Lyndon
Bronze Member
3 bear stories. In Prudhoe Bay, at a run down, somewhat abandon camp that we used as a staging area, I had the folllowing encounter's with a Bear.
All 3 are true stories and I have pictures as well as co workers that can back them up: >
I had 1 electrician a carpenter and several painters dressing out a "Cat Train" unit at Happy Horse. For the uninformed, Happy Horse is the derilict run down construction camp, and a "Cat Train" is basically a House Trailer on giant Skiis that are on truck assemblies somewhat like a trains wheels. The assemblies can pivot just like a trains wheels and are cross connected by steel cables. A chain of these would be pulled across the frozen tundra as a winter camp. So this safety guy from a neighboring business, AIC, came buy and informed us that there are some bears in the area, to be on the 'look-out'. It was summer, a blistering 59 degrees, that's a tropical day in Dead Horse, and it's pretty common for every Grizzley for 200 miles around to make Happy Horse one of his stops.
Some years back people left food in an open dumpster so that attracted the Bears. Their scent, "Bear Sign" has been bringing them back ever since. This is why most of my bear encounters were at Happy Horse, which we sarcastically refer to as "Scrappy Horse". It's a real junk pit. It was originally a 1000 man camp with a chow hall, generator power plant, water plant, pool hall, weight work out room, a tire shop..... all the usual trimmings of an Arctic Construction Camp.
I was in sneakers, probably didn't have my hard hat on and had stepped in between this old Connex and an old ACCO Trailer to releive myself when I saw a bear run buy the other end of the narrow alley created by the two 40 foot structures. As I had a crew working less than 200 feet away I RAN to Warn them. This was a big mistake! The Bear, a 5 year old, what we would consider a "Cub" but weighing in at 350Lbs,(bigger than a man) had turned and was running along side of the ACCO construction office trailer. We collided at the corner, my nose was right up in the fur of a 350 lb Grizzley! It spooked us both. He went scratching off to his left, and I went scratching off to my right. His claw tracks in the dirt and gravel lay down yard were far more impressive than my measly sneaker tracks! One of the painters and my electrician had witnessed the whole thing and were laughing uncontrollably.
Our parts deliver guy walked over and laughignly said:"Good thing it wasn't 'Goldie Locks' ". He Was RIGHT! It's a good thing it wasn't Goldie Locks which leads us to my 2nd major Bear encounter.>
Goldie Locks is this GIANT Grizzly Bear. He probably weighs in at 600 to 800 pounds and has the most beautiful Yellow Gold fur. He's and old timer and not timid like the younger bears. If I had run into Goldie Locks I probably wouldn't be writing this story. I would have become a "kipper snack" for him. Goldie Locks knows how to open doors! He actually can turn door nobs!
So one day, Dave the parts expeditor, and I are in the Tire Shop, a tin building with 3 huge 20 wide by 20 foot high over head doors of which we have one open. Suddenly Dave yells out "Holy !*%#! here comes Goldie Locks!" I jumped to the overhead door push button station and the door started to close. It was going to be tight but Goldie slowed down and we both gave a sigh of relief. OH NO! the Personel door! it had a crappy lock. We both jump to the door. Within seconds Goldie is trying the door. Pretty soon he gave up and headed away. Major Adrenilin rush!
And finally.. " Hearding Bears". You've heard of Hearding Cattle, and Hearding Sheep, but I have yet to meet anyone else that can honestly say that they have "Hearded Bears"!
The owner of "Scrappy Horse" one day sends his architect and an engineer to look Happy Horse Camp over to evaluate it for possible reconstruction. It had been closed up for a long time and we had been robbing parts out of it for other camps. the Roof leaked everywhere. The architect and entgineer opened up lots of doors including the overhead door at the loading dock for the kitchen and several of the stairwell doors for the 2 and 3 story sections of the camp. There was no power so you had to shuffel around the huge complex with a flashlight. Bears had a habit of curling up in the stairwells as a place to get out of the snow, so ther was "Bear Sign" in all 11 of the external stairwells. That afternoon after the architect and engineer had flown back out to Fairbanks, we realized that we better go over and seal the camp back up. It wouldn't do to find a Wolverine or Bear trapped in the camp when you went in to salvage a closet or light fixture. They might be pretty hungry and panicky after being trapped in the camp for awhile. Sure enough right as we pulled up to the camp here come 3 bears, all brothers and one was the very bear I had run into in the first story. We carefully manuvered the crew cab truck in between the 3 bears and the first stairwell, while I jumped out and ran into one of the stairwells and closed the door, while another guy yelled out that it was safe to get back in the truck. The Bears headed to the next stairwell, again we cut them off with the drivers side of the truck while one of us ran in and closed the next stairwell door. You didn't want to get too far from the truck. We worked our way the full 360 degrees around the camp this way Hearding the Bears with the truck and sealing up the camp. We also got a bunch of pictures doing it! A Real 'One of a Kind' alaska experience for me.
