Spencer Jack Stalked By Yellowstone Buffalo

Checking email this morning I found multiple emails from Spencer Jack and his dad with multiple pictures of Spencer Jack in Yellowstone.

Including a video of Spencer Jack being stalked by a big buffalo, well, big bison is the word Spencer Jack used for the big beast chasing him.

When I watched the video I did not know what I was looking at because it was upside down. So I upside righted it in Windows Movie Maker and then YouTubed it.

You can watch that video below.

That is not Spencer Jack behind the wheel of a 1965 Mustang Fastback talking to a bear.

That is me behind the wheel of my first car, acquired when I was a junior in high school. That car took me to a lot of places all over the west.

On this particular trip to Yellowstone at some point I saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. That is one spectacular  canyon, I said. And then said, let's continue south and go see the more well known Grand Canyon. Before arriving at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we checked out Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon. Lots of canyons on that particular roadtrip. Knew nothing about Bryce or Zion at the time. And so that was great fun discovering those two national parks, almost topped by seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time.

It has been a few decades since I've seen the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but I am fairly certain that is what is behind Spencer Jack in the picture below.

I am also fairly certain that Spencer Jack and his dad won't be heading south on this trip to go see the other Grand Canyon.

I have not been to Yellowstone since the year before wildfires burned a large area of the park back late in the previous century.

Are there still a lot of bears allowed in Yellowstone? On our first family vacation roadtrip to Yellowstone, a long time ago, we saw dozens upon dozens of bears.

Below you can watch Spencer Jack and his dad being chased by a buffalo....

Betty Jo Bouvier's Sedro-Woolley Big Brown Bear Brouhaha

Last night in my email inbox there was an email from the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier.

Among the things Betty Jo mentioned in the email was the fact that a Big Brown Bear had moved in to town, with that town being Sedro Woolley in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley.

The Big Brown Bear had taken up residence in a tree a couple blocks from Betty Jo's house.

Now, you reading this in Texas, particularly in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, likely think this is probably not all that unusual, particularly if you are aware that the Cascade mountains are a bear habitat, with lots of bears living there.

However, though Sedro Woolley is somewhat close to the mountains, it is located in the river zone of the Skagit Valley, as in the Skagit River flows by the town.

For a Big Brown Bear to get a couple blocks from Betty Jo Bouvier the bear would have had to cross multiple roads, gotten around multiple fenced off farms and residences. Plus Betty Jo pretty much lives in the center of town. Was the bear not seen by anyone as it walked the streets of Sedro Woolley before climbing up a tree?

All my years living in the Skagit Valley I do not recollect a bear showing up in any of the Skagit Valley towns. I do recollect, decades ago, a big moose creating a sensation by wandering around the valley. I recollect seeing that moose whilst driving on Interstate 5.

To be clear, that was me driving on Interstate 5, not the moose.

Years ago, I think the year was 1996, I floated the Lady of the Lake from Chelan to Stehekin in North Cascades National Park. Soon upon checking in at the National Park Lodge we saw a small brown bear climbing a nearby tree. That was to be the first of dozens of bear sightings.

Soon thereafter we were riding our bikes through an abandoned apple orchard to find a herd of bears having themselves a mighty fine time gorging on delicious apples.

On our last day in Stehekin a small brown bear, it may have been the one we saw upon arrival, was having fun playing on the second floor of the lodge. A crowd gathered, rangers showed up. The rangers captured the bear and mortified the crowd by informing us the bear had to be destroyed due to the fact that it had lost its fear of humans. This news did not go over well with the crowd.

I made three webpages of that visit to Stehekin, on one of those pages you can see a photo of the soon to be executed bear.

As for Betty Jo's Big Brown Bear.

Another email from Betty Jo arrived this morning. That email included the picture you see above of the Woolley Big Brown Bear, plus the news that in attempt to get the bear out of the tree it had been shot with a tranquilizer, which caused the bear to fall out of the tree, rendered dead from the fall.

What did the shooters think was going to happen? Shooting a bear in a tree with a tranquilizer? Did they think the tranquilizer would just calm the bear down with the bear calmly climbing out of the tree?

Bigger question is what would cause a Big Brown Bear to leave the safety of the mountains? Is this the start of a trend?