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I am lucky enough to have had the experience of being close to lots of coastal browns in Katmai National Monument while deck-handing on a small wildlife viewing boat during the mid 90’s. Even ran into the unfortunate bear whisperer himself, Timothy Treadwell, before his grizzly demise. Also got to tag along with a friend who drew a Kodiak spring bear tag two years in a row. The difference between the bears that were hunted on Kodiak as opposed to those that were not at Katmai was remarkable. The bears in Katmai ingnored your presence, the bears on Kodiak acted much like other animals that are hunted. My friend never did fill that tag. He was, and still is holding out for “a big one”. The second year we got run off the island by two bears that tore up our camp, burned our stuff and watched us for two days. Even then my buddy wouldn’t use his tag on one. I got to say, I was encouraging him to do just that. We found out later that the area we were in that year was a popular drop camp fishing spot and the bears had got used to raiding the fish camps.
So do I have a desire to hunt Griz? Not really, loved being in an ecosystem that had a predator one step up the food chain than me. I have experienced problem bears though, as did Timothy Treadwell, so when I am in griz country I try to get my mind right about a possible encounter and how I may or may not come out on top.