Naturalist's Note: That time I didn't get eaten by a bear

Glen Kalisz stands knee-deep in snow on his way to check a remote, hair-snare trap in the Olympic Mountains. / Staff photo by Sunny Montgomery
Glen Kalisz stands knee-deep in snow on his way to check a remote, hair-snare trap in the Olympic Mountains. / Staff photo by Sunny Montgomery

Two Aprils ago, I visited my brother Glen and his wife Lameace in Olympia, Washington. Both are biologists, and when not studying wildlife for work, they travel around the state, mounting game cams deep in the temperate rainforests, just to see what they can see.

They've seen a lot: porcupines; cougars; black bears. Just before my trip, they captured footage of their first fisher, a raccoon-sized, weasel-like carnivore, which, after being nearly wiped out by fur-trappers in the early 20th century, is now being reintroduced to the area.

Scientists through and through, Glen and Lameace decided to set a hair-snare trap near their game cam. A fur sample could be sent to the lab for genetic testing, proving that fishers were indeed making a comeback.

So, one late-April afternoon, the three of us journeyed into the snow-capped Olympic Mountains, the road becoming steeper and narrower as the blanket of snow became thicker. High above the city, we came to a blockade - the road was undriveable due to snow. From there, we hiked.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, tromping through the knee-deep snow, which had begun to fill my boots.

"So how far from here did you get pictures of that mountain lion?" I asked.

"Oh, don't worry about mountain lions," Lameace assured me. "Black bears are way more of a threat. Did you know they've been known to predatorily hunt humans?"

There we were, staggering up the mountain like wounded animals; packing raw chicken, bait for the hair-snare trap. And shouldn't those bears be waking from their long winter naps anytime now?

"Yup!" the biologists told me.

Well (spoiler alert) we did not get eaten by wild animals that day, nor did I lose any toes to frostbite. At the trap, we found a tuft of black-brown fuzz, which would, in fact, confirm the success of the fisher restoration project. A happy ending to a could-be harrowing tale.

But that's the beauty of nature, isn't it? You never know what you might discover. After all, the forest is full of surprises. Just beware of hiking with biologists.

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Do you have an outdoors story in which things did not go as planned? Get Out wants to hear about your misadventures - scary, funny or simply strange. For a chance to be featured in an upcoming issue, send your submission to smontgomery@timesfreepress.com.

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