Momma Bear

[fiftycal]

This is a true story that I wrote several years ago and attempted to have published.  I sent it to several magazines but never found anyone interested.  Since I'm new to this site, I thought this would be a good start.  Hope you all enjoy it.

Jim

The Day I Met Momma

It was July 1980.  A great time in my life.  The concept of responsibility hadn't quite hit me yet.  I had a great summer job working as Park Ranger at a campground on the upper Clackamas River.  The job allowed for lots of free time for fishing, hiking and exploring the mountains.

My good friend, Mark, was camping at Clear Lake.  About a 45-minute drive on the back woods roads from where I worked.  I had three days off and I headed off for Mark's camp for some fishing and exploring in the upper Cascades. 

Clear Lake is in a beautiful part of the Cascade Mountains.  Mt Hood is to the North.  There are several other lakes close by.  For an outdoor person it's a small slice of heaven.  I found Mark's camp without any problem.  Mark wasn't there so of course I went through all of his stuff and found something to eat.

When Mark pulled in I had found a comfortable spot by the fire pit and was enjoying a gourmet bologna sandwich and a Budweiser.  He made note of the sandwich and beer and it only took about a minute before he had something similar and sat down to join me.

Mark was anxious to finish and go for an evening hike.  He had been working in the woods for the last few months and had found several good areas to scout for the upcoming deer season.  We finished our meal, grabbed some gear and headed out.

We drove Marks truck about a mile from camp to an area where he had been working the week before.  Mark described the area as a large clear-cut near the top of a ridge.  There was a cat trail that skirted the edge and a small spring on the back side. 

Mark wanted to move up the hill into the clearing and find a good spot to scope the tree line. I decided to move down the ridge a short way and follow the cat trail around to the spring.  We would meet back at the truck at dark.

We hadn't been separated for more than 10 minutes when I heard something coming through the brush down the hill in front of me.  I stopped and waited for a minute to get a look.  I could hear brush breaking and what sounded like a child's voice.  I waited for what I thought would be a couple of young hikers to come out of the brush.

I was just about to move a little closer when suddenly I could see movement through the trees.  I froze as two small bear cubs walked out of the trees about forty five yards away.

My first thought was "where's momma" when I heard brush and limbs breaking to my left.  I looked and there she was.   Momma was a full-grown black bear and she was standing less than thirty feet from me... and I was between her and her cubs.

There was no time to react.  I saw mamma and she saw me at about the same time.  She stood on her back legs, let out a howl and charged.  Behind me was a dirt bank about 15 feet high that paralleled the trail I was on.  Down the trail were the cubs.  I tried to climb the bank and made it about half way when I felt mamma's teeth crush through the sole of my boot.  She made a swing at my back and tore the butt out of my jeans.

I lost my footing on the bank and fell backwards.  I fell back over the top of Momma, literally rolling off her back.  I hit the ground landing on my feet and started out to set a speed record for the world's fasted man.  Momma must have done the same headed for her cubs or she surely would have caught me.  When I looked back she and the cubs were headed off through the trees.

I started to relax a bit but only for a moment.   

My good friend Mark was only a couple of hundred yards away when he heard the commotion between Momma and me.  He came running through the trees to my rescue doing full speed and crashed right through a hornet's nest.  The bees were swarming in a dark cloud around his head when he hit the trail in front of me running at full speed.

He didn't slow down but ran right by me screaming like a little girl.  As soon as I realized why, I was right behind him.  We both ran full speed, me with a double shot of adrenaline, up the trail.  I had remembered climbing over a huge log on our way into the clearing and I knew we had to be close to it now.  All I could see was the back of Marks head in the swarm of bees. 

I had my hand on Marks shoulder and was swatting bees off his head when I felt him jump.  I knew he was jumping over the log.  I jumped when he did and never saw or touched the log.  I never thought myself a sprinter or a hurdler, but that day I was Olympic caliber at both.  We ran another couple hundred yards before the bees gave up and headed home, satisfied that they had inflicted proper punishment on us for intruding in their world.

We hobbled back to the truck and spent the next hour practicing our first aid.  Mark had several bee stings on his head, neck and face.  One of his eyes was swollen shut.   He had taken a couple of tree limbs across his face during his sprint through the woods.  He was feeling pretty miserable and he looked like he had gone a couple of rounds with Joe Forman.

My foot was bruised but Mommas teeth had only slightly penetrated through my leather boot.  There was an odd looking tear in the back of my jeans but aside from some scratches and a couple of bee stings, I had fared pretty well.  (All things considered).

I drove Mark back to camp and made him some mudpacks for his head.  We broke out a bottle of Kentucky Sour Mash to help with the pain and sat down to review our adventure.   It didn't take us long to decide where we would not hunt that fall.  One good look at Momma was enough.

© Jim Newby, 2005

[Hanshi]

Good tale; sounds like my kind of luck.

[moby6400]

Great story,, when you are young you are  looking for excitment,,,and you surely found enough for both of you,,,   

[RBMJS]

I really enjoyed the story . Thanks for sharing.  RBMJS                   

[Watauga]

Good story fiftycal 
It turns out good too     
If you know a good sketch artist that would be a good story for them to illustrate in a small pamphlet or book.

[crazell]

Great read

[Bulldog lady]

    more please   great to meet mother nature- ain't it?