Bears!!!! Wow...

Bears don't worry me too much. A lot of times if they know you're there they wander off, out of sight before you even know they were there.

I've encountered a few while out mountain biking. If they spot me they usually just stare for a minute and then wander off on their way. I've carried bear spray for years and never once had to pull it out.

 

I never had an experience like this thankfully.

 

"Resuming workout"

Now there's an understatement.

 

That summer was pretty bad for bears up there if I remember it right.

That same summer I was pulling an engine on a 650 excavator. According to the supervisor, one walked right past me while I had my head up inside the belly pan unhooking hoses. I climbed back on top of the hoe to start pulling the tin work off and the supervisor is running flat out across the yard blaring an air horn and yelling "BEAR!"

I'm looking around for the bear. Can't see nothing. A hear a quiet rustling sound and the silly bugger is inside the dumpster, like 4 feet away from the hoe I'm standing on.

 

A lot of times I'd be by myself dropping shacks or other equipment or picking it up outside the confines of a camp or mine so had to keep a pretty watchful eye.

Unless our work was even remotely connected to Shell or Suncor (even though we weren't on their site), then we had to have spotters and horns and bear spray and...

 

Yeah Suncor got pretty strict about bear safety after they had that worker get killed by a bear in camp.

Foxes were the ones I hated. Come out of a shack and they'd be nipping at your heels.

 

Foxes are unreal up there. We had 2 living in the autoshop yard at syncrude. They would run thru the shop on night shift. One got into the lunch shack, trashed it and pooped on table.
I used to arrive at camp late at night. Get out of the car and one would always be right there.
I tried to entice one into the main building to give security something to do. They just wouldn't walk thru the door.