FEAR What is good for and when it is not.

[Ballenxj]

Yes, I too have heard the term Hyper-Vigilance LOL! What it isn't normal to notice the plate numbers around you and compare those numbers in different locations?
<-------->
Breathing seemed to be slightly less automatic, or at the very least something I was aware of for the first time. Despite pissing my pants I had to go again, and even this seemed to require more cognition than before. The shakes started while I was trying to drink and combined with the throat’s inability to swallow threatened to drown me

Between very large wolves and Grizzly bears, it would seem you have had your share of close calls.
What intrigues me is that your family car was a GTX?

 

[TrainChaser]

Dennis: "Given the bear's exceptional sense of smell do you have any educated idea how you survived that?"

I was wondering about that, too, and maybe it's because MomBear didn't pick up any sense of fear from her cubs. If they were happy with what they were doing (and that creature they were doing it with), she might have just been okay with that. Since the cubs weren't fearful, maybe she thought they had found another (ugly, bald, weird-looking) cub friend.

And maybe she was full of some jogger with jerky in his/her pocket and wearing a headphone.

Or, as someone said: When God answers your prayer, don't ask questions.

 

[Dennis]

Dennis: "Given the bear's exceptional sense of smell do you have any educated idea how you survived that?"

maybe she was full of some jogger with jerky in his/her pocket and wearing a headphone.

That and could be what was dribbling down in his hair. lol

 

[Scott7022]

Dennis If I had a hundred dollars for every time someone asked me How/If I had a rational, intelligent, possible, PLAUSIBLE.... I'd be rich.

The good and the bad about wild animals is that they are unpredictable. Friends had a raccoon his cat raised it from a cub. Lived with the family for four or more years one day they came home cat was dead house was a mess, and the animal wasn't friendly anymore. Animals are wild. My great Aunt rescued a pair of Grizzly cubs, before I was born, figured she'd feed them and then let them go when they were strong enough, (twin cubs are rare and usually one or both are sickly). She found them up by her cabin, in the river near frozen, clinging to a submerged tree. They didn't want to go anyplace. Little cubs are not too much of a problem around a rustic cabin in the middle of nowhere. But when they get to be teenagers (2, 3) well...Well meaning women, But unfortunately the animals had become habituated to care and contact with humans. A death sentence usually. But in this case the zoo in Vancouver was looking for animals and my crazy aunt contacted them. Four days later she showed up with two bears in the back of the Ford. They we a little overwhelmed. My father said that four years later when she came for a visit she wanted to go see "her" bears. The zoo had done a good job re-habituating them to normal bear life, limiting human contact. My Aunt showed up unexpected again, during the day zoo full of tourists, went to the enclosure and called for them and they both ran to edge and stood making sounds.

I come from screwy crazy genes and come by my crazy sense of adventure honestly! LOL!

To better answer your question. Grizzlies really have no predators. They are the big dog in the forest. So displays of aggression are rare unless you wander into where they are picking berries. Then they will usually false charge or stand and do the famous roar. You leave they go back to eating. Animals on the whole, humans included, usually attack from a place of fear. Leave stinky food around and they will tear up a tank getting into it. They are technically and omnivore but until the rivers fill with fish they eat berries, and dead stinky stuff. Hunters be surgical with that knife in gutting a dear in BC, nick the gut sack and any bear within 2 miles is coming for dinner. Past that they just don't see you as a threat. Lots of stupid people pictures posing very close to bears in our national parks. With cubs it is a different story. They never let out the "I am scared" sound and so I sit here today to tell the story. Had they cried I would have died instantly. I hope anyway.

The take away.  Don't feed the animals. Don't touch wildlife. Let what is wild be free.

O Trainchaser I am not bald, fat and ugly is ok, but I am furry! lol!  Bear behavior is extremely varied between species. This momma would have never seen a jogger and where we were it is unlikely she had seen many humans. They (grizzly) tend to be very solitary and range over a huge territory. Hunters and loggers make sounds and love diesel powered stuff. Both unique types of stimulus that say go someplace else to the bear. Her cubs were happy, and unafraid, I had been sleeping so when I awoke I failed to have the immediate stupid fear response. I broke the pattern of behavior for human encounters, if she ever had one. She had the high ground and every species knows that outcome.

