A huge dark shadow came closer and closer to us, finally emerging from the woods and standing on a large log that lay on the other side of the stream, some fifty or sixty yards away. But soon he retraced his steps. He had caught our scent. Time passed and there was no bear camera. It was already late when our guide decided that we might risk going up the creek before it got too dark. The wind was blowing from one side now, and any animal that might be ahead could pick up the scent. Placing each foot carefully, the hunters made their way over slippery rocks, through rapids where salmon shot out from under their feet with sudden nervousness. They had barely gone a hundred yards when, from a thicket twenty feet ahead, a low growl greeted them.

Our guide handed me the frame of his backpack and aimed his rifle. Another growl; and other. It was a mother with cubs or a bear that had been injured. Silently we moved away to the other side of the creek, and along the edge of the opposite forest, our guide aiming his rifle at the edge of the thicket, ready for any sudden charge. Barely fifty meters ahead, our guide suddenly stopped. The three hunters looked directly into the face of a brown teddy bear, less than thirty feet away. There they were, the bear looking in surprise from the forest at the three motionless humans in the stream, while the three equally surprised hunters stared at the bear.

Our guide was clearly worried: if the bear had charged, it would not have been possible to stop it in that short distance. As for the camera hunters, they were too disappointed to be scared: the animal was too much in the shade to photograph. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the bear disappeared from sight. It could have been the Cheshire Cat himself, so quietly he vanished. At that moment, a salmon jumped out from under my feet with a loud splash, and I jumped as if I had been shot. Our guide turned around pointing his gun at him, and the others were ready to fly. For a moment there was panic, then the ridiculousness of the situation hit all three of them; all the Admiralty bears must have heard their laughter.

In fact, it might have been so, because no more animals were found along the creek that day. The bears had not yet come down from the mountains in full force. Signs showed that they had been feeding mainly on sedges and blueberries, but once the presence of pale hairs revealed where a fawn had died.