Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

[caddisguy]

It happened! I got the bear that charged me and tried to get me while I was sleeping. Just got back to reception and about to hit the highway.

Should have some stories and pics up a little later in the afternoon.

[338win mag]

WTF...lol...this is gonna be good, cant wait to hear it.

[landphil]

I can bearly wait...

[Fella]

I want to say that caddisguy is the resident bear expert around here

[Wild one]

Nicely done and a week earlier than I thought the first bear would go down

I would be keeping the skull to remember your history lol

[r106]

Sounds like this should be good story. Congrats on the bear

[albravo2]

AWESOME! Very happy to hear that and looking forward to the story.

[RyoTHC]

Glad you got him.
Just started seeing the little bears get active this week.. it's a damn shame I'm going away for the long weekend now I need to get my bear down, I'm falling behind !

[NChunter]

Way to go! Now hurry up and post the story!

[caddisguy]

One week later (Still August 2017):

I am sleeping in the jeep. When I sleep in there I just put my seat back as far as it can go and put stuff under my feet enough so that my legs aren't making a 90 degree angle. This puts my head up against the rear plastic soft top side window. I woke up to the sound of something crunching through the reprod. Neat, there's a critter out there. Whatever, I didn't even up my eyes at that point. I'm not that interested, even though it's a bright full moon and I can see 50 yards or so. It was because the noise got closer and closer and then stopped that made me open my eyes. When I open them, this bears head is right up against mine. Only a couple inches and a thin layer of plastic in between. I think I screamed like a girl (edit: just remembered, "I said "WTF" quite loud) as I turned on the ignition. I'm not sure why but I also turned on the interior light (natural response to boogy man LOL) but that made it so I couldn't see out. I switched it back off and he was gone. I don't know which way he went either (couldn't hear because of the jeep running) ... took about an hour for the adrenaline to go away. I eventually fell asleep again, but it was one of those "light sleeps" with one eye open that happen from time to time.

Just to give an idea, here is a picture of my hand on the outside of the plastic window (where bear face was) and camera on the inside (from my point of view) ... you will see "his" face later... so you can imagine it there in place of my hand. A face I will never forget. It's burned in my mind.