Mr. Chocolate

My oldest son has a BFA in film studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. One of his favorite documentary directors is Werner Herzog, the director who took footage Timothy Tredwell shot in Alaska and created the movie Grizzly Man. Needless to say that before we moved to Alaska my son insisted we watch this film. Tredwell spent 13 years in the Alaskan wilderness trying to befriend grizzly bears until he was devoured by one.

Sunday evening we made a trip to Starrigavan Recreation area. Steve waded into the water to fish for pinks while Oscar and I explored the coast line. A couple of other fishermen where further up-shore fishing off of some large rocks. A light misty rain fell and brought a tranquil silence over the area. It was so quiet and still that you could actually hear the splashes made by the feeding salmon as they burst through the surface. It didn’t take long for Steve to hook one. With a big boyish grin on his face, he slowly and deliberately reeled the fish in, each turn of the reel bringing his prize another inch closer. The fish was at least 18 inches in length with a brilliant, silver shine. Just then a couple of guys hollered to us that they had seen a bear just 100 feet or so up the coast and around the bend. They were heading back to the parking lot and wanted to give us a heads up. The guys on the rocks pulled in their catch and decided to call it a day. I was getting a little tired of watching Oscar hunt for stale sushi so I tugged on his leash and led him up towards the parking area.

Meandering around the deserted parking lot I started to feel a bit uneasy knowing there was a bear lurking about nearby. I thought it would be wise to head back out to the shore line and watch Steve fish. Oscar and I returned to the rocky beach area to discover Steve had hooked another salmon. Just as I approached the water Steve yelled, “Sharon, there’s the bear. Be calm and don’t run.” Yeah right, he sees a bear and I don’t, and he wants me to be calm? “Where is he,” I hollered? “Right over there,” he answered. I was panic stricken. The problem was that he saw a bear, “right over there,” and I didn’t know where “right over there” was. Steve kept telling me to stay calm and not to run as he made his way to shore. I finally spotted the big brown bear at the edge of the trees about 50 yards away. He stood up on his hind legs to get a better look at us. It was obvious that he was interested in what we were doing. Scenes from Grizzly Man flashed through my mind and I contemplated how I could use Oscar as a distraction. Between Steve’s yelling at the bear and us slowly making our way, backwards, towards the parking lot, the bear retreated back into the woods.

Safe and sound back home Steve flipped through channels on the TV. Ironically Grizzly Man was playing on the Discovery channel. We didn’t watch it, we didn’t need to. I’m just glad Mr. Chocolate didn’t eat us.