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I was on my bicycle on a ninety mile long dead end road in Denali National Park, Alaska early one summer when I saw a grizzly bear on the road in front of me. It was early in the season and early in the day, and I didn’t see any other people or vehicles anywhere. There weren’t any trees more than ten feet tall or any buildings anywhere in sight. The bear was on the road in front of me, and I had to cross his path to get home. The bear was walking towards me, and I was under the impression that it could run faster than I could pedal on flat land, so I had very few options. I got off my bike, got out my camera, and waited. I’ve got a really entertaining image of my bike and the bear on the road, just before it turned off into the tundra. It was like it was giving me a warning for trespassing.
I’ve seen the southern and western borders of Canada. I crossed them both in the same day, once, actually. Driving with a friend from Alaska to Seattle Washington at the end of that summer. We drove straight through, with stops for fuel and health reasons. He drove while I slept, and I drove while he slept. We weren’t really that close friends. We both wanted to be in Seattle at the end of the summer.
So although I went all the way down the road called “The Alcan” I didn’t see all that much. We didn’t take time to stop to see the sights. We were on a mission. Fifty two hours of driving, from Denali National Park to Seattle Washington. We did stop on a glacier somewhere east of Anchorage and that’s a good story, but it wasn’t in Canada.
I remember seeing black bears on the side of the road at one point in Canada. We pulled over to watch them for a few minutes.
And then Seattle. Coincidentally, it was absolutely sunny the first two days I was there near the end of the summer. I wintered, and then went to Montana, where I had several more bear experiences, and where I learned about how incredibly stupid (pardon me, uninformed) people can be about bears. Working with raw meat, and then without washing, going out into the wilderness to hike, for example. Without telling you enough to be certain of saving your life if you are out in bear country, I will at least tell you this: Noise is good for you. If you’re noisy, then the bear will hear you early on and your level of security increases greatly.
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