A few years ago, I was sitting on the smoky edge of a wildfire we’d just wrapped up fighting somewhere in Northern British Columbia, near the area where the video you see above was shot, which is along the Cassiar Highway. The road connects the Yellowhead Highway to the Alaska Highway, and it’s beautiful country up there — endless black spruce forests, sucking muskeg, and horrendous, choking clouds of mosquitos, but beautiful. We’d been working the fire for eight days, I think, and the air tankers had finished their drops the day before. The rain showed up, so it was hot, muggy, and wet. Everything stank of old fire and old muskeg, and we were in the de-mob stage of things, which is the absolute worst stage. All that hose that was pulled out needed to be pulled back and rolled up, all those pumps that were spread out across the fire needed to be carried back to the trucks, and it’s all done generally in the rain, which is really the only thing that puts out a big fire.
I was sitting alone on a rock at an intersection of two trails. They formed a T that ran through an old cutblock. Tree planters had been through a few years prior and the fire had missed it, so I sat there rolling hose and looking out at an expanse of spindly, five-foot pines under a grey sky. A bear suddenly stuck its head up from one side maybe 100 yards away, which was something I took notice of but didn’t think too much of, since bears are a relatively common sight around there. It was just a little black bear (the ones in the video are grizzlies), which generally run away at the slightest sound. Then another bear stuck its head up from the other side of the trail; a much larger bear. They grunted at each other a few times. Then, without any more warning, both bears broke from the trees and sprinted directly up the trail towards me. Bears can run weirdly fast for being such bulky animals.
The smaller bear was being chased by the larger, and I was shitting my pants. I stood up on my little rock and yelled pitifully, but neither bear took much notice. When they hit the intersection that I sat at, they simply turned and ran off into the trees, leaving me there breathless, inhaling the musty scent of their fur. It was one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me, and I hope it never happens again.
All that is an aside that I was reminded of when this video landed on my screen this morning. It was shot by Cari McGillivray, who shared a similar sentiment to mine: “This was by far one of my favorite wildlife encounters I have ever had!!” she wrote. “Thought I’d share this incredibly rare and amazing moment with all you guys of these grizzlies fighting!”
Oh, and for those of you with a sharp eye, look closely down the highway — there’s another spectator, too.
