written and photographed by Mary L. Peachin
Dec 2004, Vol. 9 No. 3
“Grizzlies headed our way, watch out!” Two bears chasing a sow and her cub separated us by a 75-foot stream. “Bearmaster” Tom Rivest, a biologist and owner of Great Bear Nature lodge and tours, quietly stood up from his perch on a riverside log. Tall and lanky, his body language backed up with a double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun, he quietly and firmly said “hey, bears”. The bears, successful in chasing off the sow and cub, respond to Tom’s bluff, and resume their banquet of salmon. Casually he asked, “how was that for excitement”?