All 3 are true stories and I have pictures as well as co workers that can back them up: >
I had 1 electrician a carpenter and several painters dressing out a "Cat Train" unit at Happy Horse. For the uninformed, Happy Horse is the derilict run down construction camp, and a "Cat Train" is basically a House Trailer on giant Skiis that are on truck assemblies somewhat like a trains wheels. The assemblies can pivot just like a trains wheels and are cross connected by steel cables. A chain of these would be pulled across the frozen tundra as a winter camp. So this safety guy from a neighboring business, AIC, came buy and informed us that there are some bears in the area, to be on the 'look-out'. It was summer, a blistering 59 degrees, that's a tropical day in Dead Horse, and it's pretty common for every Grizzley for 200 miles around to make Happy Horse one of his stops.
Some years back people left food in an open dumpster so that attracted the Bears. Their scent, "Bear Sign" has been bringing them back ever since. This is why most of my bear encounters were at Happy Horse, which we sarcastically refer to as "Scrappy Horse". It's a real junk pit. It was originally a 1000 man camp with a chow hall, generator power plant, water plant, pool hall, weight work out room, a tire shop..... all the usual trimmings of an Arctic Construction Camp.
I was in sneakers, probably didn't have my hard hat on and had stepped in between this old Connex and an old ACCO Trailer to releive myself when I saw a bear run buy the other end of the narrow alley created by the two 40 foot structures. As I had a crew working less than 200 feet away I RAN to Warn them. This was a big mistake! The Bear, a 5 year old, what we would consider a "Cub" but weighing in at 350Lbs,(bigger than a man) had turned and was running along side of the ACCO construction office trailer. We collided at the corner, my nose was right up in the fur of a 350 lb Grizzley! It spooked us both. He went scratching off to his left, and I went scratching off to my right. His claw tracks in the dirt and gravel lay down yard were far more impressive than my measly sneaker tracks! One of the painters and my electrician had witnessed the whole thing and were laughing uncontrollably.
Our parts deliver guy walked over and laughignly said:"Good thing it wasn't 'Goldie Locks' ". He Was RIGHT! It's a good thing it wasn't Goldie Locks which leads us to my 2nd major Bear encounter.>
Goldie Locks is this GIANT Grizzly Bear. He probably weighs in at 600 to 800 pounds and has the most beautiful Yellow Gold fur. He's and old timer and not timid like the younger bears. If I had run into Goldie Locks I probably wouldn't be writing this story. I would have become a "kipper snack" for him. Goldie Locks knows how to open doors! He actually can turn door nobs!
So one day, Dave the parts expeditor, and I are in the Tire Shop, a tin building with 3 huge 20 wide by 20 foot high over head doors of which we have one open. Suddenly Dave yells out "Holy !*%#! here comes Goldie Locks!" I jumped to the overhead door push button station and the door started to close. It was going to be tight but Goldie slowed down and we both gave a sigh of relief. OH NO! the Personel door! it had a crappy lock. We both jump to the door. Within seconds Goldie is trying the door. Pretty soon he gave up and headed away. Major Adrenilin rush!
And finally.. " Hearding Bears". You've heard of Hearding Cattle, and Hearding Sheep, but I have yet to meet anyone else that can honestly say that they have "Hearded Bears"!
The owner of "Scrappy Horse" one day sends his architect and an engineer to look Happy Horse Camp over to evaluate it for possible reconstruction. It had been closed up for a long time and we had been robbing parts out of it for other camps. the Roof leaked everywhere. The architect and entgineer opened up lots of doors including the overhead door at the loading dock for the kitchen and several of the stairwell doors for the 2 and 3 story sections of the camp. There was no power so you had to shuffel around the huge complex with a flashlight. Bears had a habit of curling up in the stairwells as a place to get out of the snow, so ther was "Bear Sign" in all 11 of the external stairwells. That afternoon after the architect and engineer had flown back out to Fairbanks, we realized that we better go over and seal the camp back up. It wouldn't do to find a Wolverine or Bear trapped in the camp when you went in to salvage a closet or light fixture. They might be pretty hungry and panicky after being trapped in the camp for awhile. Sure enough right as we pulled up to the camp here come 3 bears, all brothers and one was the very bear I had run into in the first story. We carefully manuvered the crew cab truck in between the 3 bears and the first stairwell, while I jumped out and ran into one of the stairwells and closed the door, while another guy yelled out that it was safe to get back in the truck. The Bears headed to the next stairwell, again we cut them off with the drivers side of the truck while one of us ran in and closed the next stairwell door. You didn't want to get too far from the truck. We worked our way the full 360 degrees around the camp this way Hearding the Bears with the truck and sealing up the camp. We also got a bunch of pictures doing it! A Real 'One of a Kind' alaska experience for me.