This is not THE car but like the car my Dad bought it three years after I was born. Sold it before I turned 16 Dammit!! 
View attachment 14722

 

[Dennis]

I don't have any personal experience with grizzlies in the wild other than a brief chance encounter with one on a hunting trip to Montana many years ago. Have read a lot of stories and personal accounts of grizzly attacks though. I hope all your encounters with large predators keep working out well.

Once while walking a forest service road in Colorado covered with snow I decided I would turn and go back to camp as it was getting late. A couple hundred yards of retracing my steps I noticed some very large cat tracks in the snow and some of them were in my foot prints. I got a little more alert and turned back around and just a short distance back up the road the cat tracks stopped. It looked like the cat had jumped off the road and down the hill, probably as I was headed back down. Was it just curious, I don't know. Like you said wild animals are unpredictable. Things like that will cause the hair to raise up somewhat. lol

 

[rvpopeye]

I think in a previous life Scott AKA Beast Master must have been a wild predator and in spite of his reincarnation as a human that those beasties could sense it and treated him as an equal......?

 

[SoulRaven]

During my group therapy days, a combat veterans group, fear was often brought up. All of us (there were about 15 guys on any given day) agreed that fear or hyper vigilance was always present when on a movement or while on patrol, observation post or whenever contact was likely.

During contact, when actually engaged with the bad guys, fear wasn't prevalent, it was like an out of body experience. You knew what you were doing and did it by habit or training.
AFTER the contact was over is when the adrenaline is gone and reality sets in. I have puked afterwards and most of the guys admitted to doing the same.

It's been said that an adrenaline high is as addictive as dope is. There is not much to compare it to and since I haven't tried dope I can't say for sure but it is a high.

Many have said that drug use among veterans is guys trying for that 'high' again, I do know that most things I considered fun prior to Vietnam were boring after I came home.

Peace. Rob

 

[Scott7022]

Yes in a previous life perhaps that was true. I still hate push ups perhaps I was a T-Rex.

Dennis, Yeah I been followed by cats and I love cats. But when Mountain Lion, (Cougar, in Canada) comes close to have a good look it can kinda be a little scary. We have a bunch in BC and I have only seen them three or four times in all the hiking I've done.

I've puked a few times Gunny mostly after but one time during. I blame the CS gas on that time though. The high element was what I was referring to about the men that no longer had fear. Told me it was time to pull the chocks. That high is more important than the money, the mission, the people, and themselves. We called them the wretched ones. We had quite a few...

So this is the internet and nothing is true without pictures. Did I mention I love cats. If I could insure his/her safety I'd get a Serval (African breed big BIG house cat sized little terror) But the local, wherever local is at the time,  cats are cool too.
View attachment 14727View attachment 14728View attachment 14729

 

[rvpopeye]

T Rex , hate pushups ...... too funny !

 

[Scott7022]

Opps I dumped my attachments. DFO error, I thought they just removed them from the...Heck, I don't know what I thought. I'll put up the three most recent. I don't want to use too much band width past ALL MY TYPING!

 

[SoulRaven]

I had a bear push against my truck camper years ago, I thought it was a giant Griz, I was told by the locals it was at best a yearling. I am not sure what I would have done waking to find to cubs licking my hand and Mama bear above me. Break and run would be my first (and last) instinct.

From a distance I watched a sow grizzly attack a black bear who came wandering out of the treeline. Such an amazing amount of violence in such a short time. The black bear got away but I think it probably wandered off and died.

Beastmaster fits.

 

[Dennis]

That's when you appreciate a hard sided tent, eh Rob?

 

[SoulRaven]

When I had my land in Montana and had dreams of a small cabin, one of my main concerns was for it to be bear resistant. I never did get the cabin built, my health took a nosedive and had give up the cabin idea.

