#bear encounter

Unprepared Log 16: A Long Way for Steel Difficulty: Interloper Region: Mountain Town → Forlorn Muskeg Platform: Steam Deck Survivor: Will Video: Forge run through Mountain Town and Forlorn Muskeg (no commentary) Today is the day. Which usually means today is going to hurt. The plan is finally in motion: get to Forlorn Muskeg, use the forge, and come back alive. I grab every bit of scrap I’m…

Difficulty: Stalker Optional Features: Cougar enabled, Scurvy enabled, Trader enabled Before I even began, I had three choices to make: do I want the Cougar, Scurvy, and Trader to be active? Because I apparently enjoy making poor decisions, the answer was yes to all three. For my first proper attempt at Stalker, I chose Mystery Lake for one simple reason: I wanted to be eased in. If the game was…

Normally this is way too late in the year for bear activity, so that's why I put the feeders out a couple weeks ago. Usually by turkeyday (if it's been cold) you're safe to start feeding the birds again.

But last night, Chaos let Dunncan out one last time before bed, and then I heard barking. Specifically I heard Dunncan's bark, so since I was upstairs in my room changing I looked out the windows to see the old man barking at the back of the yard. Specifically at the end of the fence right in front of the tree, visible by the light of the moon filtered through the clouds because it was snowing.

Dunncan doesn't bark at much, and he's honestly a terrible guard dog, but what he is good at is detecting bears and drones. But he's also been getting senile and he did chase a rabbit last month, so there was no guarantee what he was yelling at, also sometimes he's had a senior moment and forgotten what he's doing outside... So I called down to tell Hubby and Chaos that Dunncan was barking at the tree. Hubby threw on the outside light and that's when I saw the old man's hackles were up.

By the time I got downstairs hubby had a flashlight and was checking out the yard, then he called out that it must've been a bear because the feeders were knocked down. He walked back towards the house and got the dog in, and then we saw it. The bear was in the tree!

Dunncan had treed a bear easily three times his size, and totally out of his weight class! (Dunncan is about 55lbs and that bear was at least 400lbs)

The bear climbed down, stared at us, panicked and climbed the tree again.

It was in that moment that I realized I didn't know where my phone was. :(

The bear climbed down again a couple minutes later and beat a hasty retreat once hubby yelled at it to 'git'.

Dunncan was given treats and told what a brave old man he is.

Pic of the old man and his barely tolerated younger sibling ⬇️

I'm bummed I couldn't get any pictures of the bear, as it was a pretty one and a decent size, but younger (maybe two or three years old).

Hubby should be able to bend the pole back, but I won't be able to put the feeders back for at least a week, as we don't want the bear to keep coming back. 😮‍💨

Day 9 in Coastal Highway. A near-bear encounter, a rabbit triumph, and a warm trailer evening. Still not at Mystery Lake. Missed the previous day: The Cold Chronicles Day Eight Still Not Mystery Lake Day 9 kicked off with Attempt #2 to reach Mystery Lake. I stuck to the same path as yesterday, because clearly, I enjoy flirting with failure. This time, the wolf was gone. In its place? A bear.…