Tom,
To make a 3 hour story short enough to read, here is the short version Basically, I took off on my mountian bike for what was to be an easy 30 km ride through some fairly rough woods (old mining roads, some old clearings, etc) to see my sister who was camping at a nearby lake. Well, I presumed I knew where I was headed, so after short lunch I headed off. I carried two bottles of water only (I usually have a 2.5litre backpack when I am going for a long ride, but I didnt "need" it I thought) and it was August here, HOT for us (90 F or so) and a nice sunny day. After a while, the trail turned to unridable, so I dismounted my bicycle and started walking... and walking... and walking! I ended up finding myself waist deep in muskeg - swampy mess, and I decided allthough I didnt want to turn back (at this point I still presumed I was going the correct way, even though my odometer and my otherwise good sense told me otherwise. I took a few steps further (remember I was also carrying my 24 lb bike on my shoulders, which were aching like hell by this point) and went down to my chest in water. I got kinda' scared that if I went any further, I was going to get stuck in the mud and drown, with no one knowing where I was... I had no choice but to turn around and start trudging back through the 6 km (according to my odometer - most of the way I was pushing my bike on its wheels) I had just gone through. Oh yes, it was 3 or so hours after my departure, and I had long since emptied my water bottles, and I was getting very hot and I knew I was in trouble (headache, cold chills dry mouth - signs of heat stroke) but I had no choice but to try and return the way I came. Did I feel STUPID!!! Ugh! Anyhow, after I got back to just where I could ride my bike again, I looked up only to be staring a nice young black bear cub allmost face to face! He was startled, and ran up a tree. Anyone knows that a young cub is never near the mom, and the mom doesnt like humans getting in between her and her young. We have had a few black bear attacks here over the last few years (at the time) and I did a quick 360 scan, but didnt see anything. At this point, the young bear was making his way down the tree, and slowly walking towards where I was standing. I have to say, I have never, ever EVER ran as fast as I did that day. I was so tired, so out of energy but I ran like the wind. All the time, thinking to myself that the mom bear was coming up behind me and I was done for. I was scared enough to not look back, just kept running. Finally I got to where I could ride again, and got on my bike. I had at least another 20 km's to get back home. I was so tired, and stuck from the swamp, and every square inch of my exposed skin was bitten up by the deer flies (they take a chunk out of you, quite literally) but I rode on. I finally made it back to the paved road, and I decided I better go to my parents home which was closer than my house. When I got here, I got off my bike, walked into their house (no one was home) and I passed out in the bathroom for 1/2 hour. After I came to, I started vomiting, trying to drink water but I would just bring it up. I should have went to the hospital but I didnt want to go - I ended up being fairly bed ridden for the next few days. I couldnt eat anything solid, and just drank water for the next 2 or 3 days.

That week, my regular riding partner (who didnt go with me that day) bought me a fish and game map, which I use to this day to plan my rides I havent gotten off the right track yet!

SO there you have it... stubborn and stupid, thats what I am!

AJC

Good stary AJ. Thanks for relating it for us. My friend, the retired bear guide, tells me that relatively recent governmental hunting regulation changes have caused a sharply reduced bear harvest in Ontario resulting in an upswing in the black bear population. Late last Spring he wrote to say that with the moderating weather it wouldn't be long until a hiker or camper was again attacked. Less than two weeks after that post he forwarded a newspaper story about a recent bear attack. He told me a story two years ago that involved a call of nature on a logging road, a bear cub and mother and a dash back to the truck while pulling his pants up. I'll allow your imagination to take over from that point.
Something similar has happened within the last decade or so in the case of the Mountain Lion in Colorado. Animal activist driven curtailed harvests have created a lion population that has outgrown it's food base and the hungry lions are coming into cities to harvest dogs and other domestic animals. Attacks on humans in the mountainous areas has virtually exploded I have read. All of this is hearsay to me but I have no reason to doubt it. A hungry animal will do what is neccessary to survive just as you or I would. I'm afraid the animal preservationists don't see the full picture. While I no longer hunt I cannot condone building up specie populations to the point that starvation is the controlling factor. I simply fail to see the kindness in such a course.
Pertinance? Why it's becoming unsafe for Colorado model flyers to go to the field without weapons and a lookout. No doubt the same precautionary measures are becoming mandatory in your area.
Tom

