can take the hoe outta the trailer park, but can’t take the trailer park outta the hoe

Two different days bow hunting turkeys, I ran into black bears. The first one was a younger one, I was heading back to camp, not being particularly observant and then sensed something, looked up and a mid size black bear was about 10-15 yards from me. We both seemed to not notice each other, I just froze and watched him, it started to sniff the air, I began yelling at it and it didn’t seem to care. I slowly started to walk away keeping faced toward it, it still seemed pretty interested in me and started to walk towards me. I nocked an arrow and was ready to shoot it, I didn’t want to but at that moment I had no other option, didn’t have bear spray me. Slowly bent down and pick up a broken pine branch and threw it at it, just short of it and that frighten it enough to take off. A few days later again hiking around looking for turkey, off in the distance I could see something walking through dense brush, watched it for a while until I realized it was another black bear, this one much larger than the other. It didn’t realize I was there, so I screamed a deep loud growl as loud as I could, frightening it, it took off on a dead sprint perpendicular to me, and watched it take off and could hear it for awhile crashing through the brush. I’ve crossed Mexican gray wolves, coyotes, and bobcats several times while outdoors hunting.

I love it all, I have a deep respect for nature and the animals out there.