Yvonne 1, Bear 0
Mom - you do NOT want to read this post. For the rest of you, it will be a great laugh!
So, a few years back my father owned a cottage in Gravenhurst, North of Toronto. It was a beautiful place and my significant other and I would travel from Ottawa for the occassional weekend. As it is North of Toronto, we would drive across Highway 60 through Algonquin Park.
The last time that I drove it was on my own and I came head-to-head with a moose. He was far enough away that I had ample time to stop but he was literally in the middle of the road. As I pulled around him, he charged the car and I stepped on the gas. Hard. I was a little shaken but absolutely fine.
This weekend I had a wedding to attend. For personal reasons, I was attending this wedding on my own and driving through Algonquin Park again. As is my personality, I write off fear to being irrational, bury it and keep going. There was absolutely no way I was going to meet up with a deer again. And I was right.
However ...
On the other side of the park, doing my victory lap I am only 15 minutes away from the hotel. I was driving by a precipice (big word for cliff) and a black bear jumped down and in front of my vehicle. I did not have the grace of ample time this time. I hit him. Hard.
The whole thing happened so quickly that I did not even have the benefit of being able to think. Surprisingly, I took my hands off the steering wheel and my foot off the gas. I didn't even attempt to stop at the impact point. A second or so later I stopped and (I believe for some reason unknown to me) I turned the vehicle off. Then I heard the screeching of tires.
The car behind me also did not realize what had happened. They managed to pull into the ditch and around my vehicle AND KEPT GOING. I realized that I needed to get over to the side of the road so I pulled over. I could not see how badly my vehicle was damaged but I could see that the bear was on the side of the road still alive. Three vehicles passed and despite my honking my horn none of them stopped.
I figured I had better drive to civilization rather than staying with an injured - and just a little ticked - black bear. I tried to shift gears and realized I was shaking too badly to get anywhere safely. At that point a van pulled up beside me and told me that he lived a few yards back and had heard the impact. Once I assured him that I was fine, he told me to stay in the vehicle that he had both a gun and a bow in his van. He pulled up on the other side of the road. For the rest of the story he will be known as the hunter because I never did ask him his name.
It was here that I lost it. I guess my psyche had trouble deciding between staying in the smoking vehicle, standing outside with the angry bear or getting in a vehicle with a strange man armed with not one but TWO weapons. I called 9-1-1. I wanted my daddy!
I was surprised at the efficiency of the hunter as well. He waited almost 40 minutes for the police to arrive as you are not supposed to kill bear at this time of year. However, the animals was menacing and in a great deal of pain. He used a bow to kill the bear with one ‘shot’ to the head. When that only seemed to anger the bear further he managed a shot to the heart then retrieved both bows for re-use. I turned slightly to toss my cookies and the whole thing was over. :-)
At this point my father and the OPP arrived and helped the hunters put the bear in their half-tonne *my father in his tux*. The SUV was towed to Huntsville where they will let me know the next steps at some point today. According to my husband, this is a very expensive way to force him to get an oil change.
Thank God for Todd here. Despite the fact that I could not have called at a worse time (he was putting the boys to bed) he dropped everything and through a combination of internet, cell and landline managed to get me the details that I needed about how to get the vehicle towed and what the next steps were. Being able to focus on the tactical made things much easier.
The next day I swam laps in the resort’s pool for more than 2 hours. I swam and I cried – not tears of anguish or fear but gratitude. Gratitude that I was driving a larger vehicle (I will never apologize for that again), that I was going the right speed and it was the right timing. Had any of those things gone wrong I would have been killed. As it stands, I do not even have bruises from my seat belt.
The hunter told me that the bear was between 300 – 400 pounds and probably between 3 – 5 years old. Apparently, the best way to tell is to check the teeth but I was not getting close enough to do that. They can have the meat, the teeth and the fur. I have no interest in meeting that bear again and delighted in my very rare steak, and ample vodka paralyzers to wash it down.
So, a few years back my father owned a cottage in Gravenhurst, North of Toronto. It was a beautiful place and my significant other and I would travel from Ottawa for the occassional weekend. As it is North of Toronto, we would drive across Highway 60 through Algonquin Park.
The last time that I drove it was on my own and I came head-to-head with a moose. He was far enough away that I had ample time to stop but he was literally in the middle of the road. As I pulled around him, he charged the car and I stepped on the gas. Hard. I was a little shaken but absolutely fine.
