rangers came in on horseback and radioed for a helicopter at a nearby clearing and they carried the boy to the hospital. There were no lasting effects of the bites, thanks to the bacitracin and his prompt treatment. While there, the bear was located and was killed. Once getting that much taste of a human it would only get worse and it was too old to captivate.
The boys and I left straight away the next morning and for a change there were no cat calls to the bear, no loud talking or joking. They were only putting one foot in front of the other and as much space as they could between themselves and that campsite. We hiked until early evening without stopping for lunch. It was wash day. That had been decided before we left home. We went the 500 foot path down to the spring. As I said before the spring is divided into an upper and a lower basin and the lower is for washing. This was about 45 minutes before the sun went down behind the adjacent ridge. While we were at the spring one of the boys looked up and a mother bear as large as the one which was killed, was approaching the spring from the hill opposite the road we had walked down to get to the spring. We immediately hid behind a tree and constantly watched the two cubs which were about the size of a large beach ball. We watched them because we knew that ultimately the mother bear would follow them. She seemed to be quite aggravated with their antics, fussing at them like any mom but they paid not attention.

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Andrea Dietrich

February 6, 2014 at 8:14 AM

I had read this one the other day but had no time to really comment. Just finished the last part about the cubs looking like beach balls. This is a great story. In Utah a little kid was attacked and killed by a bear right in a camping ground. It had never happened before and the parents were trying to sue the state forest. I don't know if they ever got any money or not.

Carrie Richards

February 5, 2014 at 7:59 PM

PS......So glad the boy in your own story survived. Sometimes it doesn't turn out that way....wow, pretty scary!!

Carrie Richards

February 5, 2014 at 7:58 PM

Hi Charles,,,, too close for comfort, your encounter with bears!! We are campers in our family, and have had bears walk through our campsite....but being careful with our food supplies is key to having them move on. We have a cabin, and have had bears try to break down our door while we are away. Once we came home, to find a bear had ripped apart an antique pot-bellied stove,that we used for decoration out on our front porch deck,it was ripped as if it were made of cardboard.My husband has been face to face on our back porch, while one was diving into our trash can. Once they smell food, nothing will stop them! Otherwise, we know we are invading THEIR territory..it is our responsibility.

Joyce Johnson

February 5, 2014 at 4:20 PM

An exciting bear story, Charles.

Debbie Guzzi

February 5, 2014 at 3:05 PM

More, more!!!

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