I enjoyed watching them from a distance, there was a meadow about 200 yards from my wannabe build site. I saw quite a few (or as one of the locals so succinctly put it "the same bear 17 times") I considered how fast a bear could cover that 200 yards and it was a bit worrisome. I still had my Barrett so stopping one would be no problem, but I'm not a hunter and the land might have been deeded to me but it was their home. There was a sow who brought her cub several times, the first couple of times she would stand and make a chuffing sound, I guess to warn me. After a few times she ignored my presence and let the cub play. Good times.

Donated the land to St Judes and I'm told someone is putting a cabin on it now. I'm just a tad jealous.

Rob

 

[Gary68]

i got treed by a billy goat,does that get me in the club?

 

[Scott7022]

Camping with a buddy in Tweedsmuir National Park. We have an argument about tent placement as it is raining and miserable, and he goes to his camp and I go to mine. I pitched my tent near some scrub pine and in the shadow of larger trees. He argued the potential for water accumulation was too great and went to higher ground. We were not happy campers. Early night for all.

Something moves my tent and I wake up. I immediately think it is my buddy screwing with me, grab my three cell Mag light. (before the days of expedition weight thinking)
I plan to blind him, as it is a moonless night and pitch black out.
He moves around my tent. Slowly making little noises. A cup falls, twig snap, huffing sounds. I think he is doing a good job.
10 minutes later I think I might have a problem.
"KEEIITTH!!! Are you messing (I used a different word) with me. I swear I will stab your stupid ***."
I hear movement away from the tent and then Keith. "WTF I am sleeping. Are you flooding like I told you?" His voice is too far away.
BEAR!! Goes through my head, and I yell it. I have a plan, calming down slightly, (pre bear spray days) I have this big knife and my flashlight.
"I am coming." I hear Keith yell. Gripping both my knife and flashlight, and attempting to open the tents zipper was impossible so I slipped the knife into the mesh fly at the top and ran it like a zipper to the bottom and flipped on my light.
Black nose!
Big brown head with silver white eyes!!
For some stupid reason my hand was moving, bringing the flashlight off my shoulder in a arc. An arc that ended on that BIG BLACK NOSE!
SPULOTCH!!!

I was running, in my underwear, and I no longer had my flashlight or my knife. It was dark, except for a beacon of white light that was moving in sweeping arcs to my left.
TREE!!

I slammed face first into my savior and like a twerking beaver on methamphetamine I dry humped my way up that tree.
Keith entered my campsite and swung the light around. "What the hell are you doing?" He said, as his light reached me.
I was about 15 feet up a young pine, it's diameter a little larger than a flag pole. Swaying and sprinkling blood from my ravaged thighs, I couldn't answer anything past bear.
Keith looked around, found my flashlight, knife, and the tracks of a very large brown bear. He hadn't seen it leave and, when I joined him on the ground, we only found prints to the creek.

The take away is most of the time you'll be just fine.
Your plans are a copping mechanism. In reality as Gunny has pointed out if your training is good enough it will be like a dream of skill application, assessment, and adjustment until it is over or you are over. But in this case the Beast Master of the you ain't right club got Tyson'd. "A plan is only good until you get punched in the face" Total fear panic response with accompanied little girl screams and new shorts!
Billy goats freak me out, Gary. Anything that has eyes that look like Satan's brother just ain't cool.

 

[GotSmart]

i got treed by a billy goat,does that get me in the club?

Gary ~~~  Come on, You are a charter member.    .

 

[rvpopeye]

A couple of good stories , maybe we could collect them all and publish a book or get Lenny to do a video or something ??

Seeing as we do recognize animals.
Goats are all in the club just on that eye design issue !
I'll add my name to the growing list of members freaked out by that.

Maybe fear but major creepy fer sure .....

 

[lenny flank]

My only bear encounters were with Black Bears on the Appalachian Trail--and they always ran away as soon as they knew I was there.

 

[lenny flank]

Goats are all in the club just on that eye design issue  !
I'll add my name to the growing list of members freaked out by that.

Maybe fear but major creepy fer sure .....  

Nay nay nay---I always thought goat eyes were seriously cool-looking.  

 

[SoulRaven]

I thought I had lived an adventuresome life until I read Scott's bear stories... Then the pictures with the big cats. All my stuff is tame now.