This weekend I had a wedding to attend. For personal reasons, I was attending this wedding on my own and driving through Algonquin Park again. As is my personality, I write off fear to being irrational, bury it and keep going. There was absolutely no way I was going to meet up with a deer again. And I was right.
However ...
On the other side of the park, doing my victory lap I am only 15 minutes away from the hotel. I was driving by a precipice (big word for cliff) and a black bear jumped down and in front of my vehicle. I did not have the grace of ample time this time. I hit him. Hard.
The whole thing happened so quickly that I did not even have the benefit of being able to think. Surprisingly, I took my hands off the steering wheel and my foot off the gas. I didn't even attempt to stop at the impact point. A second or so later I stopped and (I believe for some reason unknown to me) I turned the vehicle off. Then I heard the screeching of tires.
The car behind me also did not realize what had happened. They managed to pull into the ditch and around my vehicle AND KEPT GOING. I realized that I needed to get over to the side of the road so I pulled over. I could not see how badly my vehicle was damaged but I could see that the bear was on the side of the road still alive. Three vehicles passed and despite my honking my horn none of them stopped.
I figured I had better drive to civilization rather than staying with an injured - and just a little ticked - black bear. I tried to shift gears and realized I was shaking too badly to get anywhere safely. At that point a van pulled up beside me and told me that he lived a few yards back and had heard the impact. Once I assured him that I was fine, he told me to stay in the vehicle that he had both a gun and a bow in his van. He pulled up on the other side of the road. For the rest of the story he will be known as the hunter because I never did ask him his name.
It was here that I lost it. I guess my psyche had trouble deciding between staying in the smoking vehicle, standing outside with the angry bear or getting in a vehicle with a strange man armed with not one but TWO weapons. I called 9-1-1. I wanted my daddy!
I was surprised at the efficiency of the hunter as well. He waited almost 40 minutes for the police to arrive as you are not supposed to kill bear at this time of year. However, the animals was menacing and in a great deal of pain. He used a bow to kill the bear with one ‘shot’ to the head. When that only seemed to anger the bear further he managed a shot to the heart then retrieved both bows for re-use. I turned slightly to toss my cookies and the whole thing was over. :-)
At this point my father and the OPP arrived and helped the hunters put the bear in their half-tonne *my father in his tux*. The SUV was towed to Huntsville where they will let me know the next steps at some point today. According to my husband, this is a very expensive way to force him to get an oil change.
Thank God for Todd here. Despite the fact that I could not have called at a worse time (he was putting the boys to bed) he dropped everything and through a combination of internet, cell and landline managed to get me the details that I needed about how to get the vehicle towed and what the next steps were. Being able to focus on the tactical made things much easier.
The next day I swam laps in the resort’s pool for more than 2 hours. I swam and I cried – not tears of anguish or fear but gratitude. Gratitude that I was driving a larger vehicle (I will never apologize for that again), that I was going the right speed and it was the right timing. Had any of those things gone wrong I would have been killed. As it stands, I do not even have bruises from my seat belt.
The hunter told me that the bear was between 300 – 400 pounds and probably between 3 – 5 years old. Apparently, the best way to tell is to check the teeth but I was not getting close enough to do that. They can have the meat, the teeth and the fur. I have no interest in meeting that bear again and delighted in my very rare steak, and ample vodka paralyzers to wash it down.
posted by y-vonne at 5:21 AM
8 Comments:
Oh. My. God.
My stomach hurts for you... so many things could have gone so, so wrong, and thank god you only have the mangled SUV (and a few nightmares, I'm sure) to worry about.
I'm glad you're okay. And heck, whatever doesn't kill us makes for good blog, right?
Oh. Wow. That is an amazing story.
Good grief! Glad to hear you're okay.
Well, the bear had a kind of bad day too. Take comfort in that.
Omg...I'm so glad you aren't hurt. That had to be the most scary thing to go through.
I've seen the damage a deer can do to a vehicle..I can only imagine what a 300 pound or more bear can do.
sorry I haven't been by your blog lately...(which has been moved recently). I have some catching up to do.
Goodnight, that would have been scarey.
Here in Oklahoma we don't get such wildlife as bears and moose. We stick to deer and armadillos and skunks and raccoons. That's what most we usually see, although there are bobcats and coyotes around they rarely get hit by cars.
Glad you are okay. Sorry you had to deal with all of that.
The damage has rung in at $6500 Cdn. and two weeks worth of work. Apparently, they have written the bear off ;-)
Wow, that's quite an experience. I would have been a mess and quite traumatized! Sounds like you kept it together quite well. And thank goodness for family...always there when you need them!
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