[HRTNABN]

A handful while out camping, hiking, nothing serious in my eyes, also more than a few while working when I was in the field, had to call the CLAWR bear guy once with a momma and two cubs on location not letting us get out of our trucks haha but the most memorable one when I was actually caught off guard...

Jumping Pound gas well completion for Shell, night shift, my Supervisor and Air Hand were at the gear, I came back to the shack to get something, notes or something the like, started walking back to the gear with my head down looking at the ground as to not trip in the mud etc. very common practice.

Got a feeling to look up and about 30 feet in front of me there was a dark shadow coming over the berm, so I stopped dead and looked to figure out what it was. Now the way the light towers were positioned my Supervisor and Air Hand could see me stopped but only my coverall stripes reflecting. They never saw the bear coming over the berm.

They looked at me for a second and saw I wasn't moving and continued to complete the task they were doing...well this very large black bear comes over the berm, looks at me while slowly sauntering across location. Never changing direction toward me nor changing speed but kept looking at me while walking. Across location and up over the other berm, never saw it again.

They asked me why I stopped and there eyes went pretty wide when I told them, they said they would have both run back to the shack haha!

Not near as exciting as some of the stories here but I will always remember that feeling standing there like "ok bear, wtf are we gonna do here..."

In fact most of the field locations I have been on with bears coming across location I have had that thought, as my only protection was usually a crescent wrench in my pocket or a nearby hammer or pipe wrench.

Carry bear spray on a thigh holster when hiking or camping. Outdoor Life Magazine (saw it in the hard copy) has a good article this month on this exact topic.

Good stories folks!