Tom,
Yes, a number of years ago the legislators down in the south cancelled the northern spring bear hunt - seems that there was ano utcry of people who thought shooting adult bears left too many cubs to fend for themselves. (I dont hunt by the way). It really increased the bear population, and yes, I have had adult bears walking down my street! Last summer, my neighbour called me and said "you better get your dog inside, a bear is coming down the street" (I let my dog out on the leash during the summer). And last year a neighbor of mine also had a nuisance bear come two or three times to their home and route through the trash, the police ended up shooting it.

Anyhow, thats life in the north - lots of animals

Our flying field is in the open, not near the woods. So I am not scared while flying, just have to watch myself when I am cutting the lawn or walking my dog down the street!

AJC

I feel a lot more scared having read that about seeing fresh bear tracks when I was fishing last...! There are no bears in New Zealand though...

Three years ago I grew a small crop of corn here in Japan, and an adult Japanese monkey (they look a bit like baboons- they have big canines) turned up... This is not a very remote place, either- it is suburbon where I live... It didn`t eat our dog though.
J.M

okay I'll throw in one more example of Biopolitics..late 60's group of women at a country club out west see a deer ripped apart by a mountain lion. EEEK! must stop this,, hire game hunters to kill anything in the area that could harm a deer..next year deer are plentiful,, so plentiful they eat all the vegetation,, answer,,feed the deer... buy hay, everything will be dandy....deer eat hay and die with their stomachs full from starvation,because no one knew the hay would have to be inoculated with bacteria that the deer needs to aid with digestion..this is way off 1/2a topic and was a class I took during wildlife management classes,,one last one, was about the indians actually learned to drive the buffaloe off of cliffs in order to kill them more efficiently,,then when us white devils came along we figure you could just keep driving them towards the cliffs to wipe them out and starve the indians,,see if you stampede buffaloe with gun fire, they only run about 30 or 40 feet and then stop........I once ran up on a bobcat in the woods, and it being maybe 20 pounds of feline fury hissing and gnashing,,I backed up and went the other way hoping not to see another one as they often stay close to each other, I didnt and was glad,,wouldnt want to mess with one of them.......unless it was RADIO CONTROLLED (had to fit that in somewhere)..Rog

20 pounds of upset kitty easliy looks like 150 pounds of terror cat. Just imagine what a n 80-150 pound mountain lion looks like up close and personall with no cage in between you.

There was a reason we hunted and killed off the big predators. It was to keep them from jacking with us and ours. Of course we used to eat the deer, rabbits and basically everything else they were living off of, but for a guy who's a little antsy about ignorant folks and there killer dogs (and the breed for that changes every couple of years) having natural, wild predators in the neighborhood, at any population density, makes me a bit nervous. I don't want to chase an airplane into the bushes only to come face to face with the lions. I have seen one half a pasture away, luckily we both went the opposite directions. But had it been hungry, and I not observant, I would have become a couple of meels.

To predators, we are not Man, we are Meat!

Back to loosing things, one of the few skills I have truly mastered, About six months ago I lost my 1965 college ring. Last week I saw our little black cocker spanniel playing with something shiny. I rushed to see and she had...a gum wraper!

jess

Yeah, I think we'd best get back to model building and talking. Let's leave this one to die now.....

I could build TWO planes in the time it takes me to build one plus looking for misplaced items and tools!

Long ago. I have a special clear plastic drawer that is the first drawer in a line of drill drawers. In it are ALL tiny drills and taps.
The big tool cabinet has a drawer with all the tiny and oddball stuff.