Trick or Treat!

One dark rainy night just before Halloween, we heard a bump around the lodge.  Jen and I looked at each other and both said, "Did you hear that?"  We went to the windows, but it was pitch black out and we couldn't see anything.  I opened the front door and gave a couple good shouts.  I could hear something big over by the woodshed and it was huffing at me.  The next day in the light, I could see bear tracks around the deck.  We've been in close contact with lots of bears over the years.  Our brown bears here in Southeast Alaska are well fed and relatively non-aggressive, but we became extra careful when walking around the buildings or turning blind corners.  If you don't surprise a bear, you won't have a problem with a bear.

I called our neighbors at the townsite (about 1/2 mile away) to let them know there was a bear around.  Jackie called me back shortly after to report that the bear had been behind the house they're in and had knocked over and ripped their burn barrel apart.  The next night, it came back to their burn barrel and also tried to get into a fish smoker behind another building.

The next day, Jen came into the house (she had been out taking pictures of a great blue heron in a tree by the creek).  She sat down and looked out the window and there was the bear about 10 yards away in the area she had just been taking photos in.  We went out on the deck and yelled at the bear and he turned and disappeared into the woods between some of the guest cabins.

That night, Jen heard a commotion outside.  We yelled and went out to discover the bear had pulled some 5-gallon buckets out from a covered alcove where we have propane tanks outside the kitchen.  There were tooth or claw holes in one of the buckets and also a bottle of bleach that he punched a couple holes in. 

With the bear messing around so close to the house, we set up some "bear alarms" in case he came wandering in some night.  Jen threatened to take the carpet sweeper to him if he dared to come into our "cold room" (the mud room we use as a walk-in refrigerator)!

He evidently didn't like the taste of the bleach, because that's the last we've seen of him.  He probably wandered up the hills to find a place to hibernate.  It's been about 10 days without any sign of him, so it looks like he's definitely moved on.