[Jeff Higgins]

Close encounters with large predators are always somewhat... "exciting". I know I've had my share, with all the time I've spent in the wilderness. I've been approached - some might say "stalked" - by three of our largest variety here in Washington.

My all-time "most exciting" was actually quite near civilization. We were fly fishing a small creek up in the North Cascades, up behind the little town of Newhalem. We actually had to walk between a couple of houses to get to the trailhead leading up the creek.

It was on the way out, when we came within sight of the houses, that my partner mentioned I might want to remove my sidearm and put it in my daypack, so as not to alarm anyone when we walked through the neighborhood. So I did. It wasn't five minutes later that his dog (who had a habit of running ahead on the trail) came hauling ass back with a sizable black bear hot on her heels. As my buddy was stammering "b-b-b-b-BEAR!!!!", I was struggling to get my daypack off and the revolver out. I was on one knee with my pack in the trail in front of me, trying to get the damn zipper open, when the dog and the bear arrived.

The dog hid behind Terry, her master. I'm sure he was thinking "thanks a lot..." The bear came for me. Funny, though, it stopped in the trail in front of me, with nothing more than my daypack (with its stuck zipper) separating us. Literally less than a foot apart, nose to nose. It looked at me, then over its shoulder and up at Terry, then back at me again. You could see the gears were turning... All of a sudden it had what must have been a bear "oh shyte" moment, realizing it was amongst two humans, and it bolted. Down an embankment towards the river, through devil's club, blackberries, deadfall, and the works. The speed and power with which it just plowed through that stuff was pretty sobering. We were glad he decided to leave. When we got back to my Landcruiser, I had to cut my daypack open, I had so thoroughly honked up the zipper trying to get it open.