I've had a couple black bear encounters over the years - they are very shy and scared of humans here, but it's still a shock to see one. To be honest, I'm more afraid of the animal in the following tale...

Before I got married, I was in the habit of going solo camping a couple weeks every year. So this one year in August, I was tenting on a friend's property, a big sugar bush on a river. I was way up the hill from the river, though, in the trees on the edge of a blueberry clearing. So when dark came on, I snuggled down in my tent to let the local nightlife put me to sleep with chirps and calls and hoots and such.

I was just about asleep when I heard "rustlerustlerustle.... choomph...choomph.... rustle..." I lay there trying to guess what I was hearing, keeping in mind that even a rabbit can sound like a thundering bull when it wants to. And then one of my tent ropes goes TWANG... more choomphing follows, and I start thinking that the choomphs are close to the ground whilst the rustles sound like they are higher than my tent by a good bit. So I ease up to my mosquito net door, quiet as I can, and try to see something. Now, it was dark, and it was cloudy; I could tell sky from trees but not much else. A long minute passed, then TWANG goes another rope. A couple more rustles, and then, silhouetted against the lighter sky, I finally see the Visitor's head....

Yup, I got a very large moose casually chewing the foliage around my tent, whacking the overhead branches now and then, and not quite clearing my tent ropes with his great big feet!

All I could do was lay there thinkin' 'pleeease don't step on the part of the tent I'm in!' Thankfully, a few minutes later, he wandered off.

I didn't sleep much that night.