Great stories!

I am originally from Maine, where bears are so rampant the state U teams are called the University of Maine Black Bears. Have never met one face to face, though, and I'm hoping it stays that way.


>I really enjoy the woods around me. Very quiet and secluded (except for the wild chickens and roosters of course) *G* I chose it for its proximity to the school I wanted my daughter to attend and for the atmosphere as well. Over the years I have had 3 close encounters with bears - the scariest was with a brown bear because I was alone in the woods. They have totally different personalities than black bears. I think if I had to choose, I would choose a brown bear simply because their behavior is more standard - black bears are alittle more unpredictable. I am no expert on bears (and don't plan to be) though so who knows?
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>1. When I was 9 or 10 years old my family went black bear hunting in Northern Wisconsin. At that time (1969 or so) it was legal to bait bears with rotten apples (the bear population was huge then and rather a nuisance). My little brother was throwing the apples around during the day and some rolled under our homemade trailer. That night a black bear stood on his hind legs and shook our trailer (mind you this was a homemade trailer made out of plywood and it sat on the back of a pickup truck) trying to get at the apples that rolled under the truck. My dad couldn't do anything because he had the gun and we had the ammo (safety when kids are around). My parents were sleeping in the back of a Rambler (remember those?) station wagon and we kids were in the trailer. Eventually the bear lost interest and roamed off.
>2. At 14/15 years old I lived at Camp Tahosa in Ward, CO. Walking back from the neighbors through a path in the woods a brown bear chased me. That was probably the scariest time actually. (Not as frightening as the being shot at numerous times by poachers from Texas though)
>3. 17 years old camping in Rifle, CO under the stars. A brown bear came up on us at night and started 'nuzzling' my head. I was asleep and I swatted it away (had a cat back then and she used to do the same thing) and my friend shot his rifle into the air and scared the bear off. Luckily he woke up and saw the bear. My ears were ringing for quite a while after that!
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>>>It seems that I am just destined to live near bears. I have had 3 encounters with bears so far in my life (too manY). The two sightings are roughly 15 miles apart and then it is mostly metro in between so it's hard to believe it is the same bear. Luckily this one I haven't encountered personally (yet) but the 2nd bear sighting was 2 blocks from my home:
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>>>http://www.wxii12.com/news/9837638/detail.html
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>>>I guess that is what I get for having woods all around my house!
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>>I saw a news story the other day about an old lady out west somewhere who came home to find a mother bear and her cub in her kitchen, helping themselves to some food that had been left out. According to the story she took a swing at the mama bear and scared her out a side door, then shooed the baby bear out the same door. Do mama bears have a reputation they don't deserve? Based on what I thought I knew about them, it was hard to picture one running out the door and leaving her cub behind.
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>>Having woods all around you, now that's nice. Despite the bears. I am currently surrounded by subdivisions and corn fields that haven't yet been converted to subdivisions. Plus I start a new job on Monday that is within exhaust fume distance of O'Hare, not exactly rustic there either.